as i mentioned in my last post, i went out to see billy strings the other night. my first large venue concert in about 18 months. having attended a number of social events since then, and mentioning this fact to a few people i regard as being reasonably well informed in music, i was somewhat surprised to find that hardly anyone had ever heard of him.

for the uninitiated, the next inevitable follow up question to me would be’ what kind of music is it?’. and my awkward response would be something like ‘well, it’s bluegrass, but then it isn’t’. at their very musical core, billy and his three cohorts are top notch bluegrass musicians. stripped down to their acoustic guitar, banjo, upright bass and mandolin, they can dial up classic bluegrass numbers that would make bill monroe proud. however, through the use of pickups and other gizmos, they can easily electronically ramp it up to jam band rock riffs. the whole show was spent going back and forth between these two extremes very comfortably and effectively. and it was fairly relentless, in a good way. other than a 15 minute set break, they really never stopped playing for a full three hours.

i was curious to see what the crowd would be like, as billy is 28 but many of the people i know that follow him are my age (not 28). i wasn’t really surprised to find the atmosphere in the parking lot to be akin to a dead show. in fact, the venue – legend valley (formerly known as buckeye lake), was where i last saw the grateful dead.

i brought the redeyegin twins with me, who are close to billy’s age. they had heard of him, but were not familiar with his music. well, they are now, and i think they are converted.

he is touring all summer, so if you are looking for something new to add to your concert schedule this year, i highly encourage you to check them out. it was easily one of the best shows i have seen in a long time.

thanks for driving, freddie.