The city of Asheville certified Billy Strings‘ status as a local hero on Saturday by presenting him with the key to the city. Asheville Mayor Esther Manheimer awarded Billy Strings the key during his fourth and final sold-out night at the downtown ExploreAsheville.com Arena.
After Hurricane Helene devastated North Carolina in the fall of 2024, Billy Strings joined Luke Combs, Eric Church, James Taylor, The Avett Brothers, and others at Charlotte’s Bank of America Stadium for Concert for Carolina, raising over $24 million for relief efforts. Then, four months later, Strings brought his band to Asheville for back-to-back sold-out weekend runs (which were already on the books pre-Helene).
The 2025 run brought in $15 million to the local economy, desperately needed after widespread damage and the resulting lack of holiday tourism. The city has since calculated that each Billy Strings show brings $2.5 million in economic impact to the area, with Saturday’s closer marking his 19th sold-out show at the arena since 2021.
So, naturally, we had to lock that down.
“More than just the money, we are a special community, and he’s a part of that,” Asheville Mayor Esther Manheimer said as she gave Billy Strings the key at the start of Saturday’s second set. “He helps us come together, experience one another, enjoy the love that we are as a city. And I think you’re so much a part of Asheville.”
After a solid 15 seconds of PA-overpowering applause, Strings—clad in a Doc Watson t-shirt—offered a simple acceptance sentence, “I’d say lock your doors tonight, but it ain’t gonna matter ’cause I’m coming anyways.”
Billy Strings Awarded Asheville Key To The City — 2/14/26
[Video: Jason White]
All of that love the Mayor of Asheville, and by extension the city itself, gave to Billy Strings on Saturday, he naturally gave right back (on what just so happened to be Valentine’s Day). Strings, Billy Failing, Jarrod Walker, Royal Masat, and Alex Hargreaves did that with lovely covers throughout, starting with the opening “Love Like Me”, Jimi Hendrix‘s “Love or Confusion”, a riotuous first set-closing “How Mountain Girls Can Love” with the Freak Festival freak Mark Lavengood (in his full faux pro westler costume), and a Jarrod-sung “Nobody’s Love is Like Mine” immediately followed by a Royal-sung “I’ll Cry Instead”. After receiving the key to the city, Strings hit on both themes of love and accolades by opening set two with “This Heart of Mine” (is made of gold, silver, etc.).
Billy Strings — “Love Like Me”, “Whisper My Name” (New Grass Revival), “All Of Tomorrow” — 2/14/26
Billy Strings — “Love Or Confusion” (The Jimi Hendrix Experience) — 2/14/26
[Video: gmorakis777]
Though he wasn’t much on an acceptance speech, Strings showed his love for Asheville, North Carolina, Doc Watson, and all of Appalachia with plenty of traditional bluegrass. In addition to tributes to The Stanley Brothers and Delmore Brothers—and a song “for somebody whose in love with a train”—Strings got out his Martin guitar and a single mic. For the old-timey pickin’ party around the can, Strings brought the Freak back out alongside Hardcore Grass mandolinist Chris Henry. While Strings has been known to grab his clawhammer banjo and go mono y mono with Failing for “Dos Banjos”, a highlight of the traditional side quest was some “Dos Mandos” between Henry and Walker on Henry’s “West Dakota Rose”.
Billy Strings, Chris Henry, Mark Lavengood — “West Dakota Rose” — 2/14/26
[Video: gmorakis777]
All these romantic gestures notwithstanding, some people have different love languages. Not everyone is into flowery songs or boxes of sweets made to resemble various organs. Some of us—particularly those of us in Asheville on Saturday night—receive love through brain-splitting psychedelia and lengthy shape-shifting jams. Billy Strings, being a loving and attentive partner whose played Asheville 32 time since 2016, knows this and delivered a nearly half-hour “Pyramid Country” > “Spinning” in the first set and a 20-minute “Turmoil & Tinfoil” centerpiece in the second.
The unlikely pairing of the Delmore Brothers and Jimi Hendrix via “She Left Me Standing on the Mountain” -> “Love or Confusion” was an appetizer for the “Pyramid Country” -> “Spinning” to immediately follow. “Pyramid Country” took a long and winding introductory jam to reveal itself, Jarrod laying the base as Billy dressed all the condiments on top with various pedal gadgetry. Barely 20 minutes into the show, the band had tapped into that improvisational groupmind that birthed memorable jams on “Thunder” and “Hide and Seek” earlier in the week, as Billy plunged a traditional unfiltered jam down into a valley of echo.
From those depths came a swirl of noises like being abducted by a UFO, but rather than extraterristrial beings, the jam was swept up by DMT-inducsed hallucinations on “Spinning”. The musical equivalent to the Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory tunnel scene even had a not-so-hidden message of unity, as Strings embedded in his monologue the repeated phrase, “spinning and working together, spinning and working together.” And just when it couldn’t get any trippier, Leftover Salmon’s Vince Herman sat down next to me with a soft pretzel. Judging by the mounting salt crystals on the ground beside my sneaker, he was not a hallucination.
