Watch Greensky Bluegrass Jam With Billy Strings, Sam Bush & Daniel Donato At Ryman Opener

Nashville is filled with talented musicians and Greensky Bluegrass called upon three of them to collaborate during their Friday night concert at the historic Ryman Auditorium. Billy Strings, Sam Bush and Daniel Donato each sat-in at GSBG’s first of two Ryman shows before Strings and Jennifer Hartswick made guest appearances on Saturday.

Daniel Donato’s Cosmic Country kicked off both shows in Nashville. Donato was making his Ryman debut, a thrill he’d “been envisioning for 15 years since I first started busking on lower broadway when I was 14,” as he stated on Instagram. The guitarist and his band worked originals “Ghost Riders In The Sky,” “Lose Your Mind,” “Luck Of The Draw” and “Sugar Leg Rag” into a Friday night set that also included covers of Merle Haggard’s “Workin’ Man Blues,” Tony Hazzard’s “Fox On The Run” and the Elvis Presley-popularized “Mystery Train.”

Greensky Bluegrass called upon Daniel Donato as their first guest of the night and run. Donato came out for “Murder Of Crows” after the jamgrass quintet began their opening stanza with The Stanley Brothers/Clinch Mountain Boys’ “How Mountain Girls Can Love” and their own “Past My Prime.” Daniel added his signature Telecaster shredding to the Dave Bruzza-sung number featured on GSBG’s 2019 LP, All For Money. The rest of the frame included fan favorites such as “Train Junkie,” “Who Is Frederico?” and “Tarpology” as well as the band’s first cover of Airborne or Aquatic’s “Exuberance” since October 2022 and Paul Hoffman-led take on Bob Marley’s “Could You Be Loved.”

Bruzza (guitar), Hoffman (mandolin) and bandmates Anders Beck (dobro), Michael Arlen Bont (banjo) and Mike Devol (bass) delivered a career-spanning second set that included just one cover. After beginning the frame with All For Money stand out “Do It Alone,” Greensky played a run of “Living Over,” “Cold Feet,” “A Letter To Seymour” and “In Control” ahead of a parade of guest appearances.

Sam Bush was introduced by Beck as “our neighborhood friendly hero, the mother of bluegrass.” The multi-instrumentalist has a long history of performing with Greensky Bluegrass. On Friday, Bush emerged with fiddle in hand to contribute to GSBG originals “Worry For You” and “All Four.” The legendary bluegrass musician stuck around to lead the band through the Greensky debut cover of John Hartford’s “Granny Wontcha Smoke Some Marijuana.”

A dancer emerged during “Granny Wontcha Smoke Some Marijuana” wearing the Mayor McCheese outfit prominent at early Leftover Salmon shows. Mayor McCheese turned out to be none other than Billy Strings. The Grammy-winning guitarist then joined Greensky Bluegrass on “Courage For The Road.” Strings jammed hard with the band on the All For Money track to bring the set to a rousing conclusion.

When GSBG returned for the encore, they were accompanied by all three of the evening’s guests. Donato, Bush and Strings each lent a hand to the Greensky debut take on “My Love Will Not Change.” The song penned by Shawn Camp and Billy Burnette is best known for the version recorded and performed by the Del McCoury Band. Each of the guests had a turn to shine on the tune.

Watch more footage of the collaborations on Friday documented by videographer Max Berde below:

Audience Recording (Taped by Z-Man)

Setlist (via Phantasy Tour)

Set One: How Mountain Girls Can Love, Past My Prime, Murder Of Crows [1], Reasons To Stay > Exuberance, Train Junkie, Who Is Frederico?, Tarpology, Could You Be Loved

Set Two: Do It Alone, Living Over, Cold Feet, A Letter to Seymour, In Control, Worry for You [2], All Four [2], Granny Wontcha Smoke Some Marijuana [3] [2], Courage For The Road [4]

Encore: My Love Will Not Change [1] [2] [3] [4]

• [1] – w/ Daniel Donato (guitar)
• [2] – w/ Sam Bush (fiddle)
• [3] – First Time Played
• [4] – w/ Billy Strings (guitar)