Greensky Bluegrass debuted a cover of “When The Children Cry” by 1980s hair metal band White Lion during their show Saturday in Memphis. The performance was part of Grind City Brewing Co.’s Grind City Fest.
Set one on Saturday started with Cris Jacobs’ “Bone Diggers.” The string band then strung together several originals, “Like Reflections,” “Past My Prime,” “Demons” and from their 2022 studio album, Stress Dreams, “Give a Shit.” A cover of Bob Marley’s “Stop That Train” came next, followed by “Take Cover.” The set came to an end with “More Of Me” going into another Stress Dreams track, “Monument.”
“When The Children Cry” appeared as the penultimate song of the second set, between “It’s Not Mine Anymore” and the closing “Run Or Die.” Before GSBG played the power ballad, the cover was jokingly dedicated to the band’s sound engineer Luke Milanese for his birthday, despite it not being his birthday. Mandolin player Paul Hoffman sang lead on the song that originally appeared on White Lion’s 1987 album, Pride.
Prior to that, set two started with the Stress Dreams opening track, “Absence Of Reason.” Longtime favorite “Don’t Lie” followed and led into the rarely played “Ain’t Wastin’ Time No More” by The Allman Brothers Band. “Burn Them” and “Wish I Didn’t Know” were also part of the second set. The evening’s “Fixin To Ruin” encore closed out the inaugural event.
Watch a partial clip of Greensky covering “When The Children Cry” below:
https://www.instagram.com/p/ChzmbPMuG6C/
Setlist (via GSBG PT)
Set One: Bone Digger, Like Reflections, Past My Prime, Demons, Give a Shit, Stop That Train, Take Cover, More of Me > Monument
Set Two: Absence of Reason, Don’t Lie > Ain’t Wastin’ Time No More, Burn Them, Wish I Didn’t Know, It’s Not Mine Anymore, When the Children Cry [1], Run or Die
Encore: Fixin To Ruin
Notes:
- [1] first time played
