Billy Strings Hits Jackpot With New Year’s Eve Concert In New Orleans

Billy Strings celebrated New Year’s Eve with a gambling-themed concert at UNO Lakefront Arena in New Orleans. The stage was adorned with a massive slot machine that was spun by Strings picking fans out of the crowd to help select songs at various points of the show.

Strings and his bandmates — banjoist Billy Failing, mandolinist Jarrod Walker, fiddler Alex Hargreaves and bassist Royal Masat — kicked off their December 31 concert with a fitting cover of “I’m a Natural Born Gamblin’ Man.” Strings changed the lyrics to Merle Travis’ song to reference New Orleans. Later in the opening set, Strings rolled through J.D. Crowe’s “Blackjack.” The first set also saw covers of Jackson Browne’s “Running On Empty” and Greensky Bluegrass’ “Reverend” and closed with Strings’ composition featuring Robert Hunter’s lyrics, “Thunder.”

Set two started in a similar fashion to the first, with Strings’ performance of Townes Van Zandt’s tale of gamblers “Mr. Mudd and Mr. Gold.” After running through “Everything’s The Same,” Strings played another gambling tune, “Black Jack County Chains.” A fan in the crowd was chosen for the next slot machine pull, and landed on Hargreaves singing lead on Flatt & Scruggs’ “Someone Took My Place With You.”

Strings showcased a pair of highlights from his chart-topping 2024 album, Highway Prayers, dealing out “Gone a Long Time” and “Stratosphere Blues / I Believe in You.” Set two also included covers of Phish’s “Back on the Train,” Gershwin’s “Summertime,” Alice In Chain’s “Nutshell” and bluegrass staples “Home Of The Red Fox” and “Ole Slew-Foot.” Originals “Long Forgotten Dream” and “Wargasm” filled in the rest of the set.

“Turmoil & Tinfoil” opened the third and final set of the night. The slot machine behind the projected a countdown leading up to midnight and shortly after the calendar flipped to 2025 Strings and his cohorts briefly jammed on “Auld Lang Syne” ahead of returning to “Turmoil & Tinfoil.” The 25-minute set-opening sequence was followed by “Thirst Mutilator.”

A few songs later, the slot machine landed on Royal Massat who then led a take on The Beatles’ “I’ll Cry Instead.” Pearl Jam’s “Elderly Woman Behind The Counter In A Small Town” and Creedence Clearwater Revival’s “Proud Mary” came ahead of another pair of Highway Prayers tracks, “My Alice” and “Lead Foot.”

A lengthy offering of J.J. Cale’s “Ride Me High” was another standout of the third set. Another J.D. Crowe tune, “You Can Have Her” was sung by Walker and preceded the last song of the night, “Little Maggie.”

Official soundboard audio of Billy Strings’ New Year’s Eve concert in New Orleans can be streamed via nugs.net below. On-demand video replay of the show is also available to nugs.net subscribers.

Hours after Strings’ concert at UNO Lakefront Arena, a truck was driven into a crowd of people on nearby Bourbon Street, injuring dozens of people and killing at least 15. The perpetrator was died after engaging in a gunfight with responding police officers.

“I am absolutely heartbroken and appalled about what happened in New Orleans last night,” Strings wrote in a message shared on New Year’s Day. Read the full message below: