Billy Strings celebrated the announcement of his upcoming new album Highway Prayers, debuted the album’s lead single “Leadfoot”, and more when his summer tour touched down at State College, Pennsylvania’s Bryce Jordan Center last night. He even brought out a new instrument for the first time for the single’s live premiere, namely, a Masterton ML-1 Béla Fleck Series Baritone Banjo.
The first set was business as usual for the bluegrass behemoth. Lightning shot from Strings’ fingers and the band electrified the entranced, eager, and enthused fans who filled the arena.With his always stellar backing band of Billy Failing on banjo, Royal Masat on bass, Jarrod Walker on mandolin, and Alex Hargreaves on fiddle, Strings has all the complementary skills and talents he needs to make a mighty ruckus.
After some fancy fretwork from everyone on The Stanley Brothers-penned opener “Sharecropper’s Son”, Billy reached into his own dense catalog for a crowd-pleasing parade of originals including “Turmoil & Tinfoil”, “This Old World”, and “Long Forgotten Dream” before excitedly debuting a new cover of childhood fave Larry Sparks’ “Natural Thing to Do”.
Strings introduced the tune by taking the audience back to his childhood initiation into the bluegrass world via campfire pick-alongs with his father and uncle. The pair spent many a night sharing the wonders of the many-faceted genre to a wide-eyed boy, and clearly those lessons paid off. Finishing the song to rousing results, Strings again took to the mic, this time to share his excitement about his new album. He seemed to ride an emotional high through the subsequent songs, “Seven Weeks in County” and Bill Monroe‘s “Will You Be Loving Another Man?”.
After a stage-scorching “Away From the Mire”, the fleet-fingered guitarist and his crew took a well deserved break to catch their breath. Then, after having let the crowd refill their cups and recoup their minds, bodies, and souls, Billy and company returned to start the second set with a special treat for the packed audience: the live debut of his new single, “Leadfoot”. Strings broke out his new banjo for the tune, which he had dropped at midnight the night before along with a music video.
The second set was a blur of tempo changes, guitar pyrotechnics, and overall musical magnificence from the entire band. Strings, as always, showed remarkable deference to the skills of his supporting cast. To their credit, they had his back too, whether they were helping sell originals like the starkly premeditated murder ballad “My Alice”, the wistful “Be Your Man”, and the energetic “Escanaba”, or covers from the likes Bob Dylan (“Rainy Day Women #12 & 3) and Jimmie Rodgers (“Miss The Mississippi And You”).
With time running out, there was just enough left for the quintet to gather center stage for a hushed but powerful single-mic serenade of “Richard Petty” and Jimmy Martin’s “Tennessee”. After two and a half hours of unrelenting bluegrass magic, there was nothing left for Billy and the band to do but ride off into the night and get ready to do it all again tonight.
Billy Strings’ summer tour continues with an encore performance at Bryce Jordan Center. Find tickets and a full list of tour dates on his website. If you can’t make the show, tune in for a livestream on nugs, free to all subscribers. [Editor’s Note: Live For Live Music is a nugs affiliate. Ordering your nugs subscription or purchasing a download via the links on this page helps support our coverage of the world of live music. Thank you for reading!]
Billy Strings – “Sharecropper’s Son” (The Stanley Brothers), “Turmoil & Tinfoil” – 8/2/24
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Setlist: Billy Strings | Bryce Jordan Center | State College, PA | 8/2/24
Set 1: Sharecropper’s Son (The Stanley Brothers), Turmoil & Tinfoil, This Old World, Long Forgotten Dream, Dust In A Baggie, Love and Regret, Doin’ Things Right, Natural Thing to Do (Larry Sparks), Seven Weeks in County, Will You Be Loving Another Man? (Bill Monroe and His Bluegrass Boys), Away From The Mire
Set 2: Leadfoot (Debut), Think Of What You’ve Done (Stanley Brothers & Clinch Mountain Boys), New Camptown Races, My Alice, Be Your Man, Escanaba, Nothing’s Working, Running The Route, Running, The Old Mountaineer (Bill Monroe), Everything’s The Same, Rainy Day Women #12 & 35 (Bob Dylan), Miss The Mississippi And You (Jimmie Rodgers), Roll On Buddy, Roll On (Traditional)
Encore: Richard Petty, Tennessee (Jimmy Martin)
The post Billy Strings Breaks Out New Song & New Banjo, Celebrates Album Announcement In Pennsylvania [Photos/Video] appeared first on L4LM.
