Billy Strings (second from left) was joined on stage by (from left) bassist Royal Masat, Billy Failing on banjo, fiddler Alex Hargreaves and (not pictured) mandolin player Jarrod Walker for his “Austin City Limits” taping.
PROVIDED BY SCOTT NEWTON COURTESY “AUSTIN CITY LIMITS”
Has anyone ever sounded better playing bluegrass in skater shoes than Billy Strings? Has anyone ever sounded better playing anything in them?
Billy Strings returned to the stage Thursday night for a taping of “Austin City Limits.” It was the bluegrass star’s first full show since breaking his leg skateboarding backstage at an April in Virginia.
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At least he didn’t do it playing pickleball, the native Michigander joked.
Wearing an open denim shirt, the long-haired musician gingerly took the stage, before handing his crutches to a roadie and taking his center seat. His exceptional bandmates joined him in seated positions, giving the taping the feel of a true picking session. They looked perfectly at home in front of the Austin skyline backdrop.
Joy of bluegrass takes center stage
The set and its mood fit the environment, with the majority of tunes coming from Strings’ 2021 album “Renewal” and 2024 beauty “Highway Prayers.” That meant the depth and joy of bluegrass took center stage, with the psychedelic theatrics and metal-tinged jams of some of his arena shows left behind.
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Few musicians in recent memory have rocketed to the magnitude of Strings’ success in such short order. The 33-year-old former prodigy went from playing small rooms like Antone’s and the Mohawk to arena shows in just a handful of years. YouTube and Instagram assisted the ascension, but the meteor has been powered by Strings’ soulful and incendiary playing, his ability to make old music sound new and his ability to tap into a century of the American songbook, evoking everyone from Earl Scruggs to the session geniuses Steely Dan.
After firing out of the gate with “Red Daisy,” the quintet showed early range with the jazzy “Escanaba,” upright bassist Royal Masat evoking Charles Mingus in the escalating and descending tune that had the band playing double dutch on a staircase.
Eighties Nashville would have loved the picking and plaintiveness of the modern ballad “Love + Regret,” which Strings played before acknowledging his love for the “Austin City Limits” environment —“This is a nice thing here.”
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Two sets, sweet memories
Billy Strings, seen here at his second ever “Austin City Limits” taping on July 2, is one of the best Americana artists of the 21st century.
PROVIDED BY SCOTT NEWTON COURTESY “AUSTIN CITY LIMITS”
In an almost unprecedented move, Strings and company played two full sets, with a small intermission between. The second set featured more covers than the first, including a moving “Cold Cold World,” Strings’ honeyed tenor warming up the Blaze Foley original after he introduced it with a sweet tale of searching for the musician’s grave in South Austin. Both sets bounced around the Russian Gypsy and Scots-Irish sounds of bluegrass (with fiddle player Alex Hargreaves serving as the Scottie Pippen to Strings’ Jordan), most hauntingly in the Southern gothic revenge tune “My Alice.”
The show, which will air as its own one-hour episode in September as part of ACL’s 52nd season, showed why Strings has been one of the country’s most captivating and talented musicians of the past decade and also gave a glimpse of the future. For his penultimate tune, Strings, who played Willie Nelson’s Fourth of July picnic the following day, gave the audience a taste of his forthcoming “So Much for Goodbyes,” an album dedicated to his mother who died in 2025.
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“I’m One of Those” starts with the feeling of a misty meander through the Smoky Mountains before opening up into a tune of a sunny country road ramble, going down a road in search of memories. The sweet ache of nostalgia illustrated how few can bring such presence to reaching back to the past.
Billy Strings “Austin City Limits” taping set list for July 2
Red Daisy
Escanaba
Love and Regret
Hellbender
Dust In A Baggie
Sally Johnson (Traditional)
Heartbeat Of America
In The Morning Light
Malfunction Junction
The Fire On My Tongue
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Gild the Lily
Seven Weeks in County
Cold Cold World (Blaze Foley cover)
Gone A Long Time
End Of The Rainbow (Frank Wakefield cover)
Dawg’s Rag (David Grisman cover)
My Alice
I’m One Of Those (new tune)
Hide and Seek