Today's post features the hot young bluegrass guitarist, Billy Strings, recorded live on June 29th at the Rooftop at Pier 17 in New York. I posted a video of some of this performance back in July, but this time I'm featuring a recording of the whole performance made by the folks at NYCTaper. This is an audience recording, but other than some audience noise, you'd never know. The performance, including a few songs with Phish guitarist Trey Anastasio, is absolutely first-rate
With the backdrop of the NYC skyline and the Brooklyn Bridge, the juxtaposition of the city center with bluegrass music seemed to motivate both the band and the song choices. The cover of John Hartford’s 1976 classic “In Tall Buildings” was most poignant, although several numbers drew upon the rural/urban dichotomy for inspiration. When the set closed with Strings’ apparent hard-life autobiographical and compositionally brilliant “Turmoil & Tinfoil” this night had already delivered exactly what we had come to see. But there was clearly more to come.
The band started the second set with Hargreaves shining throughout an instrumental run through the traditional “Sally Goodin”. Ultimately the set evolved into the show’s highlight – a furious nearly 20-minute “Meet Me at the Creek”, that managed to remain vital and driving for its entire improvisational five-member instrumental segment. As had been rumored in crowd whispers all night, the appearance of Trey Anastasio was not entirely surprising, but quite welcome. It certainly motivated Billy. The five-song mini-set with the star guest featured a couple of Phish numbers, but it was the three bluegrass covers where the massive amount of talent on stage truly excelled. At the end, this show instantly catapulted into a “best of year” category and we continue to be amazed at the level of excellence achieved by this band. See you at Nassau in November!
I can't embed the link from the NYC Taper site, but you can stream or download the show from their site.
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