Billy Strings and his company took Europe by storm on an exhaustive, sold-out 11-show run at the start of November that saw dozens of genuine highlights, a full roster of originals and covers, styles and genres, and even the debut of a brand-new tune. The two-week visit from the American psychedelic bluegrass pickers and grinners saw a barnstorming trip around the continent we here at Live For Live Music wanted to look at as a whole, while also highlighting a moment or two from each night that truly stood out.
Kicking things off with a pair of shows at Amsterdam’s famed Paradiso set the bar early and high. Each night saw some spectacular onstage fireworks as well as some equally impressive hushed jams. The “Highway Hypnosis” from night one saw the more traditional-flavored intro devolve into a completely dissolving, brain-melting effect-laden jam that benefited greatly from the interplay between disjointed bass work from Royal Masat, wails and ghostly peels from fiddler Alex Hargreaves, and some masterful pedal interplay from Strings himself.
Billy Strings – “Highway Hypnosis”, “Shady Grove” (Traditional) – 11/6/23
[Video: bklynwmn]
The second night saw Strings clear the stage and show off his claw hammer banjo skills with a rolling “Georgia Buck” before bringing Hargreaves back out for a foot-stomping “Jeff Sturgeon”. The staid crowd had no trouble getting animated and clapping along in time as the pair chased each other musically around the melody with mandolinist Jarrod Walker merrily joining in the romp.
Billy Strings – “Jeff Sturgeon” (Traditional) – 11/7/23
[Video: rialto1961]
Special mention is due for Billy’s night one acapella rendition of Charles Wesley‘s “Am I Born To Die”, dropping shades of Ralph Stanley through Strings’ inflections and tone. His delivery has a confidence that, like his effortless hosting and performing skills, belies String’s’ scant years. In just two nights Billy Strings had already shown a mind-blowing range and it was clearly earning him lifelong fans.
For night three, the crew dropped down to Antwerp, Belgium’s De Roma had a first set quartet of “End Of The Rainbow” featuring robust fretwork from Strings’ as always, with some wonderful full band harmonizing before five-string banjo wizard Billy Failing took the lead vocal duties on for his own “So Many Miles”. The train kept rolling through a triumphant “I’m Still Here”, only to close out the far-ranging jam with Strings’ faithfully adept take on legendary bluegrass guitarist Tony Rice‘s eloquent “Tipper” that illustrated Strings’ fearlessness and sheer talent to spectacular effect.
Billy Strings – “End Of The Rainbow” (Frank Wakefield) > “So Many Miles” > “I’m Still Here” (John Hartford) > “Tipper” (Tony Rice) – 11/8/23
[Video: bklynwmn]
Also worth mentioning was a second set, single mic “If Your Hair Is Too Long, There Is Sin In Your Heart” which did a wonderful job illustrating the power of physical spacing and movement that the method demands of its players. From there it was a short hop to Cologne, Germany’s Carlswerk Vitoria for a one-night stand neither party regretted.
The date, November 10th, was a sad anniversary from 1975, as famously detailed in Gordon Lightfoot‘s “The Wreck Of The Edmund Fitzgerald”, over on this side of the pond. Billy Strings and company took the occasion to honor the 29 lives lost with their first try at that classic as their second set opener. Judging from the crowd reception to Strings’ mournful interpretation it wouldn’t be too surprising to see this tune again as an addition to Strings’ already bountiful Rolodex of covers.
Billy Strings – “The Wreck Of The Edmund Fitzgerald” (Gordon Lightfoot) – 11/10/23
[Video: Ian Gibbons]
Much hay has been made off Billy Strings’ young age and the potential he has to get even better over the decades to come. With the wise-beyond-his-years “The Fire On My Tongue” and the extended jams he gave the tune during his stop at Luxembourg’s den Atelier, it’s a pretty safe bet that the future holds some delights for bluegrass fans around the world to look toward with gleeful anticipation.
Related: Billy Strings Shares Mini-Documentary From 2023 Europe Tour [Watch]
That future is made all the brighter thanks to Strings’ nightly display of showmanship and complete trust in his much-talented bandmates. Hargreaves got numerous opportunities to show off his impressive dynamic diversity of styles and techniques, especially in their night five stop in Munich, Germany.
