San Francisco Musician Jeanie Poling Unveils New Single and Announces Bay Area Tour—Here’s How to Get Tickets

San Francisco’s bluegrass community is mourning the loss of Jeanie Poling, the powerhouse vocalist and guitarist who helped knit the city’s roots-music scene together for more than four decades. Poling died on Aug. 26 at UCSF Stanyan Hospital after a three-year battle with two rare cancers. She was 67, yet remained active on local stages until weeks before her passing, often decked out in her trademark cowboy hat and boots. Best known as one half of the husband-and-wife act Jeanie & Chuck Poling, she kept traditional country and bluegrass alive in the city’s clubs, farmers markets, and festivals. The duo’s rousing harmonies were a staple at Hardly Strictly Bluegrass, where Chuck now serves as the Rooster Stage emcee. Offstage, Poling was a tireless organizer. For 20 years she co-hosted the legendary Tuesday night Bluegrass Country Jam at the Plough and Stars on Clement Street, a three-hour session that routinely packed 30 pickers into the tiny Irish bar. She also launched the annual Bluegrass Pickin’ Picnic in Golden Gate Park and curated the Free Range Fridays showcase, a proving ground for emerging Bay Area talent. “Jeanie was the human jukebox—she could play thousands of songs in any key,” recalled longtime collaborator Mick Hellman, who credits her with jump-starting his own band, Marco & the Polos. Born Jean Ann Alperton in Amityville, N.Y., on Jan. 23, 1959, Poling moved west to study urban planning at San Francisco State. She met Chuck at a 1982 Folk Music Club gathering in the Haight and married him a year later. While raising two children and serving as a city planner—she later became PTSA president at Presidio Middle School—Poling never stopped performing, fronting side projects like Chickwagon Junction and vintage honky-tonk duo the BettyJacks. Her fearless spirit once led her to hitch a ride on Robert Plant’s golf cart between festival stages, grinning at stunned fans as she confirmed the rock icon’s identity. Tributes have poured in across social media and the California Bluegrass Association, whose members say Poling’s welcoming attitude coaxed countless players onto their first stage. “She lived in pure musical joy,” wrote CBA board member Jody Richardson in a remembrance post. Plans for a public celebration of life are underway; friends expect a marathon jam in Golden Gate Park later this fall, echoing the communal spirit Poling championed. In lieu of flowers, the family asks that donations be made to the CBA Youth Program, continuing her mission of nurturing the next generation of pickers. With her booming voice, encyclopedic songbook, and boundless generosity, Jeanie Poling leaves an enduring echo in every corner of San Francisco’s bluegrass landscape—proof that a single musician can indeed hold a whole scene together.