Billy Strings and his stellar backing band closed out a spectacular three-show run at the spacious and sunny St.Augustine Amphitheatre with another top tier showcasing the relaxed confidence of a band five times their age. After the first two nights of impressive musical assaults, banjoist Billy Failing, bassist Royal Masat, mandolinist Jarrod Walker, and violinist Alex Hargreaves are in their musical prime and honed to a razor’s edge by the near-constant touring schedule they’ve embarked on with their six-string firebrand band leader Billy Strings.
They don’t call it the Sunshine State for nothing, as each of the two previous nights has seen the band squinting or looking down to avoid the harsh setting sun’s direct rays. Coupled with the positioning of the stage staring directly into the light, it makes sense why Saturday’s show featured the latest start time of the run, likely sparing the band some ocular damage as the sun began to set over America’s Oldest City.
Show openers “Dusty Miller” and “Must Be Seven” came and went in practically no time at all; the tunes acted as tests of the band’s collective vehicle to see if the wheels would rattle off if they got it opened up. After they finished the first tracks in seeming safety it was time to floor it and see what it could do. A brief check on the crowd, with thanks for coming out of the way, the see-saw rhyme scheme of “Hellbender” offered the crowd a chance to get their boogie shoes out and dance with the devil in the fading sunlight.
Billy Strings – “Dusty Miller” (Traditional) > “Must Be Seven”, “Hellbender” [Pro-Shot] – 4/22/23
The following “Hollow Heart” into “Tipper” kept that same bouncing energy flowing. After a quick dedication to Jarrod Walker’s parents out in the crowd the quintet regaled the audience with the always-welcome story of “The Preacher & The Bear”’ and its humorous tale of man versus nature.
An introverted and observational “Nothing’s Working” impressed with a solid melancholy laid beneath the track’s haunted beauty. From there it was pure bluegrass time thanks to the mandolin and bass-heavy “Katey Daley”. That short delight led straight into a full-on pickin’ party take on “Tennessee” that saw practically the entire venue tilting and whirling before the acapella outro drew the first genuinely epic cheers of the night.
Having paid homage to their mountain roots it was time for their first deep dive into the mystic, and they launched into an expansive “Turmoil & Tinfoil” that featured an extended jaunt from the back hills to the outer reaches of reality and back that left the band as spent as the sweat-soaked fans. The highest point saw Strings at the front of the stage, in pure virtuoso form, soloing over his bandmates like a man possessed before finally crashing back to Earth with a final verse and chorus.
As Strings spied a sign in the audience it spurred him to sneak one more song into the set, a somewhat abbreviated “I Told Them All About You” dedicated to a recently wed couple with a request sign. Afterward an intricate, impressive “Key Signator” closed out the first set in a jaw-dropping display of speed and precision.
The second set opening pair of songs, the Alice In Chains cover “Nutshell” and the follow-up, a towering “Wargasm”, saw a plaintive condemnation of war communal to every generation for as long as elders have sent their youngest off to battle.
After such a heavy pair of mind-melters it was time for a little bit of that old-time fiddle and luckily that’s what the band found among the treasures “Along The Road” before “Streamline Cannonball” rocketed out into the night.
Strings dedicated the next song to his momma, a song that has been through many hands including Johnny Winters called “Ain’t Nothing To Me” about jealousy and quick tempers and how one moment of lost control can lead to a lifetime of regret. From there the band took us over a musical waterfall version of the “Thirst Mutilator” before bubbling into “Running” and its high-energy call to the dance floor which woke up the entranced crowd.
With a syrupy thick “Love Like Me” dedicated and done it was time to take some curves at maximum velocity and shake out the “Highway Hypnosis”. After a pitch-perfect “Shady Grove” came the final one-two of the evening, “Bronzeback” and “Ole Slewfot”, which didn’t miss with their intent on revving the crowd up one last time for a musical metaphorical victory lap around the slowly cooling amphitheater.
Billy, now clad in ’80s style sunglasses, returned packing his matching early ’80s Casio DG-20 synth guitar and its near ridiculous drum machine effects for the quirky silliness that is “Big Mon 3000”. Afterward, standing proud in the center of a fully lit stage, Strings seemed to take a moment to let himself admire his own handiwork, echoing cheers from front to back of the fully packed St. Augustine Amphitheatre, with a trace of pride before innate humility quickly reasserted itself. He humbly wished that he’d “See you next year!”
Up next for Billy Strings is Willie Nelson‘s 90th birthday party at Hollywood Bowl on Saturday and Sunday followed by his two-night return to Red Rocks Amphitheatre on May 11th and 12th. Tickets and a full list of tour dates are available on his website.
Billy Strings – “Hollow Heart” > “Tipper” (Tony Rice) – 4/22/23
[Video: Doug Heck]
Billy Strings – St. Augustine Amphitheatre – St. Augustine, FL – 4/22/23 – Full Audio
[Audio: mgonnella]
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Setlist [via Billy Base]: Billy Strings | St. Augustine Amphitheatre | St. Augustine, FL | 4/22/23
Set One: Dusty Miller (Traditional) > Must Be Seven, Hellbender, Hollow Heart > Tipper (Tony Rice), The Preacher & The Bear (George Fairman) [1], Nothing’s Working, Katy Daley (Eamon O’Shea) > Tennessee (Doyle Neikirk, Jimmy Martin), Turmoil & Tinfoil, I Told Them All About You (Cliff Friend), Key Signator (Darol Anger)
Set Two: Nutshell (Alice In Chains) > Wargasm, Along The Road (Dan Fogelberg), Streamline Cannonball (Roy Acuff), Ain’t Nothing To Me (Leon Payne), Thirst Mutilator > Running, Love Like Me, Highway Hypnosis, Shady Grove (Traditional), Bronzeback > Ole Slewfoot (Johnny Horton)
Encore: Big Mon 3000 [2]
[1] Billy Strings dedicated this song to Jarrod Walker’s parents who were in the audience
[2] Billy Strings on a Casio DG-20 synth guitar
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