Billy Strings’ music drops are my horoscope. Any Friday, I wake up and see that name across the New Music Friday playlist means it’s about to be a DAY.
And today is even better than most Billy Strings release days because he dropped an absolute masterpiece.
A bluegrass artist at his core, Billy has hands down brought the genre to the forefront of music lovers’ minds and is selling arenas and massive venues. Earlier this year, he played two nights in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. On the first night of his run, there was an extra special celebration of Doc Watson’s 100th birthday.
Doc Watson must have been in the room those nights because all of the footage from the shows is face-melting good.
“Live record is in the works folks! I’ve been digging through a big ol’ pile of shows trying to find all the good stuff, and I stumbled upon an MMATC sandwich from last March in Winston-Salem, NC.
I couldn’t wait to share it with you, so we just released it. Hope you like it. There’s a lot more where this came from.”
Strings is one hell of a performer as is, but he was on fire, leading to him releasing a 38-minute mashup JAM from the set today. The portion of the show he released includes “Meet Me At The Creek,” track off Strings’ 2017 album Tinfoil & Turmoil, as well as “Pyramid County,” “Must Be Seven,” and then loops back around to “Meet Me At The Creek.”
In true Billy Strings fashion, it is jam-band goodness.
Just listening to this, you can imagine how quickly his fingers are picking his guitar, and his band impressively stays with him the whole time, giving the layers of acoustics an out-of-this-world sound. Outside of the picking goodness, Strings’ vocals are beyond impressive, sounding just as they do on the studio cuts.
Fans in the comment of his post talking about the release went wild if they were in the show’s crowd, and you can hear that same electric energy in the background of the live recording.
“NORTH CAROLINA, TAKE YOUR SHIRT OFF AND SPIN IT ROUND YOUR HEAD LIKE A HELICOPTER!”
This is one hell of a sandwich piece, and I will be listening to all 38 minutes repeatedly for the rest of the day.
Turn it up.
BILLY STRINGS TOUR DATES
December 8—Baltimore, MD—CFG Bank Arena
December 9—Baltimore, MD—CFG Bank Arena
December 12—Pittsburgh, PA—Petersen Events Center
December 13—Pittsburgh, PA—Petersen Events Center
December 15—Wilkes-Barre, PA—Mohegan Sun Arena at Casey Plaza (SOLD OUT)
December 16—Syracuse, NY—Oncenter War Memorial (SOLD OUT)
December 29—New Orleans, LA—UNO Lakefront Arena
December 30—New Orleans, LA—UNO Lakefront Arena
December 31—New Orleans, LA—UNO Lakefront Arena
February 1, 2024—New York, NY—New York Philharmonic*
February 16, 2024—Asheville, NC—ExploreAsheville.com Arena (SOLD OUT)
February 17, 2024—Asheville, NC—ExploreAsheville.com Arena (SOLD OUT)
February 18, 2024—Asheville, NC—ExploreAsheville.com Arena (SOLD OUT)
February 23, 2024—Nashville, TN—Bridgestone Arena
February 24, 2024—Nashville, TN—Bridgestone Arena (SOLD OUT)
February 25, 2024—Nashville, TN—Ryman Auditorium (SOLD OUT)
March 1, 2024—Atlanta, GA—State Farm Arena
March 2, 2024—Atlanta, GA—State Farm Arena
May 10-12, 2024—Conroe, TX—Big As Texas Festival
June 22-23, 2024—Columbus, OH—Buckeye Country Superfest
July 12-14, 2024—Whitefish, MT—Under The Big Sky Festival
*with Chris Thile
