Billy Strings
Presides Over One of the Most Important Two-Week Spans in Bluegrass History
The rise of Billy Strings has been an amazing thing to watch. While playing a combination of open-minded, progressive roots music next to straight-ahead bluegrass, he has garnered a following that boggles the mind.
Several years ago, Strings began to sell out the smaller venues that he played in while being asked to be an “Artist At Large” at outdoor music festival ranging from the Grey Fox Bluegrass Festival to the Rooster Walk Festival. Those experiences worked because Strings was a consummate guitar player who could improvise in nearly every situation, plus his knowledge of the first generation bluegrass catalog was extensive. Little did anyone know then, however, of the phenomenon that was to come.
On his own, a year or two later, however, something remarkable began to happen at Strings’ solo shows. The fanbase began to grow exponentially and his tour page had the words “sold out” typed in next to many of his listed concert dates.
Soon, Strings and his band, featuring Billy Failing on banjo, Royal Masat on bass, Jarrod Walker on mandolin and Alex Hargreaves on fiddle, were selling out venues ranging from the acclaimed Red Rocks venue in Colorado to three nights in a row at the 7,000 capacity Harrah’s Cherokee Center in Asheville, North Carolina, where he holds court every Halloween without repeating a single song over those three concerts.
Eventually, the thoughts turned to, ‘How big can Strings and crew go on the live concert circuit, and what are the limits to his popularity?’ Then, a shot was sent across the bow of the music industry, and the bluegrass genre in particular, when news broke that Strings had just sold out the massive Bridgestone Arena in Nashville. The venue holds 18,000 people in its full concert configuration, and Strings sold out both shows on February 24 and 25, 2023. The demand was so big that Strings’ team added a third show on February 26, at the Mother Church—the Ryman Auditorium—which also promptly sold out.
As February 24, 2023, approached, the anticipation of the music world in general and in Music City USA specifically grew. On that first night, in front of tens of thousands of people with 90% of them standing and ready to dance to bluegrass music, Strings’ setlist begins with the Delmore Brothers song “Nashville Blues,” followed by his own bluegrass cut “Dust In A Baggie,” and then he breaks out a classic Dave Evans’ song with “99 Years Is Almost For Life.” Strings then begins a run of his more progressive tunes like “Turmoil and Tinfoil” before ending the set with “Red Daisy,” a straight-ahead bluegrass song that Strings played on national television on the Jimmy Kimmel Live! show.
During the second set at the sold-out Bridgestone Arena show on the 24th, Strings played “Little Maggie” along with other bluegrass tunes including “Sally Goodin’,” “Tennessee Stud” and Bill Monroe’s “Uncle Pen” and “The Old Mountaineer.”
On February 25th—the second concert on the run—something very special happened at Strings’ show. It was not only musically incredible, but it also lit up the digital universe with its music news aspects. If bluegrass artists are some of the best musicians in the business, then it should always be considered a good thing when they get to collaborate with one of the best musicians in the world, no matter the genre that guest artist may be known for. That is what happened when Derek Trucks sat in with Strings and crew during the first set. Trucks can arguably be considered one of the best guitarists on the planet, and he is definitely the best slide guitarist in the world.
Trucks’ sit in with Strings was more than just a guest artist being in town and being asked to jam on their day off, however, as this event turned out to be a crazy logistical maneuver. On the same night, Trucks was performing a concert at the Ryman Auditorium with his Grammy Award-winning group the Tedeschi Trucks Band, which he formed with his talented wife Susan Tedeschi 13 years ago. During the halftime break in Trucks’ own show, the idea was hatched to quickly escort him over the 1/10th of a mile that separates the Ryman Auditorium from the Bridgestone Arena, where Trucks could then jam on two songs with Strings before being rushed back to play the second half of his band’s concert. The plan worked.
