Billy Strings Sticks To Traditional Bluegrass Format For All-Cover Concert At The Ryman

Billy Strings honored the legacy of bluegrass music and The Ryman’s place in the genre’s history with his performance at the legendary Nashville venue on Sunday night. Strings and his band, dressed to the nines in western wear styled by Cathy Hann, stuck solely to bluegrass songs by other artists last night to cap three nights in their current hometown that also included two shows at the nearby Bridgestone Arena.

Sunday’s show was filmed by PBS for a potential special. Billy Strings discussed how nice it has been to sleep at home following each concert in Music City. Mandolinist Jarrod Walker, banjoist Billy Failing and bassist Royal Masast — who along with fiddler Alex Hargreaves form the guitarist’s band — each had a turn leading a song last night. Strings talked about his appreciation for each member and recalled meeting Hargreaves way back in 2012. Del McCoury Band banjoist Rob McCoury was the quintet’s special guest for a four-song run towards the end of the first set.

Billy Strings and his ensemble played 35 songs at The Ryman as part of sound engineer Andy Lytle’s 500th show working for the guitarist, which came at the same venue where he began his tenure way back on June 28, 2018. Strings and his band fit tunes popularized or written by the likes of The Dillards (“The Old Home Place”), Keith Allison (“Freeborn Man”), Muleskinner (“New Camptown Races”), Johnny Horton (“Ole Slew-Foot”), Harley “Red” Allen (“Hello City Limits”), Doc Watson (“Peartree”) and The Delmore Brothers (“Blues Stay Away From Me”) into the setlist last night as well as multiple songs from Flatt & Scruggs, Larry Sparks, The Stanley Brothers and Bill Monroe’s live repertoires.

Rob McCoury emerged in similar threads to those worn by the quintet to add to takes on Grandpa Jones’ “Eight More Miles To Louisville,” the Flatt & Scruggs instrumental “Foggy Mountain Breakdown,” “Bringing Mary Home” by The Country Gentlemen and the traditional “Long Journey Home,” aka “Two Dollar Bill.” Failing sang Flatt & Scruggs’ “Down The Road” following McCoury’s appearance and ahead of the “New Camptown Races”/”Katy Daley” pairing that closed Sunday’s first set.

Royal Masat fronted the traditional “Sitting On Top Of The World” amid a second set that also saw Jarrod Walker helm the Carter Stanley-penned “Nobody’s Love Is Like Mine.” The biggest bust outs played by Strings at The Ryman on Sunday were “Somehow Tonight” (last played on November 9, 2019), “Foggy Mountain Breakdown” (last played on November 21, 2019) and “Road To Columbus” (last played November 19, 2019). For the encore, the five-piece said farewell with “Roll On Buddy, Roll On.”

Watch fan-shot video of Failing, Masat and Walker leading songs last night as well as footage from Rob McCoury’s appearance and the evening’s encore below:

!function ($) {

$(function(){ // document ready

$(‘.video-sticky’).stickybits(
{
stickyBitStickyOffset: getNavbarsHeight()
}
);

});

}(window.jQuery);

.video-content .panel-body {
padding-top:40px;
padding-bottom:40px;
}
.video-sticky {
z-index: 999;
background-color: #fcfcfc;
}
.honorable-mentions {
padding-left: 0;
margin-left: 1.375em;
}
.honorable-mentions li {
margin-bottom:5px;
}
.honorable-mentions .fa-li {
margin-top:-2px;
}

.video-summary-wrap table.glance-table.jambase-videos-songs-table{
background-color: #e2e8ef;
}

!function ($) {

$(function(){ // document ready

$(‘.video-sticky’).stickybits(
{
stickyBitStickyOffset: getNavbarsHeight()
}
);

});

}(window.jQuery);

.video-content .panel-body {
padding-top:40px;
padding-bottom:40px;
}
.video-sticky {
z-index: 999;
background-color: #fcfcfc;
}
.honorable-mentions {
padding-left: 0;
margin-left: 1.375em;
}
.honorable-mentions li {
margin-bottom:5px;
}
.honorable-mentions .fa-li {
margin-top:-2px;
}

.video-summary-wrap table.glance-table.jambase-videos-songs-table{
background-color: #e2e8ef;
}

