Photo by Jesse Faatz via @BillyStrings on FB


Billy Strings continued his Grammy victory lap at South Carolina’s Columbia Raceway this weekend, offering eight socially-distanced sets from April 1-4.

Naturally, Strings was backed by his usual trio for the run – Royal Masat on bass, Jarrod Walker on mandolin and Billy Failing on banjo – and the band refused to rest on their laurels, even including some new tunes into their repertoire.

After a fun-filled night one (which included a classic “Help”> “Slip”> “Franklin’s” trio), the debuts began with a version of George Jones’ “The Race Is On” midway through the first set on April 2.

Other April 2 highlights included a twangy take on the Grateful Dead’s “Dire Wolf” in the first half, and a nice jam through of Doc Watson’s “Walking Boss,” Strings’ “While I’m Waiting Here” and Blackfoot’s “Train Train” to anchor the second set.

Night two included even more jamband love, as Widespread Panic’s “All Time Low” and the Grateful Dead’s “Cassidy” punctuated the first set.

Later, Jackson Browne’s “Running On Empty” arrived as perhaps the weekend’s most surprising cover, but Strings was also sure to give the older bluegrass heads something to write home about with an encore of the Reno and Smiley classic “I’m Gone, Long Gone.”

Strings opened his final evening at the raceway with “Tipper” by the late Tony Rice, and continued on with the run’s second official debut, the oft-covered Gram Parsons composition “Hickory Wind.”

The band continued on with “Katy Daley” by The Stanley Brothers, before serving up their own “Watch It Fall.”

After a jam-heavy second set – complete with a segue from Strings’ “All Fall Down” into the Dead’s “Wharf Rat” – Strings closed the run with the appropriate Lead Belly cover “Alabama Bound,” nodding to his tour closing, April 9-11 run the Land-Peebles Stadium in Mobile, Ala.

Check out all four setlists below:

Billy Strings
April 1, 2021
Columbia Speedway, Cayce, SC

Set I: Fire On My Tongue, Thirst Mutilator> I’m Still Here> Last Train to Clarksville> White Freight Liner Blues, Know It All, There Is a Time, Psycho> Hide & Seek

Set II: Taking Water, Help on the Way> Slipknot> Franklin’s Tower, A Robin Built a Nest on Daddy’s Grave, Fire Line, Big River, Crown of Thorns> Away From the Mire

Enc: Freedom

Billy Strings
April 2, 2021
Columbia Speedway, Cayce, SC

Set I: Must Be Seven> Clinch Mountain Backstep, Dire Wolf, Run Down, Morning Light, The Race Is On^, 15 Steps, Love & Regret, Back on the Train> Everything’s the Same

Set II: Georgia Buck, Dos Banjos, Running, Walking Boss> While I’m Waiting Here> Train Train, San Antonio Rose, Secrets, Doin’ My Time, Brown’s Ferry Blues> Big Mon

Enc: If Your Hair’s Too Long (There’s Sin in Your Heart)

Notes:
^ live debut

Billy Strings
April 3, 2021
Columbia Speedway, Cayce, SC

Set I: Long Forgotten Dream, The Likes of Me, All Time Low, Running the Route> So Many Miles, Red Daisy, Wargasm, Cassidy, Ernest T. Grass> Little Maggie

Set II: Bronzeback, Sorrow Is a Highway, Dust in a Baggie, Manzanita, Slow Train, Show Me the Door, Running on Empty, Ain’t Nothing to Me, Old Train, Turmoil & Tinfoil

Enc: I’m Gone, Long Gone

Billy Strings
April 4, 2021
Columbia Speedway, Cayce, SC

Set I: Tipper, Hickory Wind, Katy Daley, Watch It Fall, Train That Carried My Girl From Town> Black Mountain Rag, Dusty Miller> Ole Slewfoot, This Old World, Home

Set II: This Heart of Mine > Dealing Despair, Bluegrass Breakdown, All Fall Down> Wharf Rat, Highway Hypnosis

Enc: Alabama Bound