Billy Strings’ 2023 fall tour kicked off in Nampa, ID last night, and the tour bus left port with the pedal to the metal. After a surely boring tour break where all he did was…checks notes…got married with the wildest wedding band ever, headlined several festivals including his own, and apparently searched through his song catalog for a couple of tunes to play he hadn’t recently touched. Strings and his band, featuring Billy Failing on banjo and vocals, rock steady Royal Masat on bass, some wild work by Jarrod Walker on mandolin, and always amazing Alex Hargreaves on fiddle, showed the full range of their skills while nailing every jam and nailing every roll and fill.
Billy and company were looking a little chilly when they took the stage at the Ford Idaho Center in their long sleeves, jackets, and, in Strings’ case, beanie. Strings kept not only himself warm by strutting around the stage, but heated both himself and the entire audience with the heat flowing from his rapidly moving fingers. His always fiery backing band was not in any danger of freezing out with the opening instrumental jam on “Home Of The Red Fox”, with Walker and Falling seemingly in mid-tour form already and Hargreaves in serious danger of sawing his fiddle in half as they moved into “Little Maggie”.
Billy Strings – “Home Of The Red Fox” (Bill Emerson) > “Little Maggie” (Traditional) [Pro-Shot] – 9/27/23
After a bit of full-on headbanging during “Pretty Daughter”, Strings noted the crowd seemed into the “creepy shit” and decided they should explore that vein with the murder ballad “My Alice” before reeling off a run of bluegrass tunes that included works from the Delmore Brothers with “Blues Stay Away From Me” and Bill Monroe with “Lonesome Moonlight Waltz” while managing to slip in a little side trip with The Doors on “Hyacinth House”.
After a few more jams with the full band including a raging trippy “Meet Me At The Creek”, Strings let the rest of his crew clear out before hunkering down on a chair with a huge acoustic guitar and a somehow yet bigger smile on his face.
In lieu of a set break, Billy stayed out and picked a few solo tunes on his acoustic guitar. The Billy solo interlude ran the gamut from a bit of storytelling on “Catch And Release”—with its sage advice (“Only break one law at a time”)—and an intriguing, if abbreviated, take on the Jethro Tull classic “Thick As A Brick”, Strings’ first since a solo livestream on May 1st, 2020 (307 show gap) per BillyBase. Finally, Strings railed through “Fishing Creek Blues” and “Cocaine Blues”, after which he re-joined the rest of his band backstage for a quick few minutes of breath-catching before coming right back out for set two.
The second set saw plenty more of the baton passing among the band members as the tunes flew by. Whether it was a cover like “Along The Road” by Dan Fogelberg, “Streamline Cannonball” by Roy Acuff, or even Falling singing one of his own creations (“So Many Miles”) everyone got solos, fills, and moments in the spotlight galore before Strings’ virtuosity inevitably led to his explosions. As always, Strings showed his respect for the form of bluegrass itself. For every more modern cover from the likes of Bob Dylan in the form of “Señor (Tales Of Yankee Power)”, there was a traditional song or three thrown in for good measure.
To punctuate the night’s ode to the form and function itself, Strings and his multifaceted backing band went full old school and closed the evening gathered around a single microphone layering their voices in the oldest of ways. The only thing missing was the formal suits as they picked and grinned through the show-closing “If Your Hair Is Too Long, There’s Sin In Your Heart” and “Freedom” much to the joy of a most appreciative audience.
If it was anyone less energetic than Billy Strings it would be easy to worry about the pace he and his band are setting for themselves right now leading to burnout. As it is, Strings, the man, like his music, seems restless to the point of obsessiveness. However, if the music he’s making and the way he’s making it has its roots in some form of non-destructive madness then may it only grow. The world needs more of this brand of mayhem and musical destruction.
Setlist: Billy Strings | Ford Idaho Center Arena | Nampa, ID | 9.27.23
Set One: Home Of The Red Fox (Bill Emerson)> Little Maggie (Traditional), Watch It Fall, California Sober, Pretty Daughter (Bad Livers), My Alice, Blues Stay Away From Me (Delmore Brothers), Lonesome Moonlight Waltz (Bill Monroe), Meet Me At The Creek > Hyacinth House (The Doors)> Meet Me At The Creek, Catch and Release1, Thick As A Brick1,2 (Jethro Tull), Fishin’ Creek Blues1 (Dan Caray), Cocaine Blues [1] (Traditional)
Set Two: John Hardy (Traditional), Along The Road (Dan Fogelberg), Streamline Cannonball (Roy Acuff), Enough To Leave, Thirst Mutilator > So Many Miles [3] (Billy Failing)> Everything’s The Same > I’m Still Here [4] (John Hartford)> Taking Water > End Of The Rainbow (Frank Wakefield), Señor (Tales Of Yankee Power) (Bob Dylan), Wargasm, It Rains Just The Same In Missouri [5], (Ray Griff) If Your Hair Is Too Long, There’s Sin In Your Heart [6], Freedom [6]
1 Billy Strings solo
2 Last Played 2020-05-01 | 307 show gap
3 Billy Failing on lead vocals
4 “Last Train To Clarksville” (The Monkees) tease
5 Last Played 2022-06-16 | 140 show gap
6 Full band around single mic
The post Billy Strings Dusts Off Jethro Tull Classic In Jam-Packed Idaho Tour Opener [Video] appeared first on L4LM.
