Guitarists Billy Strings and Cris Jacobs welcomed a mix of guest musicians during their performance at this year’s Aiken Bluegrass Festival in South Carolina over the weekend. It was during Strings’ late-night “Psychedelic Circus” set on Saturday where he and Jacobs delivered a mix of notable rock covers alongside special guests including Circles Around The Sun guitarist Neal Casal, singer Lindsay Lou, and bassist Royal Masat.
Related: Watch Billy Strings Throw Down At 2018 Aiken Bluegrass Festival
The band’s first set included performances of Edgar Winter Group‘s “Hangin’ Around”, Grateful Dead‘s “Althea”, and ZZ Top‘s “Cheap Sunglasses” to start things off. From there, they pulled a page out of Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers‘ songbook to perform “Runnin’ Down A Dream” and “Breakdown”, in addition to a pair of Jimi Hendrix tunes in “Red House” and “Fire”. The band closed the first half fo the show with Chuck Berry‘s blues-rock anthem, “Johnny B. Goode”.
Following set break, the group returned to start their second-half run of classic rock covers with Black Sabbath‘s “Paranoid” and Jerry Garcia‘s “Deal”. The band continued with Pearl Jam‘s “Corduroy” which went right into “Down By The River” out of the Neil Young songbook. Following performances of “Funk 49”, “Dear Mr. Fantasy”, and “Big River”, the band launched into another two-song segue beginning with Dr. John‘s funky “Right Place Wrong Time” into “That’s What Love Will Make You Do”.
The second set continued with Led Zeppelin‘s “Good Times Bad Times”, Junior Parker‘s “Mystery Train”, and returning to Sabbath for “Sweet Leaf” to close. The show’s one-song encore saw the band send fans into the early hours of the morning with a performance of “Iko Iko”. Fans can relive some of the second set covers from Saturday’s performance below.
Billy Strings & Cris Jacobs ‘Psychedelic Circus’ – “Paranoid” – 5/11/2019
[Video: T Shaw’s Progressive Bluegrass]
Billy Strings & Cris Jacobs ‘Psychedelic Circus’ – “Corduroy” > “Down By The River” – 5/11/2019
[Video: T Shaw’s Progressive Bluegrass]
Billy Strings & Cris Jacobs ‘Psychedelic Circus’ – “Right Place Wrong Time” > “That’s What Love Will Make You Do” – 5/11/2019
[Video: T Shaw’s Progressive Bluegrass]
Billy Strings & Cris Jacobs ‘Psychedelic Circus’ – “Good Times Bad Times”
[Video: T Shaw’s Progressive Bluegrass]
Billy Strings’ 2019 spring tour will continue later this week with a show at the Rives Theatre in Martinsville, VA on Thursday (May 16th). For ticketing information and a full list of upcoming Billy Strings tour dates, head to his website here.
Cris Jacobs also has a number of upcoming dates on his Color Where You Are 2019 tour. You can check out a full list of shows and ticketing information on his website here.
Setlist: Billy Strings and Cris Jacobs Band ‘Psychedelic Circus’ | Aiken Bluegrass Festival | Aiken, SC | 5/11/2019
Set One: Hangin’ Around (Edgar Winter Group cover), Farther Up The Road (Bobby “Blue” Bland cover), Althea (Grateful Dead cover), Whiskey In The Jar (Traditional cover), Cheap Tequila (Johnny Winter cover), Cheap Sunglasses (ZZ Top cover), Breakdown (Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers cover), Going Down The Road Feelin’ Bad (Traditional cover) > Runnin’ Down A Dream (Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers cover), Red House (Jimi Hendrix cover), Fire (Jimi Hendrix cover), Johnny B. Goode (Chuck Berry cover)
Set Two: Paranoid (Black Sabbath cover), Deal (Jerry Garcia cover), Corduroy (Pearl Jam cover) > Down By The River (Neil Young cover), Funk 49 (James Gang cover), Dear Mr. Fantasy (Traffic cover), Big River (Johnny Cash cover), Right Place Wrong Time (Dr. John cover) > That’s What Love Will Make You Do (Thigpen, Banks and Marion cover), Good Times Bad Times (Led Zeppelin cover), Mystery Train (Junior Parker), Funky Bitch (Son Seals cover), Sweet Leaf (Black Sabbath cover)
Encore: Iko Iko (James “Sugar Boy” Crawford cover)
[H/T JamBase]
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