Billy Strings‘ hometown run in Nashville culminated on Sunday with a traditional show emphasizing the Ryman Auditorium as “The Mother Church of Country Music.” The show at the historic 2,362-capacity venue was divided into two sets, one with songs centered around mothers and a second devoted to churches and other spiritual themes.
Billy Strings has long used his highly-coveted Ryman Auditorium concerts as a chance to explore themes and welcome a bevy of special guests. Last year, the Millennial musician dutifully recreated the iconic stage setup and artistic ambiance of MTV Unplugged, with covers of Nirvana, Alice In Chains, Pearl Jam, and others. The year before, Strings and his band delivered a much more traditional-leaning bluegrass show with a guest appearance from the genre’s progeny Rob McCoury, and in 2022 Billy set up at the Ryman for three nights and welcomed Bob Weir, Les Claypool, Ronnie McCoury, and Marty Stuart across the trio of shows.
This year’s Ryman appearance saw a mixture of components from Strings’ ever-expanding bag of live tricks. Just like he did for 2024’s Billy Unplugged, Strings brought in some extra backing musicians last night as guitarists Ronnie Bowman (Lonesome River Band) and Robb Cappelletto, banjoist Russ Carson (Ricky Skaggs), and fiddler Darol Anger (David Grisman Quartet) helped fill out the sound, in addition to alto saxophonist Eddie Barbash (Jon Batiste) who put a bit of a twist on the evening’s tradgrass style.
Similar to his well-received “Trains & Animals” show from last spring, Strings unified each set around a common theme. Billy dedicated the first set to mothers with classics like the opening “John Deere Tractor”, plenty of deep cuts including the traditional “Fifteen Cents” and “Lamp Lighting Time in the Valley”, which hadn’t been seen in hundreds of shows, and even some less-than-wholesome homages like Leon Payne‘s eerie “Psycho”. Of note, Sunday witnessed Strings’ first performance of the Merle Haggard-penned, Grateful Dead-favored “Mama Tried” since May 8th, 2022 (per BillyBase), when Strings played it alongside Bob Weir at the Ryman. Strings quietly swore off covering Dead songs after that show, later commenting “just too many pigs on the teet.”
Billy Strings — “John Deere Tractor” (Lawrence Hammond), “Put My Little Shoes Away” (Riley Puckett), “Mother’s Not Dead” (Bill Monroe) [Pro-Shot] — 3/2/25
For the second set, Strings, Billy Failing, Royal Masat, Jarrod Walker, and Alex Hargreaves beckoned to “Open Up Them Pearly Gates” with a set of spiritually-infused oldies. While Strings may oftentimes load up his acoustic guitar with enough pedals and effects to paralyze a Victorian child, at his core is an unshakeable reverence for the roots of bluegrass. Regardless of Billy’s—or any of his fans’—particular religious beliefs (or lack thereof), mountain music’s origins are inherently intertwined with Christianity in the Southeast, much the same way gospel is a foundational piece of rock ‘n’ roll. Though he was standing at the pulpit of “The Mother Church of Country Music,” the only gospel Strings preached on Sunday was that of Bill Monroe, Doc Watson, The Stanley Brothers, Larry Sparks, and the many pickers who came before him who etched bluegrass’ sacred tomes.
The show’s biggest bust-out arrived in the second set, with the first reading of Molly O’Day and Lynn Davis‘ “Traveling The Highway Home” in 1,110 shows since Billy played it with Don Julin on August 16th, 2015 at Hoxeyville Music Festival. Other rarities from the second set included “Working On A Building”, “There’s A Little White Church in the Valley”, “You Must Come in at the Door”, and even an interfaith nod with “Shalom Aleichem” by Rabbi Israel Goldfarb.
For the encore, Strings took the stage solo for his a cappela take on “Am I Born To Die?”. With his band by his side once again, Billy brought it all back around with Hank Williams‘ “I Saw The Light”—which closed out last year’s Ryman show—before the 34-song show wrapped with a nod to the first family of country music, The Carter Family, with “Will The Circle Be Unbroken”.
Check out some videos from Billy Strings at “The Mother Church” and restream the entire show on nugs. 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!] Billy Strings will return to St. Augustine, FL next month for a sold-out three-night run, kicking off a brief April run through the Southeast. Find tickets and tour dates here.
