Peach State Premiere: Watch Billy Strings Debut ‘Going To Georgia’ Cover In Savannah

Between multi-night runs in Florida, guitarist Billy Strings swung up to Georgia on Wednesday night to perform a concert at Enmarket Arena in Savannah. The show featured a couple of nods to the Peach State, including the premiere of “Going To Georgia,” which was first recorded and released in 1956 by The Stanley Brothers.

The first set began with Strings solo on clawhammer banjo giving a location-appropriate rendering of “Georgia Buck.” Set one also saw Strings and his bandmates – banjoist Billy Failing, mandolinist Jarrod Walker, fiddler Alex Hargreaves and bassist Royal Masat – perform a cover of “Sunny Side Of The Mountain” for the first time since September 24, 2022, marking a span of 149 shows between appearances.

The debut of “Going To Georgia” came four songs into the second set and was followed by Failing singing lead on “So Many Miles.” The show took a spiritual turn later in the set when Strings went solo for a debut offering of Larry Sparks’ “Jesus is Waiting For Me,” which he performed aided by a single microphone. Strings bandmates joined him at the lone mic for a subsequent take on the religiously tinged “Harbor Of Love.”

A somewhat rare choice of Jackson Browne’s “Running On Empty” followed the pair of prayerful tunes. “Turmoil & Tinfoil” and “Train 45” then ended the show.

After taking tonight off, Strings heads next to St. Augustine for a three-show run at St. Augustine Amphitheatre that begins on Friday, April 19. Watch livestreams of the St. Augustine shows and the rest of the current Billy Strings tour live or on-demand for free with a nugs.net subscription.

Watch videos from Wednesday’s show in Savannah below:

Setlist (via BillyBase)

Set One: Georgia Buck [1], The Fire On My Tongue > Bronzeback, Seven Weeks in County, My Alice, Ernest T. Grass > Must Be Seven, In The Morning Light, Sunny Side Of The Mountain [2], John Deere Tractor, Heartbeat Of America

Set Two: Love Like Me, Highway Hypnosis, Wargasm > Going to Georgia [3], So Many Miles [4] > Everything’s The Same, Jesus is Waiting For Me [5][6], Harbor of Love [7], Running On Empty, Turmoil & Tinfoil, Train 45

Notes:

• [1] Billy Strings solo on clawhammer banjo
• [2] Last Time Played 2022-09-24 | 149 show gap
• [3] FTP – The Stanley Brothers
• [4] Billy Failing on lead vocals
• [5] FTP – Larry Sparks
• [6] Billy Strings solo on guitar on single mic
• [7] Full band around single mic