Watch Billy Strings & Leftover Salmon Cover Grateful Dead & More During Collaborative Day In Huntsville

Billy Strings and Leftover Salmon hooked up when both acts landed in Huntsville, Alabama over the weekend. The synchronistic situation led to Strings joining Leftover Salmon during their set at the WhistleStop BBQ Festival and members of LoS sitting in with Strings at The Orion Amphitheater.

Leftover Salmon took the WhistleStop BBQ Festival stage around 4 p.m. on Saturday, October 19. Strings joined the band for their two-hour set adding a second acoustic guitar and occasional vocals to the jamgrass veterans’ mix.

“Our old buddy [Billy Strings] came out and played our whole set at Whistle Top BBQ Fest, then invited us over to his show for some more fun,” Leftover Salmon banjoist/fiddler Andy Thorn wrote. “Huge thanks to Billy and his amazing band and crew for treating us like part of the family! I still can’t believe what these guys are doing out there. They deserve every bit of success they’ve earned, and they’re still as cool as they always were.”

Fans at the fest were treated to a performance of “Black Peter,” marking a rare occurrence of Strings publicly covering the Grateful Dead. Leftover Salmon became well versed in the song for their “Workingman’s Salmon” concert held in August at The Capitol Theatre, which honored Jerry Garcia during the “Daze Between” Garcia’s birthday and the anniversary of his death. That show saw LoS and Daniel Donato performed the Grateful Dead’s 1970 album, Workingman’s Dead, which features “Black Peter.”

The 12-minute “Black Peter” segued into a Strings-led take on Doc Watson’s “Train That Carried My Girl From Town.” Watch Billy Strings and Leftover Salmon cover “Black Peter” and other selections from his sit-in at the Whistle Top BBQ Fest in Huntsville below:

As Thorn mentioned in his post-collaboration note, after their fest set, Strings invited Leftover Salmon to his concert at the nearby Orion Amphitheater. Saturday’s concert was the second show of Strings’ two-night Rocket City run.

After going solo at the start of Saturday’s second set, Strings brought out his bandmates — banjoist Billy Failing, fiddler Alex Hargreaves, bassist Royal Masat and mandolinist Jarrod Walker — and they were also joined onstage by Thorn and his Leftover Salmon bandmates, guitarist Vince Herman and mandolinist Drew Emmitt.

The sit-in kicked off with Emmitt taking the lead on Leftover’s “Down In The Hallow.” Next came a collective cover The Dillards’ “There Is A Time.” The Stanley Brothers’ instrumental “Clinch Mountain Backstep” showcased the various picking talents accumulated on the stage. The guest spot continued with Blaze Foley’s “Cold Cold World.”

Herman then handled lead vocals on a performance of “Shine Your Blues,” which appeared on the 2024 album Mother Nature’s Show by The High Hawks, the bluegrass supergroup that includes Herman as a member. Herman, Thorn and Emmitt then augmented a performance of Townes Van Zandt’s “White Freightliner Blues.” The day and night of collaborating in Huntsville came to an end with the members of LoS capping their sit-in with a cover of “Blues Stay Away From Me.”

View audience-shot video of members of Leftover Salmon joining Billy Strings on Saturday in Huntsville below:

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Billy Strings partnered with nugs.net to livestream his 2024 Fall Tour. The livestreams and on-demand replays are free for nugs.net subscribers. Access to official audio recordings are also included with nugs.net subscriptions. (JamBase earns a commission from affiliate purchases).

Watch a sample of Saturday’s nugs.net livestream:

Setlist (via BillyBase)

Set One: Running, Taking Water > Ice Bridges, Everything’s The Same, Hellbender, Malfunction Junction, Be Your Man, On The Line > Train 45 > Ruby, Fire Line > Reuben’s Train, Home [1]

Set Two: Give The Fiddler A Dram [2] > Whistling Rufus [2] > Ragtime Annie [2], Catch and Release [2], Down In The Hollow [3][4], There Is A Time [3], Clinch Mountain Backstep [3][5], Cold Cold World [3], Shine Your Blues [3][6][7], White Freightliner Blues [3], Blues Stay Away From Me [3], Stratosphere Blues / I Believe in You [8], Hollow Heart, Wargasm, The Two Soldiers, Highway Hypnosis, The Beginning of the End, Richard Petty [9]

Notes:

• [1] Billy Strings on his “Bride” Preston-Thompson D-SBA Custom guitar
• [2] Billy Strings solo front of stage
• [3] w/ Vince Herman (guitar), Andy Thorn (banjo) and Drew Emmitt (mandolin) of Leftover Salmon
• [4] Drew Emmitt on lead vocals
• [5] Last Time Played 2023-11-17 | 57 Shows
• [6] Vince Herman on lead vocals
• [7] FTP – High Hawks (Off Recent 2024 Release Mother Nature’s Show)
• [8] Billy Strings on a Martin 12-String HD12-28, Royal Masat on a Nord Stage 3 88-Key Keyboard & Billy Failing on Masterton ML-1: Missing Link Béla Fleck Baritone Banjo
• [9] Band (minus Alex) around single mic front of stage