photo: Steve Rood

Early Friday morning on September 27, 2024, Hurricane Helene plowed through Western North Carolina. The worst storm in North Carolina’s history. Living a few miles north of Asheville, I can say it was and has been terrifying and devastating. That ill-fated Friday also saw the release of Billy Strings’ Highway Prayers along with the announcement of their 2025 Winter Tour, including six nights in Beer City. With no electricity, I had no way of listening to the record, and when I could, I couldn’t bring myself to play it. The river was rushing through the hills. Neighborhoods left to decay. It’s a cold, cold world.

Several weeks after the hurricane I heard the album. The sound was familiar but nonetheless striking. I enjoyed it, but had a difficult time appreciating it because of the disaster. I don’t remember when I finally heard about the tour announcement, but when I did, I was in such a trauma state that I couldn’t think about it. By the time tickets went on sale in mid-November, I knew I needed to go. I bought three-day passes for both weekends.

A festival formed around each three-night run. Not uncommon for Billy Strings, but this was different by volume. Pre-shows, after-shows, and multiple shakedowns. Walking around the venue felt like there had been a big invasion. Heads everywhere. Something different is in the atmosphere. Music pouring out every bar and nook and cranny. Skunk smells. A lot of color. Beautiful people. Smiling faces, but pain in the eyes.

It felt so restorative to be in it. Something my soul needed to help get over the Helene blues. Part of the soulful restoration was in connecting with others throughout each weekend. While checking out the Charlotte Bluegrass All-Stars at One World West, I was able to chat in between songs with Jim from Decatur, GA. Jim has been in Asheville since October 8th, only sleeping in his home bed for 15 nights. Jim is retired and said he felt a calling from on high to come help. The experience was life-changing for him. He was at the bar with his volunteer team, and didn’t have a clue who Billy Strings was. Thank you to Jim and the many others who have been so generous to Western North Carolina.

At the Fuzzy Rainbows Festival, I saw local artists, Matthew Decker and Erika Busse of RAD Printworks at Asheville Music Hall. Their studio was located in the River Arts District right along the French Broad River. I’ve been buying t-shirts from them for a few years now. The river rose to its highest peaks in history, flooding and destroying Rad Printworks studio along with about everything else in the district. They’re still looking for a new studio. I bought two heady shirts.

This six-night run will go down as one of the greatest runs of the band. Billy Strings was mesmerizing and excellent every single night! At this point, writing about the band presents challenges. Chief of which is they have reached an ineffable scope and scale. It is hard to say anything exhaustive about them other than, yes! They are frontiersmen and pioneers in a unique category but still rooted in a rich tradition.

Each musician is versed in diverse techniques and absurdly skilled. Vocally, the quintet is harmoniously powerful. They reach astounding heights and have beautiful melodies. Perceiving beneath the surface, you get the impression that something might be playing through them. A display of genius or the daimonic in the mythological definition. Psychologist Carl Jung writes, “A creative person has little power over his own life. He is not free. He is captive and drawn by his daimon.” Something has captivated Billy Strings and made it its instrument. Each night was an opportunity to cross a threshold from the familiar to the unfamiliar. The trickster messenger who could move between realms with great speed was Hermes. The band creates this space for passage between realms to occur.

The audience, below the surface, is having an experience of meaning and exploration. The god Dionysus was often met in the mountains, that resulted in ecstatic, non-ordinary states of consciousness. It is no coincidence that these events are taking place in the mountains. Asheville has become similar to a sacred space for Billy Strings and is resulting in rituals that expand consciousness. Heraclitus said, “Hades and Dionysus are one and the same.” You meet Hades through a journey downward, like a hurricane. Billy Strings will also take you down. It was striking to hear so many songs mirror the intense emotions I’ve felt from the hurricane. However, it doesn’t stop with a deathblow; in the spirit of bluegrass, you have Gospel music that is filled with hope. The archetypal patterns below the surface are birthing an experience. It is novel but profoundly ancient and needed as a part of the human experience. It puts you in touch with mystery and helps make life worth living.

One of the treasured qualities of Billy Strings is how he and his band deliver exceptional bluegrass. A blend of traditional bluegrass, newgrass, and Billy’s own catalog. Over six nights, at times, it felt like being jabbed one after another with exquisite bluegrass numbers. Undoubtedly it is wrong to call it exclusively bluegrass. It is versatile, taking you down deep with the best improvisational jams in the genre. It is like a blend of thousands of different spirits that has been aging for centuries. On the palate, it is rich, complex, and has a long finish. Let’s hope we can enjoy this bottle from the master distiller’s cupboard for a long time.

Below are a few choice moments from each night:

Night One – February 6, 2025

  • Seven Weeks in County – with a nice Ghost Riders in the Sky tease
  • Cabin Song > Brain Damage
  • Thirst Mutilator > So Many Miles – It is always a treat to hear Billy Failing sing. When So Many Miles concluded, the crowd erupted for a solid minute forcing the band to pause before playing the next song.
  • Fire On My Tongue > Must Be Seven > Pyramid Country > Psycho

Night Two – February 7, 2025

  • Thunder
  • Away From the Mire – Featuring a six minute guitar solo
  • Down in the Hollow – A great solo from Jarrod Walker and one of Hargreaves best fiddle solos of the run.
  • Highway Hypnosis

Night Three – February 8, 2025

  • Seney Stretch – One of the best instrumentals of the run.
  • Nobody’s Love Like Mine – Vocally led by Jarrod Walker with an raucous eruption of gratitude from the crowd
  • Fire Line > Reuben’s Train – Showcased Hargreaves virtuoso fiddle playing
  • Leaders > Lumpy Beanpole & Dirt > Wargasm > Señor (Tales of Yankee Power) > Pretty Daughter – Wargasm contained one of Billy’s best solos of the run.

Night Four – February 14, 2025

This night has just a slight edge on the other nights. Primarily because of the addition of Anh Phung on a few tracks in the second set. She elevated the experience and added a welcomed texture to the sound.

  • Taking water > End of the Rainbow – Highlighting both Hargreaves and Billy Failing.
  • All Time Low
  • The Shire > Ole Slew Foot > Love & Regret – With Anh Phung
  • Turmoil & Tinfoil – nearly 20 minutes!

Night Five – February 15, 2025

  • Living Like an Animal > The Cuckoo
  • Heartbeat of America
  • 15 Steps – I’m starting to repeat myself, but one of Strings’ best solos.
  • What Would You Give in Exchange? – Duet with Mandolinist Chris Henry
  • Malfunction Junction (Two Tickets to Paradise tease!) > Black Clouds

Night Six – February 16, 2025

  • Home of the Red Fox > Little Maggie – with Jon Stickley
  • All Fall Down
  • Tentacle Dragon (Revenge of the)
  • Doin’ Things Right – with a fantastic Royal Massat bass solo and a fun Use Me Up tease.
  • Gild the Lily – This song is a vehicle that clocked in around 16 minutes.
  • Meet Me at the Creek