Friday 17th November 2023
Manchester Academy, Manchester, England
“And rest yourself ‘neath the strength of strings,
No voice can hope to hum.”
Bob Dylan, ‘Lay Down Your Weary Tune’
When I attended my first gig in this new country scene – or, more accurately, a broad ‘roots’ scene – I was in two minds whether to put down my thoughts on it for this blog, which I had intended for other things closer related to my own fiction. When I decided to write about the gig, which coincidentally was for one-time Billy Strings collaborator Sierra Ferrell (‘Bells of Every Chapel’), I began with the caveat that it’s hard to write about music because it is an elemental thing. Writing about music, I wrote, often ends up destroying the magic in it, turning the experience of sung gold into mute and lumpen lead.
Since then, I have managed to avoid this reverse-alchemy by closely adhering to a formula in my concert reviews. But the nature of a Billy Strings set makes this more difficult to do. There is no opening act; instead, Billy and his band perform two full sets with an intermission. More importantly, one must account for the flavour of Billy’s jams, where a three-minute album song might be extended to eight or nine minutes, and songs can roll into one another without pause, sometimes punctuated by left-field teases from other songs that don’t qualify for mention on a setlist.
I could write of how I entered the building, how once inside I waited an hour in the snaking queue for merchandise, reaching the front just as Billy took the stage and launched into ‘Dust in a Baggie’, or of how I gradually made my way to the front, following the lead of my friend. I could write of the musicians and their virtuosity, and of the eclectic nature of the crowd; the guitar-pickers and acid-droppers, the young, the old, the freaks and geeks, the deadheads and the rail-riders, the sketchy and the well-drawn, the seasoned Billy apostles and the first-timers. The oldest person in the crowd might well be in his seventies; the youngest I see must be seven.
I’ll try to give a good accounting of it. But there’s a consistency on the stage throughout the night, in how Billy and his band approach the songs, that makes the ebb and flow hard to describe. And yet alongside the consistency there’s a vibrant flexibility, the bluegrass jamming that a hardcore tonight have specifically come to see. But if my lumpen lead of words could describe, to the uninitiated, the magical appeal of Billy Strings’ music tonight, it would not be in lyrical descriptions or praise, but simply as follows: Imagine those four minutes of wild abandon at the end of Lynyrd Skynyrd’s ‘Free Bird’, but sustained for three hours. And with banjo.
There are many who have already cottoned on to this fact, and Billy Strings is probably the biggest name on the scene. His mix of musical virtuosity, strong songwriting and down-to-earth persona has made him a veritable rock star, and his ever-changing jam setlists a moveable feast. Combined with a psychedelic infusion that has also attracted a few less desirable types to his banner, it means the queue to the Manchester Academy, the venue on this Friday night, reaches well along Oxford Road and into the university campus.
The Academy hall can take thousands, and it appears all of them have decided to join the queue for the venue’s merchandise stall. It wraps around the soundboard enclosure in the centre of the room and doesn’t seem to move. By the time the queue moves me to the final corner, the home stretch, I realise why it’s taking so long. Large numbers of people entering the venue are ignoring the queue and barging right to the front to make their purchases; it’s only at this point that I’m able to notice it. Security staff eventually intervene, but the damage is done and it’s the first of a few examples of fan behaviour tonight which are the only thing that threaten to tarnish the Billy Strings experience.
The stage announcement comes on for “fifteen minutes”, then “ten minutes” then “five”, and from this queue at the rear of the Academy hall the expensive merchandise is, tantalisingly, almost in reach. Perhaps, with a cooler head, I could have resisted some of its prices, but it’s at this point that, at the other end of the room, Billy Strings comes on stage with his band. The vendor’s card-reader provides a total that could kick a calculator in the arse, and the madman on the stage launches into the fan-favourite ‘Dust in a Baggie’ for his first song. I never stood a chance, and pay without a second thought.
It’s a long version of ‘Dust’, about eight minutes long, with Billy and the band starting as they mean to go on. Charming bluegrass harmonies from Billy Failing on banjo and Royal Masat on stand-up bass precede a mandolin solo from Jarrod Walker, before further solos from Billy on his acoustic guitar and Alex Hargreaves on fiddle. Billy’s guitar ends up duelling playfully with Alex’s fiddle, before the song moves seamlessly into the next one.
As the bluegrass harmonies of ‘Love Me Darlin’, Just Tonight’ begin, I have, at my friend’s goading, moved my way to the front of the crowd, left-of-centre. I usually hang back during concerts, but her instinct is correct and this ground at the front is an area we’ll occupy for the rest of the night, and largely a pleasant one. At one point later tonight, a burly, aggressive tweaker will barge through and plant himself directly in front of me, his back a mere six inches from my face. Perhaps I should not be offended, as six inches is no doubt seen as a great length to a man like him, though perhaps not to his girlfriend who joins him. He will soon move on, however, and most of the animated behaviour that arouses such comment in the fanbase thankfully (for me, at least) happens elsewhere, the centre and right-of-centre.
