Billy Strings wrapped his weekend stay at the Iroquois Amphitheater in Louisville, KY with a traditional bluegrass Sunday show. The 26-song performance featured the introduction of two new Bill Monroe covers to the Billy arsenal.
The show began with the go-to opener “Taking Water” which turned cold and ultimately froze over into “Ice Bridges”. Following “Secrets”, Strings dished out the first cover debut of the evening with Monroe’s “Old Dangerfield”. Billy and his newly-minted five-piece band of Billy Failing (banjo), Jarrod Walker (mandolin), Royal Masat (upright bass), and Alex Hargreaves (fiddle) balanced originals and tributes in the first set with “Love & Regret” followed a pairing of John Hartford‘s “With A Vamp In The Middle” with Monroe’s “Southern Flavor”. Of the 11 covers played on Sunday, four are attributed to Bill Monroe.
Strings and company dialed it back to the original portion of their repertoire with a run of “Red Daisy”, “Nothings Working”, and “This Old World”, with the latter finding its way into Leslie Keith‘s “Black Mountain Rag”. The first set then finished off with the consistent jam vehicle, “Turmoil & Tinfoil”.
Related: Billy Strings Covers Pink Floyd, Tony Rice In Louisville [Photos/Videos]
Coming back out for the second set, the group delivered the second debut of the evening, “Molly And Tenbrooks”. Though this composition started life as a traditional song in Appalachia, Monroe changed the name to “Molly And Tenbrooks” and adopted the song into his own style, with most modern readings taking direct inspiration from Bill’s amendments, per Billybase.
Set two got off to the races with a grouping of “Thirst Mutilator” and “Running”, igniting a cover-heavy frame that would include Chris Henry‘s “West Dakota Rose”, Jimmie Skinner‘s “Doin’ My Time”, another Bill Monroe song with “Uncle Pen”, Jimmie Davis‘ “Shackles & Chains”, and more. The band also squeezed in plenty of original material with a sequence of “On The Line”, “Love Like Me”, “Long Forgotten Dream”, and “Home” ahead of a string of covers that finally wrapped the encore-less performance with Bad Livers‘ “Pretty Daughter”.
Check out a gallery of images of Billy Strings at Iroquois Amphitheater in Louisville, KY on Sunday courtesy of photographer Kendall McCargo. Next up for Strings is a trip to Chicago with a date at Metro on July 27th before a set at Lollapallooza the following day.
Setlist [via Billybase]: Billy Strings | Iroquois Amphitheater | Louisville, KY | 7/24/22
Set One: Taking Water > Ice Bridges, Secrets, Old Dangerfield (Bill Monroe) [1], Love & Regret, With A Vamp In The Middle (John Hartford) > Southern Flavor (Bill Monroe), Red Daisy, Nothing’s Working, This Old World > Black Mountain Rag (Leslie Keith), Turmoil & Tinfoil
Set Two: Molly And Tenbrooks (Bill Monroe) [1], Thirst Mutilator > Running, Watch It Fall, West Dakota Rose (Chris Henry), Doin’ My Time (Jimmie Skinner) > On The Line, Love Like Me, Long Forgotten Dream, Home, Uncle Pen (Bill Monroe), Dusty Miller (Traditional), Shackles & Chains (Jimmie Davis), Pretty Daughter (Bad Livers)
[1] FTP
