Billy Strings wrapped the opening weekend of his spring tour with his second of two shows in Mobile, AL on Saturday, featuring a location-specific Bob Dylan cover debut. The bluegrass bard’s final show at the Mobile Civic Center arrived after embarking on his spring outing on Thursday in Mississippi.
After firing the starting gun with a massive sandwich of “Hide & Seek” > “While I’m Waiting Here” > “Hide & Seek” Billy and his bandmates were off to the races. The first set was comparatively light on covers when stacked against the rest of the show, with Strings showing off his original voice with runs through “Enough To Leave”, “Hollow Heart”, and “Dealing Despair”, as well as the instrumental “Libby Phillips Rag”. For the climax of the first set, Strings, Billy Failing (banjo), Jarrod Walker (mandolin), Royal Masat (bass), and Alex Hargreaves (fiddle) gathered improvisational momentum through John Hartford‘s paranoid-induced “All Fall Down” that would carry them through the remainder of the program.
Returning for the second set, Strings offered the first of two cover debuts with Andy Statman‘s “Little Addy”, which took a hard turn into “Dust In A Baggie”. Billy Failing hitched up his bag for his traveling tune “So Many Miles” before the ensemble delivered its first “Paddy On The Turnpike” since April 13th, 2018 when the traditional cover was debuted in Las Vegas, per Billybase.
After pairing “Leaders” with “Doin’ Things Right” and covering country great Bill Anderson, Billy Strings offered up a geographically relevant rendition of “Stuck Inside of Mobile with the Memphis Blues Again” by Bob Dylan. Staying true to his locale, Billy dusted off John J. Puderer‘s “Alabama Bound”, not seen since 4/4/21 in Cayce, SC, before winding down with “Rank Stranger” and ending with a bang by way of an expansive “Meet Me At The Creek”. Butting right up against the 11:30 p.m. mark, Billy and company ran through a quick “Doin’ My Time” to close the show and the weekend run.
Related: Bob Dylan Has Been Trying Out Grateful Dead Covers On Tour In Japan [Listen]
Billy Strings’ spring tour continues Tuesday with a show in Tampa ahead of a three-night return to St. Augustine, FL next weekend. Tickets and a full list of concerts are available here. nugs.net subscribers can stream the first seven shows of the tour live for no additional cost. Find out how here.
Check out some fan and pro-shot videos of Billy Strings in Mobile. The Bob Dylan cover begins at 47:30 in the second set.
Billy Strings – “Hide & Seek” > “While I’m Waiting Here” > “Hide & Seek” [Pro-Shot] – 4/15/23
Billy Strings – Mobile Civic Center – Mobile, AL – 4/15/23 – Full Audio
[Audio: Flynn]
Setlist: Billy Strings | Mobile Civic Center | Mobile, AL | 4/15/23
Set One: Hide & Seek > While I’m Waiting Here > Hide & Seek, A Robin Built A Nest On Daddy’s Grave (Earl Sykes), Libby Phillips Rag, Enough To Leave, Hollow Heart > Dealing Despair, Cattle In The Cane (Traditional), All Fall Down (John Hartford)
Set Two: Little Addy (Andy Statman) [1] > Dust In A Baggie, So Many Miles, Paddy On The Turnpike (Traditional) [2], Leaders > Doin’ Things Right, In Case You Ever Change Your Mind (Bill Anderson) > Stuck Inside of Mobile with the Memphis Blues Again (Bob Dylan) [1], Alabama Bound (John J. Puderer), Rank Stranger (The Stanley Brothers & The Clinch Mountain Boys), Meet Me At The Creek
Encore: Doin’ My Time (Jimmie Skinner)
[1] FTP
[2] LTP 4/13/18 (561 show gap)