Billy Strings — “Country Blues” (“Dock” Boggs) — 3/2/25
[Video: J.R. Tomberlin]
Setlist: Billy Strings | Ryman Auditorium | Nashville, TN | 3/2/25
Set One: John Deere Tractor (Lawrence Hammond), Put My Little Shoes Away (Riley Puckett) [1], Mother’s Not Dead (Bill Monroe) [2] [3], Fifteen Cents (Traditional) [4], Lamp Lighting Time in the Valley (Hart Brothers) [5], The Old Home (The Stanley Brothers) [6], Shuckin’ The Corn (Traditional) [6] [7], Country Blues (“Dock” Boggs) [8], Dos Banjos [9], Memories Of Mother And Dad (Bill Monroe) [2] [6] [10], I Wonder How The Old Folks Are At Home (Paul Reimers) [11], Psycho (Leon Payne) [12] > Mama Tried (Merle Haggard) [12] [13], No Mother Or Dad (Lester Flatt, Earl Scruggs and The Foggy Mountain Boys) [2] [6] [12] [14], Mama Don’t Allow (Traditional) [2] [6] [12]
Set Two: Open Up Them Pearly Gates (Bud Billings), Traveling The Highway Home (Molly O’Day, Lynn Davis) [6] [15], Angel Band (Dixie Sacred Singers) [6] [16], Working On A Building (Traditional Spiritual) [2] [6] [17], There’s A Little White Church In The Valley (Irving Kaufman) [6] [18], You Must Come In At The Door (Doc Watson) [19], Harbor of Love (The Stanley Brothers), Somebody Touched Me (John Reedy and His Stone Mtn. Hillbillys) [6] [12] [20], Shalom Aleichem (Rabbi Israel Goldfarb) [6] [12] [21], Jerusalem Ridge (Bill Monroe) [6] [12] [22], Green Pastures In The Sky [23] (Larry Sparks and The Lonesome Ramblers), Jesus is Waiting For Me (Larry Sparks) [24], Cryin’ Holy Unto The Lord [2] [6] [12] [25] [26], Three Men On A Mountain [2] [6] [12] [25] [27], That Home Far Away (The Stanley Brothers and The Clinch Mountain Boys) [2] [6] [12] [25], I’ll Fly Away [2] [6] [12] [25] [28]
Encore: Am I Born To Die? (Charles Wesley) [29], I Saw The Light (Hank Williams with His Drifting Cowboys) [2] [6] [12] [25] [30] [31], Will The Circle Be Unbroken (The Carter Family) [2] [6] [12] [25] [30]
[1] FTP – Riley Puckett
[2] w/ Ronnie Bowman on guitar
[3] Last Time Played 2024-05-24 | 50 show gap
[4] Last Time Played 2023-03-03 | 162 show gap
[5] Last Time Played 2022-10-31 | 196 show gap
[6] w/ Russ Carson on banjo
[7] FTP – Traditional
[8] Billy solo on banjo
[9] Dos Billys
[10] FTP – Bill Monroe
[11] FTP – Paul Reimers
[12] w/ Eddie Barbash on alto sax
[13] Last Time Played 2022-05-08 | 247 show gap
[14] FTP – Lester Flatt, Earl Scruggs and The Foggy Mountain Boys
[15] Last Time Played 2015-08-16 | 1110 show gap
[16] w/ Ronnie Bowman on guitar and lead vocals
[17] Last Time Played 2023-02-16 | 170 show gap
[18] Last Time Played 2020-03-01 | 412 show gap
[19] Last Time Played 2022-10-30 | 197 show gap
[20] FTP – John Reedy and His Stone Mtn. Hillbillys
[21] FTP – Rabbi Israel Goldfarb
[22] Last Time Played 2017-12-14 | 761 show gap
[23] FTP – Larry Sparks and The Lonesome Ramblers
[24] Last Time Played 2024-04-17 | 60 show gap
[25] w/ Darol Anger on fiddle
[26] FTP – Traditional
[27] FTP
[28] Last Time Played 2018-10-31 | 606 show gap
[29] Billy Strings solo a capella
[30] w/ Robb Cappelletto on guitar
[31] Last Time Played 2024-02-25 | 65 show gap