Billy Strings Debuts Pearl Jam & Jimi Hendrix Covers In Washington

Billy Strings made a stop at Marymoor Park in Redmond, Washington near Seattle on Saturday. The guitarist unveiled covers from two of Seattle’s finest with songs from Jimi Hendrix and Pearl Jam.

Billy and his band — mandolinist Jarrod Walker, bassist Royal Masat and banjo player Billy Failing — kicked things off with one of those debuts, Jimi Hendrix’s “Love Or Confusion” from The Jimi Hendrix Experience’s 1967 debut album, Are You Experienced?. Yesterday marked 51 years since Jimi Hendrix’s death. A paring of the instrumental “Thirst Mutilator” and “Running” followed. The first set also contained the full band debut of the traditional “Mary of the Wild Moor,” a clever reference to Marymoor, Washington. Additionally, Billy delivered The String Cheese Incident’s “Black Clouds,” which encompassed “Clinch Mountain Backstep.” Strings brought the first set to a close with “Highway Hypnosis.”

Billy got the second set underway with Pearl Jam’s “Elderly Woman Behind the Counter in a Small Town” off the grunge pioneers’ 1993 album Vs. A pair of bluegrass standards in “Home Of The Red Fox” (Bill Emerson) and “Little Maggie” (Traditional) followed before Billy nodded to Seattle grunge progenitors Mother Love Bone, which featured members of Pearl Jam, on “Crown Of Thorns.” The second came to a close with a segment of “Turmoil & Tinfoil” and the theme song from the film, Enter The Dragon. Legendary Enter The Dragon star Bruce Lee is buried in Seattle. Strings continued his tribute to Hendrix for the encore by rocking out on “Hey Joe” and “Third Stone From The Sun” as the sky opened up and the rain poured down.

Watch fan-shot video of “Elderly Woman,” “Hey Joe” and “Third Stone” below:

Setlist

Source: JamBase.com