!function ($) {

$(function(){ // document ready

$(‘.video-sticky’).stickybits(
{
stickyBitStickyOffset: getNavbarsHeight()
}
);

});

}(window.jQuery);

.video-content .panel-body {
padding-top:40px;
padding-bottom:40px;
}
.video-sticky {
z-index: 999;
background-color: #fcfcfc;
}
.honorable-mentions {
padding-left: 0;
margin-left: 1.375em;
}
.honorable-mentions li {
margin-bottom:5px;
}
.honorable-mentions .fa-li {
margin-top:-2px;
}

.video-summary-wrap table.glance-table.jambase-videos-songs-table{
background-color: #e2e8ef;
}

!function ($) {

$(function(){ // document ready

$(‘.video-sticky’).stickybits(
{
stickyBitStickyOffset: getNavbarsHeight()
}
);

});

}(window.jQuery);

.video-content .panel-body {
padding-top:40px;
padding-bottom:40px;
}
.video-sticky {
z-index: 999;
background-color: #fcfcfc;
}
.honorable-mentions {
padding-left: 0;
margin-left: 1.375em;
}
.honorable-mentions li {
margin-bottom:5px;
}
.honorable-mentions .fa-li {
margin-top:-2px;
}

.video-summary-wrap table.glance-table.jambase-videos-songs-table{
background-color: #e2e8ef;
}

!function ($) {

$(function(){ // document ready

$(‘.video-sticky’).stickybits(
{
stickyBitStickyOffset: getNavbarsHeight()
}
);

});

}(window.jQuery);

.video-content .panel-body {
padding-top:40px;
padding-bottom:40px;
}
.video-sticky {
z-index: 999;
background-color: #fcfcfc;
}
.honorable-mentions {
padding-left: 0;
margin-left: 1.375em;
}
.honorable-mentions li {
margin-bottom:5px;
}
.honorable-mentions .fa-li {
margin-top:-2px;
}

.video-summary-wrap table.glance-table.jambase-videos-songs-table{
background-color: #e2e8ef;
}

!function ($) {

$(function(){ // document ready

$(‘.video-sticky’).stickybits(
{
stickyBitStickyOffset: getNavbarsHeight()
}
);

});

}(window.jQuery);

.video-content .panel-body {
padding-top:40px;
padding-bottom:40px;
}
.video-sticky {
z-index: 999;
background-color: #fcfcfc;
}
.honorable-mentions {
padding-left: 0;
margin-left: 1.375em;
}
.honorable-mentions li {
margin-bottom:5px;
}
.honorable-mentions .fa-li {
margin-top:-2px;
}

.video-summary-wrap table.glance-table.jambase-videos-songs-table{
background-color: #e2e8ef;
}

https://www.instagram.com/p/CpJ–vyu3Ap/?hl=en
https://www.instagram.com/p/CpLKTuYu7GV/?hl=en

Setlist (via BillyBase)

Set One: Tennessee, These Old Blues, Old Home Place, A Face In The Crowd, Dark Hollow, Airmail Special, Somehow Tonight, The White Dove, Big Sandy River, Freeborn Man, Eight More Miles To Louisville [1], Foggy Mountain Breakdown [1], Bringing Mary Home [1], Long Journey Home [1], Down The Road [2], New Camptown Races, Katy Daley

Set Two: Ole Slewfoot, Road To Columbus, The Letter Edged In Black, Dusty Miller, Stone Walls & Steel Bars, Sitting On Top Of The World [3], John Deere Tractor, Think Of What You’ve Done, I’ve Just Seen The Rock Of Ages, Hello City Limits, Lonesome Moonlight Waltz, Blues Stay Away From Me, Peartree, Nobody’s Love Is Like Mine [4], Rank Stranger, Ashland Breakdown, My Sweet Blue Eyed Darling

Encore: Roll On Buddy, Roll On

.article-summary-wrap {
margin-top:25px;
}

.panel-article .list-posts > li {
border-style: dotted;
}
.panel-article .list-posts > li:last-of-type {
border-bottom-width:0;
}
.panel-article .list-posts .excerpt {
margin: 3px 0 0;
}
.panel-article .list-posts .btn-sm {
margin-top: 10px;
padding: 3px 10px;
}

Source: JamBase.com