Billy Strings
 

Hey y’all,
I just saw that I have not posted anything for almost 7 years, but I just had to mention this guy (I know he’s been mentioned on the AGF in the past). I saw him Wednesday night at Tipitina’s in New Orleans. I’m from NOLA but I now live an hour away and I had to work the next morning for 7am. So, at 51yo, this was a bit of a tall order. However, I still stayed for the 3 hour show (that started at 10:45 after the opener finished at 10:30) including the encore. I’ve seen a lot of Billy’s videos but I was blown away seeing him and his band in person. All four guys in his group are absolutely stellar musicians who work as well together as any band I’ve seen (beats anything I’ve ever seen over the years at Jazz Fest for sure). Whether you’re a bluegrass fan or not, see him if you get the chance.

I saw that in the past there were a few comments that some folks were not fans of the extended jam sessions that his band performs. I’ll just say that when I first started watching Billy, I liked the traditional stuff more as well, and during jam sessions I would wait anxiously for his band to return to the melody and chorus of the song. However, what he does musically is so interesting that I now find myself getting totally wrapped up in the jam. Seeing them live, I was surprised a couple of times when the band came back to the chorus and I realized “oh yeah, they’re playing such and such.” At those times, I found that I could have done with a bit more of the jam.

Again, I’m just totally blown away by what I saw the other night.

SEE THIS GUY!

Patrick

I've been in the front row to see Billy a few times. He's alot of fun; a good entertainer. Match that with his talent and his amazing skills and you're bound to have a good time if you're near him when he's playing.

I was also going to post something about this guy, I just discovered him a few weeks ago and saw chunks of his shows online (most recently the Sweetwater 420 set).

I've never paid attention to blueglass, but this guy is mindblowing, like I'm witnessing one of the greats coming into his own. Not just his playing, but his presence as a frontman is full on rock god levels of awesomeness. And agreed about his band... these guys are playing at the technical level of a good prog rock band and the extended jams are much more than futzing around.

He is quite the talent on the guitar and as a country recording artist.

IMO he is better as a real country artist than some of the big name stars that struggle with G C D songs.

Hopefully one day he will get his due. It would be great just to see him perform at say the CMA Awards Show. He did make it to the Opry which was great to see.

I try to not be the contrarian but the videos I have seen have been a bit "over the top". He is talented but IMO he needs to calm down.

It wasn't until I started reading the first post in this thread that I remembered that there's a hot guitarist who goes by the stage name of Billy Strings. I thought maybe you all were discussing a new brand of guitar strings, perhaps the guitar string version of Billy Beer:


I guess not, huh?


whm

Maybe you just need a Billy beer or two or three.

I need to second this.