Imagine you’re enjoying a night on Broadway, drinking an ice cold beer and just listening to music, when all of a sudden Billy Strings takes the stage.
That actually happened this past weekend, after he played two sold-out nights at Bridgestone Arena in what looked to be two absolutely incredible shows, and then another sold-out concert at the Ryman on Sunday evening.
But the coolest performance of Sunday night in particular might’ve happened on Broadway in downtown Nashville.
Billy surprised patrons at Robert’s Western World, one of the last last true authentic honky tonks on Broadway, and put on a helluva performance for fans at the bar.
Pretty damn cool, especially considering he played three sold-out shows three consecutive nights prior, two of which being for 20,000-plus fans at the Bridgestone.
He then decided to just stop in and lay it out like the star that he is for no other reason than just to do it.
The bluegrass phenom gave a rousing performance of “Mama Don’t Allow,” which is an old folk song that has been around almost forever and is hard to trace back to one particular writer (many have sang and tweaked it some over the years, and titles vary slightly), but has been a standard since 1934, when it appeared that year in the film In Old Santa Fe.
And Billy’s performance here almost looks like it could be 1963 in Nashville, not 2023, doesn’t it? I have got to get my ass to a Billy Strings concert ASAP.
Do yourself a favor and check it out:
And here’s a little of the Hank Williams classic “Hey, Good Lookin'”:
