Billy Strings celebrated his long and costumed history with Asheville, NC on Thursday by kicking off his six-show, two-weekend engagement with a concert dotted by nods to his past Halloween performances in the Blue Ridge Mountains. As if Billy Strings’ return to town wasn’t momentous enough an occasion, Thursday also marked the first non-orchestral concert at the downtown ExploreAsheville.com Arena since it was used as an emergency resource center in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene.

Coincidentally announced hours after Helene ravaged the area, Strings’ two-weekend stay in Asheville had been a ray of hope for local fans and non-fans alike. While Warren Haynes moved his annual Christmas Jam to New York City and pivoted it to the SOULSHINE benefit concert and STS9 transitioned its New Year’s Eve run from Asheville to New Orleans, Strings kept his dates at the arena—even pushing back the on-sale date so locals could partake once internet and cell service was eventually restored to the region.

For fans, the return represented the next chapter in Strings’ career-long love affair with Asheville, while for local business owners, it meant the return of desperately needed tourism. Following the hurricane, viewers around the country were bombarded with images of destruction throughout Western North Carolina, leading to a sharp decline in revenue for the area—even after Asheville’s downtown and other retail areas were cleaned up and reopened for business.

Accordingly, the city of Asheville has extended Billy Strings and his fans plenty of Southern hospitality. For the first time in Strings’ four years of runs at the ExploreAsheville.com Arena, the city has designated not one but two officially sanctioned Shakedown Streets downtown. The city is once again filled with tourists selling out hotels, waiting in lines at restaurants, and supporting the community with a renewed sense of purpose. Asheville’s many live music venues have also taken advantage with a New Orleans Jazz Fest-worthy after-dark lineup, with late-night shows by Mountain Grass Unit, Larry Keel, Town Mountain, DJ Logic & Friends, John Mailander’s Forecast, and many more all across town. It’s been a long, slow crawl back to “normal” in Asheville, and this weekend is the closest we’ve come in quite a while.

Perhaps sensing the municipal feeling of relief—or more likely just plugging his new album Highway Prayers—Billy Strings opened Thursday’s show with “In the Clear”. What started as a simple get-acquainted jam amid a transition to “Sally Johnson” became a full-on barn-burner as Alex Hargreaves‘ fiddle caught fire early on, reinforcing the new guy’s pivotal role as a frequent catalyst for jams. Strings then loaded up Larry Sparks‘ “I’d Like To Be A Train”, the first of three train songs of the night, as the show came barreling down the tracks.

Billy Strings — “In The Clear” > “Sally Johnson” (Traditional), “I’d Like To Be A Train” (Leroy Drumm, Pete Globe) [Pro-Shot] — 2/6/25

Highlights of the first set included a one-two gut-punch of “While I’m Waiting Here” and “Seven Weeks in County” that saw the deepest improvisation of the front nine. The soft Turmoil & Tinfoil favorite allowed a gentle glide into spacey jamming, pushed along the waves of Billy’s easy tremolo before he eventually hit the overdrive distortion and blasted off. In newly crowned Highway Prayers jam vehicle “Seven Weeks in County”, it felt like the band was playing without a net for the first time all night. After opening up into some sight composition with the band, Strings locked into a titillating musical conversation with Alex, before ultimately stealing the show by cranking up the distortion and running to the lip of the stage for some facetime with the fans.

Ahead of Strings’ debut of Jimmie Rodgers‘ “Treasure Untold”, the guitarist teased a bit of the Lord of the Rings theme in a callback to his Away From the Shire 2022 Halloween run in Asheville. Amid the tender country classic, an older couple literally waltzed down the aisle in what is liable to be the most wholesome thing section 209 will witness all weekend.

The second of three train songs came with “The Train That Carried My Girl From Town”, and a brief insight on how growing up with Doc Watson‘s music made North Carolina and the Blue Ridge Mountains feel like some far-off magical place—giving some reason to Billy’s endearment to Asheville. As Billy and bassist Royal Masat made sweet music on a “Cabin Song” jam, the lights turned rainbow and the dam broke open many years too soon when Strings capped off set one with a climactic uptempo take on Pink Floyd‘s “Brain Damage”—debuted during his 2021 Wizard of Oz-themed run in Asheville.

