Watch Billy Strings Honor Bobby Osborne With Heartfelt ‘Ruby’ Cover

Billy Strings resumed his summer tour on Thursday with the first of three concerts at Koka Booth Amphitheatre in Cary, North Carolina. For the encore, Billy and his band — mandolinist Jarrod Walker, bassist Royal Masat, banjo player Billy Failing and fiddler Alex Hargreaves — honored bluegrass great Bobby Osborne — who sadly died on June 27, 2023 — with The Osborne Brothers-recorded “Ruby.”

“They’re gettin’ up there,” Billy said, referring to a number of bluegrass legends. “We lost Sonny Osborne a few years back. And just recently, a week or two ago, we lost Bobby. He was one of the greatest bluegrass singers of all-time and mandolin players as well. The Osborne Brothers were really pushing boundaries back in the day with bluegrass, taking a lot of guff from the older folks saying ‘oh, you can’t use a snare drum,’ ‘you can’t plug in that banjo or bass or anything like that.’ They were kind of like, ‘hard to cut through a honky tonk bar crowd without it.’ We like to give those guys credit that paved the way for us. So we’re gonna do this one here in honor of the late great Bobby Osborne.”

Watch Billy Strings and company on “Ruby” below:

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Billy Strings launched the show with “Know It All” from the 2021 album, Renewal, followed by the instrumental, “Bronzeback.” The quintet then paired up original “Taking Water” with just the fourth performance of Larry Sparks instrumental “Cruising Timber.”

The band then embarked on a chunky, all-original continuous sequence beginning with Renewal’s “The Fire On My Tongue” followed by “Must Be Seven,” instrumental “Pyramid Country” and finally “Hide & Seek” to bookend the segment with Renewal cuts. Following “My Alice,” Strings wrapped the first set with a pair of covers beginning with the Red Allen release, “Hello, City Limits.” Billy then went solo acapella for the Doc Watson-adapted hymn, “And Am I Born To Die?”

The second set got going with “Highway Hypnosis” followed by the instrumental “Thirst Mutilator,” which led into John Hartford’s “Steam Powered Aereo Plane” with Billy Failing on lead vocals. The quintet then offered the tour debut of Bad Livers’ “Lumpy, Beanpole, & Dirt” ahead of Renewal’s “Secrets.”

Billy’s recent collaborative single with Willie Nelson, “California Sober,” came next ahead of the full band debut of new original “Be Your Man.” Billy Strings debuted the song solo on June 14 in Cleveland.

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The Darol Anger-composed, David Grisman Quintet instrumental “Key Signator” followed ahead of “Running.” The Eddie Noack release “Psycho” came next and led into “Away From The Mire.” The band wrapped the second frame with the traditional “Little Maggie” ahead of the Bobby Osborne tribute encore.

Billy Strings returns to Koka Booth Amphitheatre tonight. Free livestreams are available for the remaining Cary shows as well as his additional eight July headline dates for nugs.net subscribers.

Setlist (via BillyBase)

Set One: Know It All, Bronzeback, Taking Water > Cruising Timber, The Fire On My Tongue > Must Be Seven > Pyramid > Country Hide and Seek, My Alice, Hello City Limits, And Am I Born To Die?[1]

Set Two: Highway Hypnosis, Thirst Mutilator, Steam Powered Aereo Plane[2], Lumpy, Beanpole, & Dirt, Secrets, California Sober, Be Your Man[3], Key Signator, Running, Psycho > Away From The Mire, Little Maggie

Encore: Ruby[4]

Notes:

• [1] Billy Strings acapella
• [2] Billy Failing on lead vocals
• [3] Second time played and first time with full band
• [4] Billy dedicated this to the legendary bluegrass player Bobby Osborne who recently passed away on 2023-06-27

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