For the first time since his meteoric rise to fame, Billy Strings has shared an official live recording across streaming services. Captured on March 4th, 2023 at Lawrence Joel Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Winston-Salem, NC, the extended 38-minute single track captures a movement of “Meet Me At The Creek” > “Pyramid Country” > “Must Be Seven” > “Meet Me At The Creek”.
Until Friday when the three-song medley landed on streaming platforms, Billy Strings had approached his live and studio catalog like a mullet haircut. It was business in the front on streaming services like Spotify and Apple Music, where he housed his four studio albums as well as a 2014 live duo album with Don Julin, Fiddle Tune X. Over on the concert recording service nugs, however, it was party in the back as Billy uploads audio of every show shortly after the performance.
Even with this first official live release on streaming, the guitarist kept it cropped relatively short with the 38-minute high point of the sold-out show, providing an entry point for fans curious about Strings’ lauded live experience. Strings confirmed in a social media post that a “live record is in the works folks!” And that “There’s a lot more where this came from.”
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The starting gun of “Meet Me At The Creek” takes up the meat of the jam, firing out of the gate before opening up into spacegrass until a hard turn into “Pyramid Country”. The instrumental composition keeps the jam plodding along, as Billy and his band featuring Billy Failing, Alex Hargreaves, Royal Masat, and Jarrod Walker take a decidedly more traditional approach. After a good 20 minutes of wordless improvisation, Strings steps back to the mic for the contemplative “Must Be Seven” to bring the coliseum back down to Earth. Tacking an explosive reprise of “Meet Me At The Creek” onto the end, Strings sums up the communal feeling of energized amazement as he bellows “Thank you all so f–king much!”
Related: Billy Strings’ European Vacation: Highlights From The 11-Show International Tour [Videos]
The mammoth live recording caps off a recording year that has heard Billy collaborate with Willie Nelson on the Grammy-nominated single “California Sober” and with Molly Tuttle on a cover of Nanci Griffith‘s “Listen To The Radio”. Early next year, he will return to the Grammy Awards where he is up for three trophies including Best Bluegrass Album for his collaborative album Me/And/Dad with Terry Barber, Best American Roots Song for “California Sober”, and Best Country Duo/Group Performance for his Dierks Bentley collab “High Note”.
Following his second-annual tour of Europe, Strings is back playing shows in the United States. Up next is a two-night run in Baltimore tonight, December 8th and Saturday, December 9th. His touring year will once again culminate in New Orleans with an expanded three-night New Year’s Eve run at the UNO Lakefront Arena. For tickets and a full list of tour dates visit his website.
Listen to the Billy Strings live recording of “Meet Me At The Creek” > “Pyramid Country” > “Must Be Seven” > “Meet Me At The Creek” below or on your preferred streaming platform and tune in today, December 8th at 12 p.m. ET for the video premiere on YouTube.
Billy Strings – “Meet Me At The Creek / Pyramid Country / Must Be Seven / Meet Me At The Creek”