Here, on the centre-left, I have a good vantage point for the rest of the night. ‘Show Me the Door’ is next, and while the tender song is played straighter than many others tonight, it still finds space for fiddle, mandolin and acoustic guitar solos, before a long, wailing electric solo from Billy’s guitar. It’s a surreal sight; the guitar is an acoustic that is heavily modded with a pedalboard and other technical doohickeys I won’t even pretend to understand. It means that Billy can switch seamlessly between traditional bluegrass acoustic and a crisp, electric Van Halen-type sound from one note to the next. While his guitar gently weeps, Billy’s band keep the beat. The electro-acoustic hybrid may be an odd sight, but it’s not an odd sound by any means. Harmonies from Alex Hargreaves and Billy Failing on the chorus bring the song home.
After its follow-up, the mighty ‘Bronzeback’, Billy mentions how “fucking awesome” Manchester is and how he always looks forward to it on tour. It’s the sort of thing artists say on stage, but it’s easy to believe him. From the front, it’s hard to gauge how many people are here tonight (and I’m bad at it anyway – I’ve never once won a jar of jelly beans), but the hall can take in thousands and it seems like that number tonight. The crowd is receptive to everything Billy does, and is vibing from the first moment to the last. There is a regular and disappointing backdraft of chatter from the rear of the venue, but I accept there are people so built that a plastic cup of beer compromises their already dubious sense of propriety. It’s Friday night and nothing can detract from the sound that Billy and the boys are concocting on stage.
It’s a concoction about to throw forth some of its most potent effects, as the band launch into a series of freewheelin’ covers. ‘Rock of Ages’ is followed by a version of ‘My Love Come Rolling Down’ that lasts maybe ten to fifteen minutes and rolls into a ‘Thunder’ punctuated by lightning from Billy’s electric-infused guitar.
Somehow, we ain’t seen nothin’ yet, and it’s in the following original, the Renewal album’s ‘Heartbeat of America’, that we’re provided a jam moment for the ages. While singing the song’s opening lines, Billy’s tongue gets twisted. It’s a noticeable flub and threatens to derail the song, and the next few lines follow suit. Billy’s response is inspired: the final line of the verse is replaced by a long “Fuuuuck!”, so perfectly placed you could be forgiven for preferring it over the intended line. It draws a laugh from the crowd and grins from the band, its incorporation into the song allowing the music to get back on track. (Fortunately, someone has captured the moment for posterity.)
Introducing his next song, Billy mentions Willie Nelson, which draws a great roar from the crowd. The band launch right into ‘California Sober’, one of my favourite songs, with Royal Masat on bass given the honour of providing Willie’s harmonies. After a flurry of solos, Billy and the band leave the stage, with the crowd buzzing.
* * * * *
It’s been a prodigious set of music, and a normal band, supported by an opening act, would have felt they’d done enough to call it a night. Billy Strings, however, is only just getting started. After fifteen minutes or so, he returns with his band for a second set even longer – and more powerful – than the first. Starting again as he means to go on, Billy schools the Manchester Academy in ‘Big Sandy River’, leading into ‘A Letter to Seymour’. He then woos the crowd with two excellent originals, ‘Long Forgotten Dream’ and ‘Hellbender’.
This is followed with one of Billy’s most beautiful originals, ‘Enough to Leave’. He’s giving us diamonds, he’s giving us rings and pearls, and the acoustic solo in this song is a release like few in music. It’s followed by a fantastic version of ‘Everything’s the Same’, the title an irony given the moveable feast of Billy’s setlists. The latter song allows Royal Masat a chance to shine, his prominent bass solo delivered with aplomb.
“I don’t know if this song’s out there,” Billy says when introducing the next song. By ‘out there’, he means on a record, not as a psychedelic vibe. He says ‘Letter Edged in Black’ was recorded for Me and Dad, his latest traditional bluegrass album, and “we learned it from Mac Wiseman”. It’s the most conventional playing of the night, which is probably a disappointment to some of the bad-trippers and chatterers in the crowd, but it’s a moment of simple clarity in a night otherwise made wild by musical potions. Alex Hargreaves provides a fiddle solo straight out of the hills.
It’s as though Billy has been clearing the decks for the finest passage of music of the night. From the traditional we move into the space age, with Billy and the band taking off into a long, swirling, expansive version of ‘Hide and Seek’, a mix of traditional bluegrass and looping cosmic streams, as though the rivers of Kentucky were lifted up by the fingers of some hidden god and woven into an ouroboros. Billy launches into a particularly fine solo and stalks towards the front of the stage. The audience is bubbling, approaching fever pitch, and Billy’s toes edge over the corner of the stage as the music builds. It builds and builds and then it breaks, magnificently, with Billy retreating to a safe distance as the crowd erupts in frenzy. The centre of the crowd is now like sharks thrashing around blood in the water, and even heads that have so far resisted the strings of Strings now find themselves jerking back and forth with abandon.
