Sam Bush Joins Billy Strings & Bryan Sutton At The Ryman

Billy Strings, Bryan Sutton and Royal Masat wrapped up their two-night stand at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville on Monday. After Béla Fleck guested on Sunday, the trio brought out Béla’s former New Grass Revival bandmate and fellow bluegrass legend Sam Bush for the Monday concert.

Billy Strings and Bryan Sutton’s tour has seen the guitarists predominantly performing bluegrass standards and other covers, sometimes as a trio with Royal Masat, sometimes as a duo and sometimes solo. Strings and Sutton also pick up the banjo or mandolin here and there.

Strings and Sutton offered some of the same tunes they did on Sunday at the Ryman including the latter leading opener “Way Downtown” and a choice cover of Townes Van Zandt‘s “If I Needed You.”

Billy and Bryan did bring a number of new songs to the table on Monday including “Blue Railroad Train,” “Hold That Woodpile Down,” “Fifteen Cents,” “The House Carpenter,” “Matty Groves,” “Brown’s Ferry Blues,” “Italy,” “Give The Fiddler A Dram,” “Whistling Rufus” and “Ragtime Annie.”

Sam Bush emerged about halfway through the second set and would stay on for the rest of the concert, first adding mandolin to Bill Monroe‘s “Watson Blues,” a song Monroe wrote about fellow bluegrass great Doc Watson. Nearly every song the collab performed was associated with Watson in some way, showing his immense influence on bluegrass and folk music.

“What Does The Deep Sea Say?” came next and featured Sutton on lead vocals followed by the Watson-recorded number “Sleep, Baby, Sleep.” Next, “St. Louis Blues” ahead of a Billy Strings bust out of “Nashville Pickin’,” last played by Strings on January 8, 2020, a show that also featured Bryan Sutton, as per BillyBase.

Sutton then went back to the mic for “Streamline Cannonball” before Bush took lead vocal duties on the George Gershwin classic “Summertime.” Sutton then led “The Train That Carried My Girl From Town” before the quartet concluded the second set with “Black Mountain Rag.”

Sam Bush would return with Billy, Bryan and Royal for the two-song encore of “I Told Them All About You” and “I’m a Natural Born Gamblin’ Man.” Check out video from the Sam Bush sit-in below:

Setlist (via BillyBase)

Set 1: Way Downtown¹, Little Darling Pal Of Mine¹, Blue Railroad Train, Hold That Woodpile Down, Fifteen Cents¹, Shady Grove, The House Carpenter, Southbound¹, If I Needed You¹, Don’t Think Twice It’s Alright, Talking to Casey, Poor Boy Blues, We Shall All Be Reunited

Set 2: Matty Groves², Brown’s Ferry Blues², Italy³, Give The Fiddler A Dram⁴, Whistling Rufus⁴, Ragtime Annie⁴, Watson Blues⁵, What Does The Deep Sea Say?¹’⁵, Sleep Baby Sleep⁵, St. Louis Blues⁵, Nashville Pickin’⁵’⁶, Streamline Cannonball¹’⁵, Summertime⁵’⁷, The Train That Carried My Girl From Town¹’⁵, Black Mountain Rag⁵

Encore: I Told Them All About You⁵, I’m a Natural Born Gamblin’ Man⁵

SETLIST NOTES:

• ¹ Bryan Sutton on lead vocals
• ² Billy Strings solo
• ³ Bryan Sutton solo on clawhammer banjo
• ⁴ Duet w/ Billy Strings & Bryan Sutton on guitar
• ⁵ w/ Sam Bush on mandolin
• ⁶ Last Time Played 2020-01-08 | 478 show gap
• ⁷ w/ Sam Bush on lead vocals

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Billy Strings, Bryan Sutton and Royal Masat wrap their tour together tonight in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Billy Strings recently announced Winter Tour 2026 dates including a return to the Ryman. Find itinerary and ticket info below.

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