While this reporter was held up at the merch booth buying a Royal Masat calendar (zero regrets), Strings and company returned and opened the back half of the show with the Doc and Merle Watson version of “Red Rocking Chair”—had it been the version from the Billy Strings EP I would be cursing that calendar this very moment. The bustout of “Way Downtown”—one of several rarities deployed on Thursday, along with the debut of “Treasure Untold”—raised the question of whether Billy will reshuffle his deck of songs from one weekend to the next in Asheville. Only time will tell.

Following a relatively traditional start to set two, “Thirst Mutilator” arrived with a deep, trancey intro jam that found a funky groove in the pocket of Royal’s unbuttoned bowling shirt. As the arena was painted in swirling dayglo lights, the band dug into the acoustic psychedelia—composed flatpicking sections diving off the edge into improvisational freefall.  As the band transitioned to “So Many Miles”, Billy Failing—the Man in Black that evening—finally came out front amid a fairly quiet show for the banjo bedrock. Making up for lost time, Failing turned in some of his, or anyone’s, finest playing of the night with his dynamic lead-picking. The jam’s intensity continued building further and further until confetti popped in the crowd amid the glorious peak, cementing this jam as a highlight of the entire show.

Not to be outdone, the remainder of set two arrived as a fully self-contained, non-stop nearly 40-minute stream of continuous music. It all started with “The Fire On My Tongue” where Billy went bluesy with some Stevie Ray Vaughan licks, got a little sentimental with “Must Be Seven”, and hit the gooey, jammy center with “Pyramid Country”. The band was already in peak form, taking swan dives from intricate scripted sections of bluegrass into the depths of improv, then playing as one amid the cresting waves of instrumentation. If you’re still reading, start listening at “Pyramid Country” and don’t stop until you hit “Ridin’ That Midnight Train”—the third and final train song of the evening which served as the caboose of the five-song segue-train and closed out set two.

Returning for the encore, mandolinist Jarrod Walker got a word in edgewise with the dirty limerick of “Salty Dog Blues”—the first in 300 shows (LTP 11/5/21, per BillyBase)—to finish off the show. One down, five more to go.

Tickets for Billy Strings’ Asheville run are quite sold out, but you can always try CashOrTrade. If you can’t make it to the show, nugs is streaming the entire run to subscribers at no additional cost. Not a nugs subscriber? Start with a seven-day free trial. [Editor’s Note: Live For Live Music is a nugs affiliate. Ordering your nugs subscription or purchasing a download via the links on this page helps support our coverage of the world of live music. Thank you for reading!]

Setlist [via BillyBase]: Billy Strings | ExploreAsheville.com Arena | Asheville, NC | 2/6/25

Set One: In the Clear > Sally Johnson (Traditional), I’d Like To Be A Train (Leroy Drumm, Pete Globe) [1], A Robin Built A Nest On Daddy’s Grave (Earl Sykes), While I’m Waiting Here, Seven Weeks in County [2], Treasure Untold (E.T. Cozzens & Jimmie Rodgers) [3] [4], Hello, City Limits (Johnny Elgin, Benny Martin), My Alice, The Train That Carried My Girl From Town (Traditional) > Black Mountain Rag (Leslie Keith), Cabin Song > Brain Damage (Pink Floyd)
Set Two: Red Rocking Chair (Traditional) [5], Libby Phillips Rag, Watch It Fall, Way Downtown [6], The Letter Edged In Black (Hattie Nevada), Thirst Mutilator > So Many Miles [7], The Fire On My Tongue > Must Be Seven > Pyramid Country > Psycho (Leon Payne) > Pyramid Country > Ridin’ That Midnight Train (Ralph Stanley)
Encore: Salty Dog Blues (Wiley Morris, Zeke Morris) [8]

SETLIST NOTES
[1] Last Time Played 2024-04-13 | 51 Shows
[2] “(Ghost) Riders in the Sky” (Stan Jones) tease
[3] FTP – E.T. Cozzens & Jimmie Rodgers
[4] “Fellowship of the Ring” theme tease before song
[5] Doc and Merle version
[6] Last Time Played 2023-07-22 | 112 Shows
[7] Billy Failing on lead vocals
[8] Last Time Played 2021-11-05 | 300 Shows