Before performing the two songs “Pickin’ Up The Pieces” and “Love and Regret,” the two musicians smiled and embraced each other as Trucks plugged in. Then, Strings turns toward the audience and said into the mic, ‘You guys just got to see me meet Derek Trucks for the first time ever.” It was magic being made by a bluegrass band and as the news of it broke and spread quickly, videos of the musical encounter began to appear within minutes, which verified the special aspects of this jam.
To stay relevant in these modern technological times, Strings is a rare bluegrass artist who provides pay-per-view streaming of most of his shows so that tens of thousands of more fans can watch from the comfort of their home. It is one of the many ways that Strings and his team are utilizing the internet in ways that other bands do not. This includes hiring artists to draw unique concert posters, which become collector’s items, to posting the set list and photos from every concert online, and so much more.
In the second set of the concert on February 25th, Strings also brought out banjo picker supreme Noam Pikelny, who plays with The Punch Brothers and has won his own awards with his all-star Noam Pikelny Plays Kenny Baker Plays Bill Monroe album. Pikelny was also the first winner of the Steve Martin Prize for Excellence in Banjo and Bluegrass award. With Pikelny onboard, the troupe performs “Polka On The Banjo,” “Shenandoah Valley Breakdown” and “Black Clouds.”
Billy Strings performing at Bridgestone Arena.
Photo by Jesse Faatz
By the time the third show came around, on February 26, Billy Strings and his band got ready for their concert at The Ryman by visiting the acclaimed clothing stylist Cathy Hahn. Based in Los Angeles, Hahn is hired to utilize her stylist and costume talents for clients found literally around the world. For this show at The Ryman, she dresses up the band in a classic suit and tie and cowboy hat configuration that would have made Bill Monroe proud. Strings wore an all-white suit with a white cowboy hat while his band mates sported all blue suits with their cowboy hats.
Once looking the part, Strings and crew, along with special guest Rob McCoury, play 35 straight bluegrass classics, one after another. The songs chosen for this concert, taking place in the building where Earl Scruggs first played with Bill Monroe in 1945, included everything from “Wings Of A Dove” and “Ole Slewfoot” to “Rank Stranger,” “Foggy Mountain Breakdown,” “Old Home Place” and “I’ve Just Seen The Rock of Ages.”
Five days later, Strings and his band have travelled to Winston-Salem, NC. It is March 3, 2023, which is the day that marks the 100th birthday of the late and great International Bluegrass Music Association (IBMA) Hall of Famer Doc Watson, whose plaque is proudly displayed at the Bluegrass Hall of Fame and Museum in Owensboro, KY.
On this night and over this first weekend in March, Watson’s centennial will be remembered in places ranging from Bassett and Roanoke, Virginia, to the famed Birchmere music venue located outside of Washington DC, to The Kruger Brothers hosting a sold out celebratory Doc Watson jam in Raleigh, North Carolina. There are also Watson jams happening in Charlotte, Asheville, Mooresville, and a local jam taking place in Boone, North Carolina, where Watson’s statue sits on King Street.
Meanwhile, at the sold-out Joel Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Winston-Salem, Strings set list contains an astonishing 45 songs recorded by Watson during his 89 years on the earth. The guest musicians brought in for the concert, with the help of co-producer and show host Ted Olson, features many artists who were friends and musical collaborators with Watson including T. Michael Coleman, Jack Lawrence, Jack Hinshel Wood, Bryan Sutton, Wayne Henderson and very special guest Molly Tuttle.
Before the show, Strings posted a video of himself playing a Doc Watson tune backstage while saying the following to his half-of-a-million digital followers.
“Ticklin’ the strings this morning and thinking of the late great Arthel ‘Doc’ Watson,” said Strings. “Today would have been his 100th birthday and I’m so excited to celebrate his life and legacy tonight in North Carolina with so many great friends and fellow pickers. I can honestly say that I would not be where I am in this life if it wasn’t for Doc. Growing up on his music changed the way I view the world. I’ll always be grateful and he’ll always be my favorite. Happy Birthday Arthel.”