By the time Billy, Billy, Jarrod, Royal, and Alex started the elongated introduction to “Turmoil & Tinfoil” a few songs into the second set, it was all gravy from there. Strings already had the key to the city, and “the feels” were at an all-time high. He could’ve played just three songs and left, or stayed onstage and read The Great Gatsby Andy Kaufman-style and the show still would’ve lived in Asheville lore like the 4 a.m. Christmas Jams in the good ole’ days before all us carpetbaggers from Ohio moved to town and raised the rent.
But instead, they put forth a “Turmoil & Tinfoil” that helped put this show in this writer’s personal list of all-timers—regardless of the local accolade. It was a jam so good that, halfway through, I realized I didn’t have my earplugs in, but couldn’t risk obfuscating any of the glorious noise, my already-diminished hearing be damned. The “Gild the Lily” that ultimately closed the second set was itself gilding the lily, putting sparkles on something that was already golden. They just made it a little perfect-er. By the end of the second set, the dude who had offered me $200 for my ticket outside the box office seemed (slightly) less insane.
For the encore, there was only one thing left to do: bring out local favorite Jon Stickley. Just like “Swannanoa Tunnel“, it simply is not a Billy Strings Asheville run without guitarist Jon Stickley. Before Billy was selling out the ExploreAsheville.com Arena and winning Grammys, he’d crash on Stickley’s couch when he came to town. Now, not so many years later, Strings regularly repays the kindness by bringing Stickely out onstage (oftentimes for Jon to teach Billy a thing or two). On a night full of displays of affection, bringing Stickley out was a fitting encapsulation of Billy’s love for the city, and the city’s love for Billy.
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And thus closes the book on another Billy Strings week in Asheville. After five straight days and nights of pre-shows, after-shows, and Billy shows, it’ll be nice to go back to being a sleepy little town for a bit. To everyone who traveled from out of town, to every venue that stayed open later or opened earlier than usual, to every after-show playing band, and everyone who spent some money this week, thank you. Just don’t expect a key to the city.
Check out videos and audio from Billy Strings’ final night in Asheville for 2026. His winter tour concludes this weekend with a Nashville homecoming for two nights at Bridgestone Arena (2/20–2/21) and Ryman Auditorium (2/22). All the shows are sold out, but you can stream them, along with replays of all the Asheville and Athens, GA shows, on nugs. [Editor’s note: Live For Live Music is a nugs affiliate. Ordering your subscription or purchasing a download via the links on this page helps support our work covering the world of live music. Thanks for reading!]
Revisit Live For Live Music‘s full coverage of the 2026 Asheville Billy Strings run: night one (Tuesday, February 10th) | night two (Wednesday, February 11th | night three (Friday, February 13th) | night four (you’re reading it).
Billy Strings — “Must Be Seven” — 2/14/26
[Video: gmorakis777]
Billy Strings — ExploreAsheville.com Arena — Asheville, NC — 2/14/26 — Full Audio
[Audio: tarheelmike1]
Setlist [via BillyBase]: Billy Strings | ExploreAsheville.com Arena | Asheville, NC | 2/14/26
Set One: Love Like Me, Whisper My Name (New Grass Revival), All Of Tomorrow, She Left Me Standing on the Mountain (Delmore Brothers) -> Love or Confusion (The Jimi Hendrix Experience), Pyramid Country -> Spinning -> Must Be Seven, Wait a Minute (Johnny Rivers) [1], Sliding Rock [1] [2], Show Me The Door [1], How Mountain Girls Can Love (The Stanley Brothers and The Clinch Mountain Boys) [1]
Set Two: This Heart Of Mine (Steven F. Brines, Jim Smoak) [3], In the Clear, Old Train (Nikki Pedersen, Herb Pedersen) [4], Turmoil & Tinfoil, Nobody’s Love Is Like Mine (The Stanley Brothers and The Clinch Mountain Boys) [5], I’ll Cry Instead (The Beatles) [6], Nights In White Satin (The Moody Blues), I Don’t Want Your Ramblin’ Letters (Nat Nathan, R. Starr, Gene Redd) [7] [8] [9], West Dakota Rose [7] [8] [10], Can’t You Hear Me Callin’ (Bill Monroe) [7] [8] [11], Gild the Lily
Encore: Nellie Kane (Hot Rize) [12], Sophronie (Alton Delmore) [12]
Train songs: 1
[1] w/ Mark Lavengood on dobro
[2] Last Time Played 2023-10-31 | 172 show gap
[3] At the beginning of the second set, the Mayor of Asheville, Esther Manheimer, presented the key to the city to Billy Strings in recognition of his help through the years to the local economy and the people of Asheville.
[4] Last Time Played 2024-04-13 | 141 show gap
[5] Jarrod Walker on lead vocals
[6] Royal Masat on lead vocals
[7] Full band around single mic
[8] w/ Chris Henry on mandolin and Mark Lavengood on dobro
[9] Last Time Played 2022-08-04 | 306 show gap
[10] Jarrod Walker and Chris Henry (who wrote “West Dakota Rose”) mandolin intro
[11] Last Time Played 2024-02-16 | 150 show gap
[12] w/ Jon Stickley on guitar