After spending Wednesday night on stage with Shadowgrass in Raleigh, Billy Strings made the short drive to Cary, NC to kick off a three-night run at the Koka Booth Amphitheatre on Thursday. The opening show of the tour-closing series saw Billy Strings offer up multiple tributes to bluegrass forefather and North Carolina native Doc Watson.
The tributes started right off the rip as Strings, Billy Failing, Jarrod Walker, Alex Hargreaves, and Royal Masat opened the show with the Doc and Merle Watson version of the traditional “Red Rocking Chair”. In tandem with the Doc tributes, Thursday’s show took on a traditional tone with the following Larry Parks-favored “Slow Train” before the band broke from the mold on psychedelically explorative “Seven Weeks in County” and “The Fire on My Tongue”.
Billy Strings — “Red Rocking Chair” (Traditional)— 4/17/25
[Video: Ya-Man]
Billy rode “The Fire on My Tongue” straight into “Ole Slew Foot” in the midst of black bear country, before returning to Doc’s songbook with “Don’t Let Your Deal Go Down”. Another traditional song handed down throughout the Southeast, this “Don’t Let Your Deal Go Down” was inspired by Doc’s recording, as taught to Billy by his dad Terry Barber. Following a serene “While I’m Waiting Here”, Billy and his band unspooled the biggest jam of the night on a 17-minute “Hide and Seek”. The reliable jam vehicle did not disappoint, powered by echo, overdive, and tremelo effects on Billy’s guitar and incendiary runs on Alex’s fiddle.
Billy Strings — “Hide And Seek” — 4/17/25
[Video: Ya-Man]
In the second set, Billy Strings fired through songs at a quick pace, playing 12 in total in the roughly 70-minute frame. Rather than taking many deep dives on big jams, the band went for more traditional runs through Bill Monroe‘s “Methodist Preacher”, Billy staple “Dust in a Baggie”, “Love and Regret”, and a thrilling pairing of Bill Emerson‘s “Home of the Red Fox” with Greensky Bluegrass‘ “Letter to Seymour”.
Following rising Highway Prayers instrumental favorite “Seney Stretch”, Strings gave another nod to Doc with the traditional “St. James Hospital”, released by Watson in 1964. The final stretch of songs kicked the set into high gear, with the propulsive “Running” followed by the beloved “Away From the Mire”, “Love Like Me”, and finally a high-speed “Highway Hypnosis” to close. Strings still had one more tribute to Doc Watson left, closing the show with “Shady Grove”—a longtime bluegrass favorite recorded by Doc, Bill Monroe, Jerry Garcia, and many more.
Check out videos of Billy Strings in Cary, NC on Thursday by Ya-Man and stream the show on nugs. Not a nugs subscriber yet? Sign up here. [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!]
Billy Strings — “Slow Train” (Leroy Drumm, Cal Freeman) — 4/17/25
Billy Strings — “Don’t Let Your Deal Go Down” (Traditional) — 4/17/25
Setlist: Billy Strings | Koka Booth Amphitheatre | Cary, NC | 4/17/25
Set One: Red Rocking Chair (Doc and Merle version) (Traditional), Slow Train (Leroy Drumm, Cal Freeman), Seven Weeks in County, The Fire On My Tongue > Ole Slew Foot (Johnny Horton), Don’t Let Your Deal Go Down (Traditional), While I’m Waiting Here, Hide and Seek, John Deere Tractor (Lawrence Hammond)
Set Two: Stratosphere Blues / I Believe in You [1], Methodist Preacher (Bill Monroe & His Bluegrass Boys) [2] > Dust In A Baggie, Love and Regret, Home Of The Red Fox (Bill Emerson) > Letter to Seymour (Greensky Bluegrass), Seney Stretch, St. James Hospital (Traditional), Running, Away From The Mire, Love Like Me, Highway Hypnosis
Encore: Shady Grove (Traditional)
[1] Billy Strings on a Martin 12-String HD12-28, Royal Masat on a Nord Stage 3 88-Key Keyboard & Billy Failing on Masterton ML-1: Missing Link Béla Fleck Baritone Banjo
[2] Last Time Played 2024-07-26 | 52 show gap