If you follow Billy Strings on Instagram, it seems these days if he doesn’t have a guitar in his hands he’s instead been holding a fishing rod. When not casting a lure, Strings has stayed active during the COVID-19 pandemic, performing livestreams, holding concerts in empty venues and soon playing a run of drive-in shows.
If that wasn’t enough, Strings and his band mate Jarrod Walker recently came together in Nashville for a home recording of The Allman Brothers Band’s classic instrumental “Little Martha.”
Strings is no stranger to playing classic rock covers, which you can find evidence of in the JamBase Live Video Archive. Watch Billy performing five classic rock covers in the footage from a collection of over 200 Billy Strings videos on the JBLVA below.
The Doors – Riders On The Storm
Dropped within a performance of Strings’ original “Meet Me At The Creek,” this video includes a cover of The Doors’ “Riders On The Storm.” The classic rock radio staple was released by The Doors on their 1971 album, L.A. Woman. Strings’ cover comes from his December 30, 2016 show at the Rex Theater in Pittsburgh.
Jimi Hendrix’s name often comes up when discussing the greatest guitarist of all time. Similarly, Jerry Douglas is revered as among the all-time, if not the all-time greatest dobro players. Strings matched Hendrix with Douglas at the 2018 Grey Fox Bluegrass Festival in Oak Hill, New York. The pair of wildly talented pickers can be seen in this video covering Hendrix’s well-known rocker, “Purple Haze.”
For this Hendrix cover, Billy strapped on an electric guitar for his “Voodoo Child” sit-in with Umphrey’s McGee on February 15, 2020 at Explore Asheville Arena in Asheville, North Carolina. The instrument Strings played was the guitar his grandfather built while incarcerated at the Michigan State Penitentiary in the early 1960s. The guitar is emblazoned with the number “33,” the number that was on his grandpa’s racecar as well as in reference to October 3rd which is Billy and his grandpa’s birthday.
This video features guest electric guitarist Brandon “Taz” Niederauer sitting-in with Billy at Tipitina’s in New Orleans during last year’s Jazz Fest. The collaboration on May 1, 2019 at the famed NOLA night club featured covers of Son Seals’ “Funky Bitch” (which Phish regularly covers), Little Feat’s “Willin’” (which has also been covered by Phish and many others) and The Allman Brothers Band’s “Midnight Rider.” All three covers along with the rest of the set are featured above.
Strings and his band returned to the Grey Fox fest in 2019 and again covered a classic rock favorite. That year the guitarist delivered a rendition of Creedence Clearwater Revival’s 1969 hit “Proud Mary.” The song has been covered numerous times, perhaps most recognizably in 1971 by Ike & Tina Turner.