After that incredible collaborative display for Doc Watson on Friday night, you would think that the magic was over, yet there was one more show to go on March 4th. On that evening, Strings is given the amazing honor of uncasing Tony Rice’s legendary pre-war, Clarence White-owned, million-dollar Martin D-28 guitar by Tony’s widow, Pamela Rice.
Strings walks out with the great IBMA Hall of Fame guitarist’s axe as the encore begins, quiets the full house down to a whisper and says, “Let’s listen to this thing talk a little bit. These strings are the last strings that Tony Rice put on this guitar before he died.”
Strings was serious about commanding respect for this historic instrument in that arena, and reverence for Rice himself. Last year, Strings spoke eloquently about Rice in his interview with Bluegrass Unlimited Magazine for our Tony Rice Tribute issue. With “The Antique” guitar temporarily in his hands, the band brought the instrument to life again while playing “Likes Of Me,” “Freeborn Man,” “Tipper” and “Freedom.”
That memorable encore ended one of the most notable two weeks in bluegrass history, all made possible by a guitar picker from Michigan in his early 30s who has lit a spark in the roots music world. As of this writing, 30 of Strings’ 2023 concerts on his Tour Date page are sold out, from March until the end of August, from Vermont to Los Angeles, from Chicago to Texas.
As for the Strings detractors in the bluegrass contingent (as in the usual bluegrass crabs in the barrel that have shown up on cue) I’m reminded of a quote I got from the late and great bluegrass singer James King during an interview he and I did years ago. In the piece, King said to me, “I just want to pick and sing and get the negative crowd to leave me alone. You know what I mean? Everybody that’s got a little thing to them has got a negative bunch that’s trying to pull them down. That’s the way it always goes. But I try to boycott the bureaucratic BS. Yeah, bluegrass music, they’ve got the cutthroats, buddy. It’s worse than southern gospel.”
The best response to the negative notions about Billy Strings comes from traditional bluegrass artist and IBMA Award winner Joe Mullins, who said the following to me not long ago in an interview.
“I’m all for Billy Strings,” said Mullins. “I haven’t met him yet and I tried to get him on the Industrial Strength Bluegrass album and he wanted to do it, but his schedule just would not line up. I play his music on the radio, though. As for anybody that can entertain tens of thousands of people in bluegrass; we got to cheer the guy on. I’m glad for him. And, he makes some great bluegrass records. Look at his song ‘Red Daisy.’ He played that on the Jimmy Kimmel Live! TV show and it sounded like a Ralph Stanley cut from 50 years ago.”
Mullins agrees that there has always been a little bit of resentment in bluegrass concerning those that rise above the crowd. “Yeah, it can be a mess, but not with me,” said Mullins. “People were complaining when Flatt and Scruggs hired a Dobro player. Get over it. Alison Krauss, for instance, is whoever she wants to be with the voice that she’s got. If a billion people around the world think what Alison plays is bluegrass, then bluegrass better embrace it. The O Brother, Where Art Thou soundtrack wasn’t bluegrass music. There was nothing on it that sounded like ‘Rounder 0044.’ There wasn’t anything on there that sounded like Flatt and Scruggs’ music or Jimmy Martin’s music. But when you have an album that puts Ralph Stanley and Alison Krauss and John Hartford and Dan Tyminski in the spotlight, guess what; they all have bluegrass fans and that is great, only now they have more of them because of that album.”
Meanwhile, as Billy Strings and crew continue on their merry way around the globe, they will eventually look back with pride at their early 2023 run, knowing they paid tribute to Bill Monroe, Tony Rice, Dr. Ralph Stanley, Flatt and Scruggs, Dave Evans, and more in the birth place of bluegrass music in Nashville, and in the North Carolina home of Doc Watson and Earl Scruggs.
Here’s hoping that the bluegrass genre’s new fans are embraced with the open-minded answering of questions instead of with lectures, be welcomed into jam sessions, and they be allowed to dance to bluegrass music the way Bill Monroe did for most of his career.
