Billy Strings Debuts Townes Van Zandt & Tony Rice Covers In New Orleans

Billy Strings returned to New Orleans on Sunday to kick off his third consecutive New Year’s Eve run at UNO Lakefront Arena. The first of three nights in NOLA saw the guitarist and his band unveiling covers from the Townes Van Zandt and Tony Rice catalogs.

Strings and company — mandolinist Jarrod Walker, bassist Royal Masat, banjo player Billy Failing and fiddler Alex Hargreaves — launched the NYE run with a pairing of the traditional bluegrass standard “If I Lose” and original “Red Daisy,” off the band’s 2021 album, Renewal.

The quintet then dove into a four-song seamless sequence beginning with a substantial “Seven Weeks in County” — off Billy’s latest studio album Highway Prayers — and continuing through instrumental “Pyramid Country,” which contained elements of the Cousin Emmy-written, Osborne Brothers-popularized “Ruby Are You Mad.” The segment continued with “The Fire on My Tongue” and the traditional fiddle tune “Fire on the Mountain,” the latter last played on July 22, 2022 (debut) for a gap of 212 shows, as per bmfsdb.com.

Billy and the band then linked up John Hartford’s “I’m Still Here” and “Taking Water.” The bluegrass standard “Don’t Let Your Deal Go Down,” first recorded by Charlie Poole in 1925, followed. The quintet then explored the late Jeff Austin’s “15 Steps” for over 15 minutes before heading into Renewal’s “Secrets” to wrap the first set.

Set two got underway with trad “The Cuckoo” ahead of “Slow Train.” The quintet then offered Johnny Winter’s “Ain’t Nothing to Me” and Danny Barnes’ “Pretty Daughter.” The title track to Billy’s Grammy-winning 2019 album Home followed.

Next, the band returned to Highway Prayers with “Happy Hollow.” Strings then led the group through a premiere cover of the Townes Van Zandt-recorded “Don’t Let the Sunshine Fool Ya.” The song was written by another Texas legend, Guy Clark, with Van Zandt including the tune on his 1972 record The Late Great Townes Van Zandt.

The tribute to great songwriters continued with the Gordon Lightfoot standout “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald,” featuring another 15-minute excursion. Following Highway Prayers’ “In The Clear,” Billy and the band unveiled the traditional “Temperance Reel,” appearing on Tony Rice’s 1977 self-titled album. The song marked Strings’ sixth addition from the catalog of late bluegrass great Tony Rice, as per bmfsdb.com. Rice was also a prolific interpreter of the aforementioned Gordon Lightfoot. Rice passed away on Christmas Day 2020.

Eddie Noack’s “Psycho” and the Billy favorite “Away From the Mire” sealed the second set. The band would return to encore with the Father of Bluegrass Bill Monroe’s “Roll On Buddy, Roll On.”

Watch “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald” and “Away From the Mire” and chck out full-show audio via Brian Porter below:

Billy Strings returns to UNO Lakefront Arena tonight. Livestreams are available via nugs.net.

Billy also took to the lot ahead of the show. Check out a clip of the guitarist picking with talented young mandolinist Vance Bonebrake.

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