Billy Strings returned to The Sylvee on Friday for night two of a sold-out, three-night stand at the Madison, WI venue. Last night’s concert once again saw Strings and company welcome fiddle player Alex Hargreaves to the stage for some guestgrass.
Opening up with the instrumental “Bronzeback”, things took on a more conventional tone ahead of “While I’m Waiting Here”. Strings, Billy Failing (banjo), Royal Masat (bass), Jarrod Walker (mandolin), and Hargreaves then truly kicked things into gear with “Train, Train”. The raucous number made famous by Blackfoot and written by Shorty Medlocke invited every raggedy hobo to stomp his feet, with the proceeding “Heartbeat of America” keeping everyone in motion. Hargreaves filled out the song that originally featured fiddle playing from John Mailander when released on Renewal last year.
Strings took things down a bit with “In The Morning Light” before hopping aboard that “Slow Train” and taking it for a long ride. The set carried on with “Enough to Leave” ahead of a pairing of “This Heart of Mine” and Jerry Garcia‘s “Deal”. Gordon Lightfoot‘s “10 Degrees & Getting Colder” wound the set down before a massive, 19-minute “Turmoil & Tinfoil” delivered the final blow.
Returning for set two, Billy Strings brought The Sylvee “Down In The Hollow” courtesy of the Leftover Salmon cover. The room then built into a slow holler with “Fire Line”, which found its way into the traditional “Reuben’s Train”. “Love Like Me” hit the reset button next before the room got a dose of “Highway Hypnosis”. Billy then delivered only his fifth-ever telling of Bob Dylan‘s “Tangled Up In Blue” since debuting the Blood On The Tracks song on 4/10/21, per BillyBase. The second set then came to a close after a lengthy telling of Bill Emerson‘s “Home Of The Red Fox” linked up with “Know It All”.
Strings and company had more encore antics in store on Friday. Following Thursday’s marathon seven-song encore, Strings and Hargreaves duked it out with a banjo v. fiddle rendition of “Jeff Sturgeon”, Billy’s first-ever telling of the traditional instrumental. The rest of the band then joined in to close the show with “Y’all Come”.
Full-show audio from Billy Strings at The Sylvee on Friday is available thanks to taper rec32. Scroll down to check out a gallery of images courtesy of photographer Daniel Ojeda.
Billy Strings – The Sylvee – Madison, WI – 3/4/22
Setlist [via BillyBase]: Billy Strings | The Sylvee | Madison, WI | 3/4/22
Set One: Bronzeback, While I’m Waiting Here, Train, Train (Shorty Medlocke), Heartbeat of America, In the Morning Light, Slow Train (Leroy Drumm, Cal Freeman), Enough to Leave, This Heart of Mine (Steven F. Brines, Jim Smoak) > Deal (Jerry Garcia), 10 Degrees & Getting Colder (Gordon Lightfoot), Turmoil & Tinfoil
Set Two: Down In The Hollow (Leftover Salmon), Fire Line > Reuben’s Train (Traditional), Love Like Me, Highway Hypnosis, Tangled Up In Blue (Bob Dylan), Home Of The Red Fox (Bill Emerson) > Know It All
E: Jeff Sturgeon (Traditional) [1] [2], Y’all Come (Arlie Duff)
[1] FTP
[2] Alex Hargreaves and Billy Strings fiddle/banjo duo
Whole show with special guest Alex Hargreaves on fiddle
