Billy Strings appeared for a special on-air performance of “Red Daisy” on Jimmy Kimmel Live on Monday. The bluegrass phenom and his ensemble were there promoting their chart-topping new album, Renewal, out now. This marked Strings’ second appearance on the late-night variety-show program.
Strings and his bandmates, Billy Failing (banjo), Royal Masat (bass), and Jarrod Walker (mandolin), took a traditional approach for their latest Kimmel appearance, donning matching suits, hats, and bolo ties while they performed the firecracker bluegrass original.
With an artist as stylistically diverse as Billy Strings, it’s hard to know exactly who will show up when he’s booked to play. Gone was the tie-dye-wearing, bowl-smoking hippie kid from the Deja Vu Experiment. No, this was a prim-and-proper Billy Strings paying both musical and sartorial homage to Mountain Music forefathers like Bill Monroe and Earl Scruggs.
That type of range is part of what has made Billy Strings one of the music world’s biggest emerging talents. While he typically revels in bucking the aesthetic stereotypes of his genre, Billy Strings gleefully leaned into those same norms with this big TV appearance.
In the video, the crowd can heard trying to clap along with the rhythm at the beginning of the song before ceasing percussive accompaniment as William steps to the mic. The phenomenon was later addressed on the Billy Strings Facebook fan page, where one viewer pointed out that audience clapping “definitely seems to throw bands off a lot of the time.” This garnered a succinct reply from the official Billy Strings account: “cuz the whole crowd drags (laughing crying emoji) if yall would practice clapping at home with your metronomes please.”
Watch Billy Strings perform “Red Daisy” on Jimmy Kimmel Live. Strings is currently gearing up for his sold-out, three-night, Wizard of Oz-themed Halloween run in Asheville, NC October 29th–31st. For a full list of tour dates click here.
Billy Strings – “Red Daisy” – Jimmy Kimmel Live
[Video: Jimmy Kimmel Live]