Watch Billy Strings Perform With 1 Of His ‘Favorite Musicians’ In Boston

Billy Strings added a second banjo player for part of his show last night at Leader Bank Pavilion in Boston. Local clawhammer style banjoist Victor Furtado was brought out for an extensive collaboration.

Strings started Tuesday’s concert with his fourth time covering the location-appropriate, “Big Ball In Boston.” Later in the first set Strings introduced Furtado, who won the prestigious Steve Martin Prize for Excellence in Banjo and Bluegrass in 2019.

“I’ve got a friend here in town in Boston, and we’ve been looking forward to getting to pick together,” Strings told Leader Bank Pavilion audience. “I’ve been watching him for a long time. He’s one of my favorite musicians that I’ve seen. And he’s just a really, really amazing banjo player and would you please make him welcome here tonight, please, everybody, his name is Victor Furtado! And we’re gonna pick a little guitar and banjo here for you.”

Left alone together onstage, Strings and Furtado kicked off the picking party with the traditional “John Hardy.” The guitar/banjo duo continued on as they tackled Bill Monroe’s “The Gold Rush.”

Strings then welcomed back his bandmates, banjoist Billy Failing, bassist Royal Masat, mandolinist Jarrod Walker and fiddler Alex Hargreaves, while Furtado remained to augment “I’ll Go Stepping Too.” The Flatt & Scruggs-popularized song had only been played by Billy Strings twice prior, in 2020 and in 2018. Furtado’s time onstage in Boston ended with a lively run through “Roll On Buddy, Roll On.”

Strings returns to Leader Bank Pavilion for another show tonight. Free livestreams are available for nugs.net subscribers.

Watch audience-shot footage of Tuesday’s collaboration below below:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D18I9D1UpIc

Setlist (via BillyBase)

Set One: Big Ball In Boston > Salty Sheep, Heartbeat Of America, This Old World, Katy Daley, While I’m Waiting Here [1] > Psycho > Meet Me At The Creek, John Hardy [2], The Gold Rush [2], I’ll Go Stepping Too [3][4], Roll On Buddy, Roll On [3]

Set Two: Freeborn Man, Long Forgotten Dream, John Deere Tractor, On The Line > Train 45, California Sober, All Fall Down, West Dakota Rose, Secrets, Away From The Mire

Notes:

• [1] “Presbyterian Guitar” John Hartford intro
• [2] Billy Strings on guitar with Victor Furtado on clawhammer banjo
• [3] Full band with Victor Furtado on clawhammer banjo
• [4] Last Played 2020-07-19 | 285 show gap