Billy Strings kicked off his second weekend in Asheville on Friday with a lovely Valentine’s Day show. The fourth of six shows this month at the ExploreAsheville.com Arena featured a couple cover debuts, a hat-tip to Widespread Panic‘s return up the East Coast, and a guest appearance from Away From The Shire flutist Anh Phung.

Rather than locomotive train songs, Friday’s show shined its light on bluegrass’ vast array of love songs. There were sweet sentiments like the opening debut of Flatt & Scruggs‘ “My Cabin in Caroline” (which doubled as a grateful nod to the host state), Billy’s own “Love Like Me” and of course “In The Morning Light”, New Grass Revival‘s “Whisper My Name”, and Eric Von Schmidt‘s “My Love Come Rolling Down”. But it wasn’t all roses and chocolates, as Strings and his band dug into songs about the ups and downs of infatuation with “Love and Regret”, “Don’t Be Calling Me (at 4 AM)”, Reno & Smiley and The Gang‘s “Unwanted Love”, and an encore of Alton Delmore‘s “Sophronie”.

Billy Strings — “My Cabin in Caroline” (Lester Flatt, Earl Scruggs, The Foggy Mountain Boys), “Love Like Me”, “Whisper My Name” (New Grass Revival) [Pro-Shot] — 2/14/25

Beyond the holiday mush, there was plenty to love in Friday’s show. As the last lingering notes of the sentimental “In the Morning Light” rang out, the serene ambiance was shattered with the crack of Widespread Panic’s “All Time Low”. The cover hit even harder on Friday as 659 miles northeast, Widespread Panic triumphantly returned to the stage that same evening for the band’s first concert since guitarist Jimmy Herring was treated for tonsil cancer last summer. Billy Strings’ admiration for Widespread Panic is well-documented, even sitting in with the pivotal jam band at Mempho Music Festival in 2021, and with an overlap in the two parties’ tour schedules June 4th–7th in Chicago many are speculating that they may link up once again.

As far as improvisation goes, the 20-minute “Turmoil & Tinfoil” is sure to catch headlines. By this point, it’s become clear that Strings intends to go all six nights in Asheville without repeating a song, and sandbagging this all-star jam vehicle was well worth the wait. Banjoist Billy Failing emerged from the pack in the initial energetic buildup, before mandolinist Jarrod Walker laid the groundwork for a long journey ahead. Everyone got a piece of this one, as Strings locked in with fiddler Alex Hargreaves for an explorative exchange and yet another sterling example of the musical simpatico between these two, justifying on a nightly basis Hargreaves’ addition to the group going on three years ago.

Billy Strings — “Turmoil & Tinfoil” — 2/14/25

[Video: Johnny Hollifield]

Looking beyond “Turmoil & Tinfoil”, the first set’s “Taking Water” went well beyond the standard formula. Jumping off the backend of the song into a downtempo jam, Billy experimented atonally and (for the most part) kept his clean acoustic tone, despite the instrumentation’s swirling psychedelia. Ultimately, the guitarist couldn’t resist kicking on the distortion to push his playing over the edge with Jimi Hendrix “Star Spangled Banner”-style bombs down the neck of his guitar and machine gun notes. At just about ten minutes, Friday’s version stands among one of the longest on record, falling somewhere behind the record-setting 11:36-minute version from Charleston, SC on March 11th, 2023, per BillyBase. The aforementioned “All Time Low” also got delightfully wonky thanks to Billy’s myriad effects and Strings giving his pickup control a workout.

Billy Strings — “Taking Water” > “End Of The Rainbow” (Frank Wakefield) — 2/14/25

[Video: Johnny Hollifield]

Billy Strings — “All Time Low” (Widespread Panic) > “Secrets” — 2/14/25

[Video: Johnny Hollifield]

The other highlight in a show full of them was a guest appearance by flutist Anh Phung (Twisted Pine), who previously aided Strings on his journey to Mordor for 2022’s Away From The Shire Halloween run in Asheville. Billy hasn’t been shy about reminiscing on his Halloweens spent in Asheville, teasing the Lord of The Rings theme and covering Pink Floyd‘s “Brain Damage” last weekend, and with Phung in tow they opened the second set with “The Shire” from The Fellowship of the Ring soundtrack. Phung hung around for the tale of “Ole Slew Foot” in set two before returning at the end of the show for an encore of “Sophronie” and Jimmie Skinner‘s “Doin’ My Time”.

Billy Strings, Anh Phung — “The Shire” (Howard Shore) > “Ole Slew Foot” (Johnny Horton) — 2/14/25

[Video: Billy the Kid]

Billy Strings, Anh Phung — “Sophronie” (Johnny Horton) — 2/14/25

[Video: Billy the Kid]

Tickets for the remaining Billy Strings shows in Asheville are 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!]

Revisit Live For Live Music‘s coverage of Billy Strings’ Asheville run: Thursday, February 6th | Friday, February 7th | Saturday, February 8th | Friday, February 14th (you’re reading it)

Setlist: Billy Strings | ExploreAsheville.com Arena | Asheville, NC | 2/14/25

Set One: My Cabin in Caroline (Lester Flatt, Earl Scruggs, The Foggy Mountain Boys) [1], Love Like Me, Whisper My Name (New Grass Revival), Taking Water > End Of The Rainbow (Frank Wakefield), Don’t Be Calling Me (at 4 AM), The Old Mountaineer (Bill Monroe), In The Morning Light, All Time Low (Widespread Panic) > Secrets, New Camptown Races (Frank Wakefield), Unwanted Love (Reno & Smiley And The Gang) [2]
Set Two: The Shire (Howard Shore) [3] [4] > Ole Slew Foot (Johnny Horton) [3], Love and Regret [3], Escanaba, Along The Road (Dan Fogelberg), Gone A Long Time, Crossing Muddy Waters (John Hiatt) [1], Turmoil & Tinfoil, My Love Come Rolling Down (Eric Von Schmidt), Nellie Kane (Hot Rize)
Encore: Sophronie (Alton Delmore) [3], Doin’ My Time (Jimmie Skinner) [3]

[1] FTP
[2] Last Time Played 2024-03-01 | 57 show gap
[3] Anh Phung on flute
[4] Last Time Played 2022-10-29 | 191 show gap

Train songs: 0