[ATTENDED: February 16, 2019] Billy Strings
I had never heard of Billy Strings before this show. But when he was announced, the crowd was really effusive about him, which led me to think that he was well-known. And I gather he is. He has some 40,000 fans on his Facebook page, which is no small thing. (Interestingly, headliners I’m with Her have only 22,000).
So Billy Strings came out and I swear I thought he was 18 (he’s 26). He said a friendly “Hi, folks” and proceeded to absolutely blown me away with his guitar playing. He opened with Brown’s Ferry Blues a folk song from around 1930 and proceeded to play the heck out of his guitar. He also sang the rather amusing lyrics in a good ‘ol drawl (he is from Michigan).
Then he surpirsed me even further by playing a Jethro Tull song (which made S. and I quite happy). It was a rather fast-tempoed version of “Thick As a Brick” and it was wonderful. The song segued into a guitar workout called Fishin’ Creek Blues.
He then played “Tom Dooley,” a song I never expected to hear, well, ever.
Then he told us he was going to do some flatpicking for us. I’d never actually heard this term before (it just means picking, so I don’t know how it differentiates from the other songs), and he was happy to play a song with his name in the title. He proceeded to show off his amazing fingerwork on “Billy in the Lowground.”
Billy told us a few stories between songs, but none was as lovely as the one he told about “Mary of the Wild Moor.” His father (he said a lot of nice things about his father) and his father’s mother used to play this song together. His grandmother played the hammered dulcimer and his father played guitar. After his grandmother died, he heard his father playing this song on the guitar making a sound like a hammered dulcimer. He knew his dad was a great player, but he had no idea he (or anyone) could make sounds like that, so he learned how to make that sound. He apologized for the song being sad, but what can you do. It was a sad song, but it was made even more beautiful by that story.
Then he played a song I recognized, but it sounded so different from what I knew it as that I wasn’t sure it was the right song. It was “Ginseng Sullivan,” a song I know from live Phish shows, but which I’d never heard the original. I’m certain this is how it was meant to be heard and it sounds great (I’ve become quite the fan of bluegrass the last few years).
Billy switched to the banjo and played another song that I recognized. This time because I knew the cover by Kristin Hersh. The song dates back to the late 1700s and his banjo version was similar but his vocal delivery was (unsurprisingly) very different from Hersh’s.
He did some more amazing flatpicking with “Big Sandy > Bill Cheatham” and then ended the set with “Don’t Let Your Deal Go Down” (a classic song from 1925). I don’t know where I know this song from, but that made yet one more song that I knew in this frankly amazing set.
Billy Strings usually plays with a four piece band, so I gather this solo tour is kind of special. When I’m with Her came out, they said that he had been playing entirely different setlists for every show. That’s pretty amazing. And so is he.
SETLIST
- Brown’s Ferry Blues
- Thick as a Brick>
- Fishin’ Creek Blues
- Tom Dooley
- Billy in the Lowground
- Mary of the Wild Moor
- Ginseng Sullivan
- Cuckoo
- Big Sandy>
- Bill Cheatam
- Don’t Let Your Deal Go Down
Some nice soul posted a video of the show on You Tube
I Just Read About That... 
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