It’s a pure and indescribable moment, a ‘how-to-dig-a-bluegrass-mosh-pit’ executed perfectly by Billy and the band, but it’s not over. The song morphs cathartically into a cover of the Lennon/McCartney song ‘And Your Bird Can Sing’, with Jarrod and Billy Failing providing ringing bluegrass harmonies in place of those the Beatles once sang. It’s propelled throughout by Royal’s bass, and as a Beatles fan it’s a special moment for me. It’s still not over though, because after a couple of minutes the song morphs back again into ‘Hide and Seek’ and the musical frenzy is extended for a few minutes more.
Perhaps knowing the moment can’t be beat, Billy Strings closes his own songbook for the night and relies on bluegrass classics to carry us home. ‘Old Man at the Mill’ and ‘Clinch Mountain Backstep’ follow, the former characterised by Billy’s exuberant dancing to match his guitar-playing.
But it’s the final song of the set which shows the night in microcosm. ‘Freeborn Man’ starts with Billy playing a distinctive riff alone, before he begins singing and the band comes in. As the groove is quickly found, Billy Failing performs an excellent solo on his banjo, before the torch is passed to Alex on fiddle after the next sung verse. After Alex’s solo, Billy Strings performs an acoustic guitar solo himself – “here in Manchester!” he shouts – and passes over to Jarrod for a mandolin solo. Jarrod passes back to Billy, whose solo quickly gets picked up by Billy Failing’s banjo and then Alex’s fiddle. The mandolin picks up where the fiddle left off, then Billy’s guitar and then the banjo and then the fiddle, before all the instruments combine to build and swarm, and then the release of the final verse. The song ends with a roar from the crowd, and Billy and the band leave the stage.
They return, of course – how could they not, after such a reception? – but after the encore of ‘I’ve Lived a Lot in My Time’, Billy still isn’t done. As the lights go up and the crowd begins to filter out, Billy jumps down from the stage and begins signing merchandise for those fans who make their way to the front rail. He holds conversations, takes selfies, listens to stories. I’ve never seen an artist on this level of fandom engage so sincerely with a concert audience, and be so generous with his time. After a three-hour dual set, he probably spends another half-hour here interacting with fans. It’s good to see such positivity among those on the rail, particularly as some fan behaviour on the tour has apparently been so inappropriate that Billy was moved to address it on social media.
Now, policing concert etiquette is a fool’s game, and I’m not sufficiently involved in the fanbase to comment on it, let alone opine on whatever rulebooks are thrown out on the jam scene. Much online discussion focuses on the aggression of the rail-riders, but while poor behaviour has been noticeable tonight, it hasn’t been widespread enough to leave a bitter taste. Some have blamed American deadheads who have followed Billy from city to city, and country to country, on this European tour, but the only Americans I meet tonight are a gracious couple from Illinois, who hang back in the crowd, and seem like a good hang.
Rather, the fan behaviour that deserves to be amplified tonight comes now, at the end of the show, as Billy reaches the end of the rail where I stand and stops to speak to my friend. He doesn’t seem remotely tired by his exertions on stage tonight. He makes eye contact; he’s locked in as she speaks. It’s not my place to relate the story she tells him, suffice to say that she tells him how much his song ‘Secrets’, which he hasn’t played tonight, helped her through a tough moment in her life. The story ends with a long hug from Billy. These are the fans who represent Billy the best. But as we leave the venue and walk into the rain of the Manchester night, I find myself thinking, not only because of the strength of his strings but his generosity and personality, the one who best represents Billy is Billy himself.
Setlist:
(no opening act; two full Billy sets with intermission after ‘California Sober’)
- Dust in a Baggie (William Apostol) (from Billy Strings EP)
- Love Me Darlin’, Just Tonight (Red Malone/Carter Stanley) (unreleased)
- Show Me the Door (Jarrod Walker/Christian Ward) (from Renewal)
- Bronzeback (Apostol) (unreleased)
- I’ve Just Seen the Rock of Ages (John Preston) (from Rock of Ages)
- She Makes My Love Come Rolling Down (Eric Von Schmidt) (unreleased)
- Thunder (Robert Hunter) (unreleased)
- Heartbeat of America (Apostol/Aaron Allen) (from Renewal)
- California Sober (Apostol/Allen/Jon Weisberger) (single) [End of Set #1]
- Big Sandy River (Tommy Jackson) (unreleased)
- A Letter to Seymour (Dave Bruzza) (unreleased)
- Long Forgotten Dream (Apostol) (from Home)
- Hellbender (Apostol/Allen/Weisberger) (from Renewal)
- Enough to Leave (Apostol) (from Home)
- Everything’s the Same (Apostol/Walker) (from Home)
- Letter Edged in Black (Hattie Nevada) (unreleased)
- Hide and Seek (Apostol/Walker/Billy Failing/Royal Masat) (from Renewal)
- And Your Bird Can Sing (John Lennon/Paul McCartney) (unreleased)
- Hide and Seek (reprise)
- The Old Man at the Mill (Clarence Ashley) (unreleased)
- Clinch Mountain Backstep (Stanley) (unreleased)
- Freeborn Man (Keith Allison/Mark Lindsay) (unreleased)
- Encore: I’ve Lived a Lot in My Time (Jim Reeves/Dick Reynolds/Jack Rhodes) (unreleased)
Note: An official stream of tonight’s show is available on Nugs.net here.
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