Billy Strings had a lot to live up to on Wednesday in Tampa. Last time he visited the Yuengling Center on April 13th, 2024, he granted fans’ wishes with a set made up entirely of songs about trains (followed by a set of songs about animals). Though Billy Strings didn’t deliver any thematic sets at this year’s one-off in Tampa, he made plenty of Phish fans happy by jamming on “Sand”.

Strings kicked off Wednesday’s show all by his lonesome with solo takes on “Nashville Blues” and the cautionary “Catch and Release”. After inviting bandmates Billy Failing, Jarrod Walker, Royal Masat, and Alex Hargreaves to the stage, they got to work on a 14-song set that included a fiery 11-minute romp on “Red Rocking Chair”—which Strings busted out in February in Atlanta after nearly a year on the shelf. “Red Rocking Chair” was an omen of good things to come, including a beastly pairing of “Living Like an Animal” and “The Cuckoo” to close the first frame.

Billy Strings — “Nashville Blues”, “Catch And Release”, “Freeborn Man” (Keith Allison, Mark Lindsay) [Pro-Shot] — 4/9/25

Billy Strings — “Red Rocking Chair” (Traditional) — 4/9/25

[Video: Billy the Kid]

For the second set, Strings got to moving with a “Leaning on a Travelin’ Song” opener from Highway Prayers. The band kept things traditional through “Sally Johnson”, “Hold That Woodpile Down”, and “While I’m Waiting Here” before busting out Bill Monroe‘s “Old Dangerfield” for the first time since July 24th, 2022—a gap of 235 shows, per BillyBase. Billy Strings and his band hadn’t played “Old Dangerfield” since its debut in Louisville, and on Wednesday, they used it as a springboard to an exploratory 15-minute jam where Phish came into play.

Traditional around-the-horn jamming turned to ethereal improvisation as Billy began flipping on various effects and his bandmates experimented with more space between notes. About seven minutes into the jam, Strings played the central riff of “Sand” with the rest of the band soon following (turns out “Sand” sounds great with fiddle). A few minutes later, the band returned to the central riff and Billy used it to jump off the deep end as Royal held down the song’s familiar bassline. The Phish nods culminated in a pattern of echo-laden arpeggio runs up Strings’ guitar, similar to a move Trey Anastasio has favored in recent years.

The rest of the show was gravy from there, with a pensive “Nothing’s Working” balanced with a brilliant uptempo pairing of Monroe’s “Kentucky Mandolin” and Bad Livers‘ “Pretty Daughter”. To bring everything back around, Strings ended the show similarly to how it started, around a single mic—only this time he had his bandmates with him.

After an a cappella “Richard Petty”, the band juxtaposed the dirty limerick “Salty Dog Blues” with the traditional spiritual “Standing in the Need of Prayer” before the Grateful Dead-adjacent Bill Browning cover “Dark Hollow” closed the show. Between “Catch and Release”, “Living Like an Animal”, “The Cuckoo”, and “Salty Dog Blues”, there were plenty of animals at Wednesday’s show, but the catch of the night was Phish.

Billy Strings — “Richard Petty” — 4/9/25

[Video: Gregory M]

Check out audio from last night’s Billy Strings show in Tampa courtesy of taper Zmanatl. His tour continues this weekend with a pair of shows in Savannah, GA. Find tickets and a full list of tour dates here.

Billy Strings — Yuengling Center — Tampa, FL — 4/9/25 — Full Audio

Setlist: Billy Strings | Yuengling Center | Tampa, FL | 4/9/25

Set One: Nashville Blues [1], Catch and Release [1], Freeborn Man (Keith Allison, Mark Lindsay), Show Me The Door, Down In The Hollow (Leftover Salmon), Doin’ My Time (Jimmie Skinner), Seney Stretch, Don’t Be Calling Me (at 4 AM), Red Rocking Chair (Traditional), Dusty Miller (Traditional), Cold Cold World (Blaze Foley), California Sober, Living Like An Animal > The Cuckoo (Traditional)
Set Two: Leaning on a Travelin’ Song > Sally Johnson (Trditional), Hold That Woodpile Down (Dave Braham, Edward Harrigan), While I’m Waiting Here, Old Dangerfield (Bill Monroe) [2] [3] > Secrets, Nothing’s Working, Kentucky Mandolin (Bill Monroe) > Pretty Daughter (Bad Livers), Stratosphere Blues / I Believe in You [4], Hollow Heart
Encore: Richard Petty [5], Salty Dog Blues (Wiley Morris, Zeke Morris) [6], Standing In The Need Of Prayer (Traditional Spiritual) [6], Dark Hollow (Bill Browning) [6]

[1] Billy Strings solo
[2] LTP 2022-07-24 | 235 show gap
[3] “Sand” (Phish) jam
[4] 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
[5] Full band (minus Alex) around single mic front of stage
[6] Full band around single mic front of stage