{"id":5872,"date":"2025-10-11T11:32:00","date_gmt":"2025-10-11T11:32:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/billy-strings-bluegrass-star-shines-at-the-royal-albert-hall-151733\/"},"modified":"2025-10-11T11:32:00","modified_gmt":"2025-10-11T11:32:00","slug":"billy-strings-bluegrass-star-shines-at-the-royal-albert-hall-151733","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/billy-strings-bluegrass-star-shines-at-the-royal-albert-hall-151733\/","title":{"rendered":"Billy Strings: bluegrass star shines at the Royal Albert Hall"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The last time I heard a crowd roar like this before a musician had played a note, the newly reunited Pixies were taking the stage. Billy Strings<\/strong> is a secret phenomenon in the UK when compared to his arena-filling US status as the biggest bluegrass act in decades. In the Royal Albert Hall, though, fans ranging from an earmuffed babe in arms to grizzled Deadheads treat the guitarist like a hallowed great. <\/p>\n

There\u2019s more standing, drinking and dancing than I\u2019ve ever seen at a UK Americana show. The bona fides of playing with Bob Weir and Bill Kreutzmann, recording with Willie Nelson and Dylan\u2019s rare invitation to guest on \u201cAll Along The Watchtower\u201d (at a summer Outlaw Festival show) doubtless help, while expansive soloing and group interplay also place him in the stylistic neighbourhood of jam bands and \u201cDark Star\u201d.<\/p>\n

Billy is a humble, boyish 33-year-old, without the charisma of an obvious star, except when his guitar speaks for him. He was raised himself from a family background of addiction, abuse and ingrained self-destruction which began with his dad\u2019s fatal heroin overdose when Billy was only two. \u201cSomewhere in there, I believe I\u2019m a white-trash piece of shit that should be withering away,\u201d he has said. <\/p>\n

Such shaky self-belief and shadowy memories are reflected in the rueful subject matter of many of the songs he plays tonight. He was saved by a love of playing bluegrass as well as he possibly can, which is an article of faith as much as a musical calling. Now it has brought him from his former Michigan trailer home to the Victorian splendour of the Albert Hall. \u201cI truly cannot believe I\u2019m standing here seeing this,\u201d he says, pausing to take it in. \u201cIt just feels like a special night.\u201d<\/p>\n

He begins with a brace of songs seeking solace in the natural world. \u201cThe stars don\u2019t fade, they look brand-new,\u201d he sings wistfully on \u201cRed Daisy\u201d. \u201cI\u2019ll sing along with the birds, if I only knew the words,\u201d he adds on \u201cGild The Lily\u201d, a wish made in a sorrowful and softening voice on his last pass at it. Effects pedals give the acoustic band\u2019s breakneck soloing an abrasive rock edge, while Strings\u2019 long hair blows in artificial wind. His \u201cfavourite song that I\u2019ve written\u201d, \u201cDust In A Baggie\u201d, tells a cautionary tale of meths and jail, the kind of theme which has taken Strings beyond bluegrass orthodoxy into the modern ills of its American heartland. Heedless hyper-speed picking anyway overtakes the lyric, in a show initially all about careening musicianship.<\/p>\n

Doc Watson\u2019s version of Jerry Douglas\u2019s apposite \u201cLeaving London\u201d is one of several covers tracing Strings\u2019 wide American hinterland. Learned from his musician stepdad\u2019s record collection, it reflects on the troubadour life. His own delicate song of romantic devotion, \u201cShow Me The Rose\u201d, slows the pace during his mellow, chiming duet with Jarrod Walker\u2019s mandolin, before \u201cDawg\u2019s Rag\u201d picks up downhill velocity which is complicated by Alex Hargreaves\u2019 fiddle as its cuts and saws.<\/p>\n

\u201cAway From The Mire\u201d is a Strings redemption song steeped in humility which sees the band break down into a floating, dreamy space. He follows it with a solo a cappella take on the Charles Wesley hymn \u201cI Was Born To Die\u201d, losing himself in the spooked old corners of the song\u2019s \u201cworld unknown\u201d. There is room, too, for Eddie Noack\u2019s \u201cPsycho\u201d, a modern murder ballad which flits disconcertingly in and out of reality, the distorted psychedelia and fluttering mandolin of \u201cHide And Seek\u201d, and \u201cNights In White Satin\u201d reimagined as a country waltz. <\/p>\n

\u201cEscanada\u201d, written with sunny memories of male bonding in the Michigan backwoods in mind, has a sourer tone as the band interweave, dissolve and reconstitute. If Strings\u2019 true Dead inheritance is in Jerry Garcia\u2019s bluegrass grounding, spacy, expanding jams are touched on too.<\/p>\n

The roar at the end is more deafening still. The band are singing about Davy Crockett by then, ancient and modern American country meeting in their close harmonies.<\/p>\n

SET 1
1 Red Daisy
2 Gild The Lily
3 Hellbender
4 Dust In A Baggie
5 Leaving London
6 Show Me The Door
7 Dawg\u2019s Rag
8 Stratosphere Blues\/I Believe In You
9 In The Clear
10 Turmoil & Tinfoil
SET 2
11 The Fire On My Tongue
12 Ole Slew-Foot
13 Age
14 My Alice
15 Away From The Mire
16 Am I Born To Die?
17 Brown\u2019s Ferry Blues
18 Dos Banjos
19 Escanaba
20 Nights In White Satin
21 Pretty Daughter
22 Psycho
23 Hide And Seek
24 Richard Petty
25 Tennessee<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

The post Billy Strings: bluegrass star shines at the Royal Albert Hall<\/a> appeared first on UNCUT<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The last time I heard a crowd roar like this before a musician had played a note, the newly reunited Pixies were taking the stage. Billy Strings is a secret…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4094,548,88],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5872","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-billy-strings","category-live","category-reviews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5872","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5872"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5872\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5872"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5872"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5872"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}