The walls of the Neue Theaterfabrik pulsed with joy as John Hartford‘s “Vamp In The Middle” kicked off a three-song chunk of tunes that included a dark but perky cover of Black Sabbath‘s “Planet Caravan” before wrapping with an appropriately timed “Fiddling Around” to conclude the first of two well-received sets of lightning-powered string band music.
After a much-needed night off, Billy Strings found himself an American in Paris and much to his credit did all he could to dispel the image of the rude tourist. Indeed, his generous helping of traditional American tunes merged with his own originals was both humble and impressive to the French audience’s sophisticated musical palettes.
The flow from the 100-year-old “Sally Goodin” through the trio of Strings’ “Must Be Seven”, “Psycho”, and “Meet Me At The Creek” from set two at La Cigale perfectly encapsulated his respect for the past and his tireless work to add to the future of the form. The long-standing affinity the French have shown for iconoclast American music makers was evident in the rousing cheers waiting for Strings and his band at each epic jam conclusion and this run of tunes was no exception.
Billy Strings – “Sally Goodin” (Traditional) > “Must Be Seven” – 11/14/23
[Video: Gérard Rallo]
After a short trip under the English Channel in the Chunnel, it was London’s turn to withstand the senses-shattering tour with a visit to the Roundhouse. Billy was comfortable enough in the venue to slip into “story mode,” dropping tales of grade school talent show victories won thanks to his beloved mother’s help before shouting out his father’s influences on his songwriting.
Citing his dad’s love of Mac Wiseman‘s songbook in particular Billy noted the inspiration it gave him for the crowd-pleasing original “All Of Tomorrow” from 2017’s Tinfoil & Turmoil. Special mention must go to the heartfelt and incredibly thoughtful take on Pearl Jam‘s “Elderly Woman Behind The Counter In A Small Town” which turned into a sorrowful sing-a-long with the packed audience.
Pearl Jam – “Elderly Woman Behind The Counter In A Small Town” (Pearl Jam) – 11/15/23
[Video: Music City Archive]
A quick four-hour trip up the M6 took Billy and band to Manchester for the first of the last three nights of the European excursion. The Manchester Academy welcomed Strings’ and co’s by now well-known propensity to litter his set with covers. The second set saw Jarrod Walker tear up the mandolin path laid out by Paul Hoffman on Billy’s “Favorite band in the world,” Greensky Bluegrass‘ “Letter To Seymour”. This respect he shows for fellow Michiganders is, from all signs and reports, matched by the Mitten State’s other famous band of string mavens.
Reaching Glasgow’s O2 Academy for the penultimate night of the tour, the band delivered its second take on the new song the band debuted on this run, “Escanaba”. Originally unveiled in Luxembourg, “Escanaba” is an instrumental with a strong melodic line doubled by Strings and Hargreaves with precise picking from mandolinist Jarrod Walker and a thumping heartbeat from Masat on bass. It rises and falls with crisp runs by Failing, creative fiddle work by Hargreaves, and the usual fire from Billy himself. If this is indicative of what the band has in store for us in the years to come the future is bright indeed.
All good things must come to an end, and the 11-night jaunt across Europe closed down in the U.K.’s O2 Academy Birmingham with one last sold-out, two-set showcase of bluegrass love and mayhem. Though there were multiple Black Sabbath teases it was the second set concluding “Away From The Mire”, a 16-minute affair, that seemed to be as much a celebration of the excursion as a whole as it was a “Tear-The-Roof-Off” show closer.
Billy screaming “How the f–k are YOU?!” and his follow-up exhortation, “I can’t hear you,” was a rabble rallying cry that helped get the audience psyched up to make the most of the moment. From there he and the band took one last trippy journey through the psychedelic haze that permeates all their wildest works. The reality break dazed the crowd before the distorted guitar section that closed out the jam shocked them back to full possession of their senses of time and place.
Billy Strings – “Away From The Mire” – 11/19/23 – Partial
[Video: Heavens Cry]
Leaving Europe after such a successful jaunt had to have put smiles on the likely exhausted faces of String and his band. With a short but well-earned and much-needed break before closing out their year on the U.S. side of the Atlantic, Strings can be confident that he did his level best to give his ever-growing community of European fans something to keep them anticipating the next time he and his band visit their shores.
For purveyors of an admittedly niche genre to be so well received in the old country is rare but so is a once-in-a-lifetime talent like Billy Strings. With his serving as one of our nation’s chief representatives on the world’s stages, we American fans of the bluegrass can feel safe that audiences around the world are seeing some of the best we have to offer.
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