Bluegrass music in major arenas is a recent but increasingly frequent phenomenon thanks to picking sensation Billy Strings and his namesake band. While this acoustic group with no drummer has now been playing in the same spaces as NHL and NBA teams for some time, his peers’ reactions to stepping into his arena-sized sphere of contemporary influence speak volumes about the novelty of seeing, hearing, and playing bluegrass music at this scale. Following Billy’s two-night stint at Nashville, TN’s Bridgestone Arena last weekend—during which he welcomed fiddler Jason Carter (The Travelin’ McCourys), dobro player Anders Beck (Greensky Bluegrass), and mandolinist Tim O’Brien (Hot Rize) to the stage to join him—all three guests took to social media to reflect on their participation in the spectacle.
While Carter’s takes were brief (“Wow! Last night was one for the books,” he wrote on Saturday. “Thanks Billy Strings band and crew for making me feel so welcome. You guys are THE BEST!”), both O’Brien and Beck offered lengthier contemplations on the experience.
“I had a really great weekend hanging and playing music with Billy and the rest of the gang,” Beck wrote in a post on Monday. “We’ve had a musical bromance for a long time and it sure was fun to share that with 20,000 people or whatever. More than anything, though, it’s great to see my dear friends thriving… playing some of the best music that’s ever been played in our genre, writing amazing songs and continuing to curate an amazing scene through massive growth. I feel like a proud emotional older brother or something when I see the guys play music these days, but most of all I am overcome with joy and love and I’m super grateful to be a part of it! Thanks [Billy Strings], I love you buddy! And [Royal Masat], [Jarrod Walker], [Billy Failing], and [Alex Hargreaves] too!”
Billy Strings w/ Anders Beck – “Meet Me At The Creek” – 2/28/25
[Video: MB1 Music]
Bluegrass veteran Tim O’Brien, who sat in with Billy Strings on Saturday at Bridgestone Arena, echoed and expanded upon Beck’s sentiments in a post on Sunday morning: “Backstage at the Billy Strings show last night at Bridgestone Arena, dobroist Anders Beck commented on the scene. ‘Who knew that twenty thousand people could get excited by Big Spike Hammer?’ He went on to say that maybe it was more remarkable that such a large collection of Bluegrass fans was all in one place.”
“Billy’s the guy that brings them together,” he continued. “The timing of both his lightning-fast picking and his post pandemic emergence as an artist is impeccable. The tone is right. He has what people want, and he gives and gives and gives. The effect just multiplies. The lights flash for sure, but his music is the brightest light. His fine band and gracious crew reflect his own excellence. He and the band can lean over a ledge and reach for new notes on extended jams because their feet are planted deep in tradition. With the fans support, they can take the bait and run with it.”
He illustrated his point with Billy Strings’ anecdote about how his Bridgestone Arena sit-in came about: “A month or so ago, I emailed Billy a song that Jan [Fabricus] and [I] wrote with Pat McLaughlin. He immediately responded and asked if we’d mind if he sang it. He wrote a few more words, and then this week, he tracked the song ‘I’m One of Those’ at the Sound Emporium. After a writing session on Thursday with Larry Keel – another brilliant guitarist on the bluegrass scene – I dropped in at the studio and caught up with Billy Failing, Alex Hargreaves, Jarrod Walker, Royal Masat and their bossman. It led to an invite to the show last night and the request to sing a song. So, Jan and I took an Uber downtown and found the stage door. I put my mandolin in the corner of the greenroom, drank alcohol-free hop water, and ate some backstage olives and cheese. A tech took my mando, plugged it into the giant sound system, and outfitted me with some in-ear stage monitors. Then Billy and the band showed me a list of my songs they were ready to play.”
On the sit-in itself, O’Brien added, “I felt like an old, out-to-pasture minor leaguer invited to pinch hit for the New York Yankees, singing Hot Rize’s version of Grandpa Jones’ ‘Been All Around This World’ and then [Bob] Dylan’s ‘Señor / Tales of Yankee Power’ on the first set. I returned along with Jason Carter on the second set to jam along on the aforementioned ‘Big Spike Hammer’. I had kept pace on ‘Roanoke’ pretty well backstage, twinning with Jarrod’s mandolin. What felt like a festival campground jam backstage became a different thing in the arena glare. As a small city’s worth of eyes watched, the onstage tempo surged and the band lapped me. By the time I’d passed through one beat, the next one came around and slapped me on the other side of my face. I just grinned and held on.”
Billy Strings w/ Tim O’Brien, Jason Carter – “Big Spike Hammer” (Pete Goble, Bobby Osborne) – 3/1/25
[Video: Jim Bauw]
“They say bluegrass is better than it sounds, and while new data has come in suggesting otherwise, it still seems like that’s true,” he went on. “Bill Monroe would dismiss some music he didn’t like, saying ‘That’s no part of nothin.’ I can agree in a way. Playing last night was great because it WAS part of something.”
Scroll down to view the full posts from Tim O’Brien, Anders Beck, and Jason Carter on their sit-ins with Billy Strings at Nashville, TN’s Bridgestone Arena.
After a month off the road, Billy Strings’ 2025 tour schedule will continue in early April with a sold-out, three-night run at St. Augustine, FL’s St. Augustine Amphitheatre (4/3, 4/4, 4/5) followed by shows in Tampa, FL (4/9), Savannah, GA (4/11, 4/12), Charlottesville, VA (4/15), Cary, NC (4/17, 4/18, 4/19). Find tickets to upcoming Billy Strings shows here.
Anders Beck and Greensky Bluegrass, who recently shifted a string of March tour dates to later in the year, will hit the stage next at Atlanta, GA’s SweetWater 420 Fest (4/18–4/20). Find a full list of upcoming Greensky Bluegrass tour dates here.
Tim O’Brien has concerts with his partner Jan Fabricus scheduled this weekend in Raleigh, NC (3/7) and Charlottesville, VA (3/8) ahead of a pair of Tim O’Brien Band shows at Nashville’s The Station Inn next Wednesday and Thursday, March 12th and 13th. Find a list of Tim’s upcoming dates here.
Jason Carter’s tour page lists upcoming spring shows at Savannah, GA’s Ships of the Sea Maritime Museum (4/2) and Albright, WV’s Cheat River Outfitters (5/3). He is also preparing to release a new duo album with fellow fiddler Michael Cleveland later this month. View more Jason Carter tour dates on his website.
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