Billy Strings Welcomes Mimi Naja At City Winery Nashville

Fruition multi-instrumentalist Mimi Naja was Billy Strings‘ special guest for Wednesday’s Streaming Strings tour concert at City Winery Nashville. Last night’s show was the first of two at City Winery Nashville, the third stop on Billy’s virtual tour of Music City venues.

Billy and his band — consisting of bassist Royal Masat, mandolin player Jarrod Walker and banjo wiz Billy Failing — played their typical mix of covers and originals last night after two shows that went particularly heavy on traditional bluegrass tunes at The Station Inn. The quartet opened by working John Hartford’s “I’m Still Here” into “Last Train To Clarksville” by The Monkees and then paired originals “Running” and “Everything’s The Same.”

The first set also included a handful of covers by more contemporary acts including Leftover Salmon’s “Down In The Hollow,” Jeff Austin’s “Run Down” and “Black Clouds” by The String Cheese Incident. Strings and company kicked off the second set with “On The Line” from Turmoil & Tinfoil before jamming a cover of Widespread Panic’s “All Time Low” into “Midnight On The Highway” by Hot Rize. Then, Strings belted out Jimmy Cliff’s “Sitting In Limbo,” which was followed by a take on Muleskinner’s “Blue Mule” and original “Highway Hypnosis.”

Mimi Naja emerged towards the end of the second set and stayed on stage for the remainder of the livestreamed concert. First up for the “Mimi At The Creek” collaboration was a cover of Flatt & Scruggs’ “Don’t This Road Look Rough & Ready.” Next, Naja led the band on Fruition’s “Labor Of Love.” From there, the five musicians worked through Gillian Welch’s “Caleb Meyer” before ending the night with a second Jeff Austin cover – “15 Steps.”

Watch pro-shot video of “I’m Still Here,” “Last Train To Clarksville” and “Running” below:

Streaming Strings continues at City Winery Nashville tonight with Greensky Bluegrass guitarist Dave Bruzza aboard as special guest.