For the second year in a row, Billy Strings transformed Baltimore’s CFG Bank Arena into his own personal haunted house. The bluegrass phenom brought his guest-laden multi-day extravaganza to Charm City these past Friday and Saturday evenings, delivering a quartet of marathon sets and a litany of musical surprises.
While we’re primarily going to focus on Saturday night’s post-Halloween affair here, we’d be remiss if we didn’t devote at least a little space to Strings’ legendary performance on Friday evening. Strings was joined by the entirety of Leftover Salmon, along with countless other guest musicians, for a pair of legendary sets that focused almost entirely on an eclectic list of covers that ran the musical gamut from Randy Newman to Ozzie Osbourne. Eschewing his typically sans-percussion lineup, Strings and his uber-talented ensemble were accompanied by Leftover Salmon’s Alwyn Robinson on drums for a majority of the performance, transforming the bluegrass quartet into a bona fide arena rock act on numerous occasions.
Utilizing a theme entitled “Meet Me at the Crypt”, each band member donned a costume based upon classic Halloween-centric characters such as “The Wolf Man” (Billy Strings), “The Mummy” (Alex Hargreaves), “Frankenstein” (Jarrod Walker), Dracula (Royal Massat,) and “Bride of Frankenstein” (Billy Failing). The augmented ensemble delivered a bevy of debut cover material during the opening set, including scorching takes on Edgar Winter Group’s instrumental powerhouse “Frankenstein” and Jimi Hendrix’s “Fire”, as well as an extended standout version of David Grisman & Jerry Garcia’s “Arabia”. Perhaps the ultimate highlight of the evening occurred when hometown hero Cris Jacobs, dressed as “The Invisible Man”, shared lead vocal duties with Strings on Tom Waits’ iconic “Way Down In The Hole”, arguably better known now as the theme song to the iconic HBO Baltimore-centric show The Wire, culminating in an all-time great Charm City moment.
The second set continued with this exhilarating trend, thanks to memorable performances of Gordon Lightfoot’s “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald”, Phish’s “Wolfman’s Brother”, and Tyler Childers’ “Bitin’ List”, the latter of which saw Strings performing from a mechanical riser elevated several stories in the air.
Strings and his cohorts had plenty of tricks and treats left up their sleeve for Saturday night’s highly anticipated performance, somehow managing to once again raise the bar to unprecedented levels even after Friday night’s blowout. Things kicked off shortly after 8 pm on a somewhat somber note with an emotional reading of “My Alice”, from Strings’ critically-acclaimed 2024 release Highway Prayers. After a few kind words from Strings about this weekend’s host city, the group led into the first of several traditional bluegrass offerings with New Grass Revival’s “Whisper My Name”, featuring some scorching mandolin runs from Walker.
The impressive chops continued throughout a mesmerizing sequence that joined the progressive-tinged instrumental “Malfunction Junction” with “Fire on my Tongue” and stretched past the fifteen-minute mark. A tender reading of John Hiatt’s “Crossing Muddy Waters” preceded a typically high-energy: Heartbeat of America”, Strings’ progressive ode to LSD-fueled walkabouts.
The opening set concluded with the first of the evening’s several guest appearances as several members of Leftover Salmon joined the fray. Accompanied by Vince Herman (guitar), Drew Emmitt (mandolin), Andy Thorn (banjo) and Alwyn Robinson (drums), the now nine-piece ensemble tore through a head-spinning sequence beginning with Emmitt and Herman delivering lively lead vocal deliveries of Salmon’s “Down in the Hollow” and John Hartford’s “Get No Better”, respectively. The members of Salmon remained on stage for a jaw-dropping pairing of Bill Emerson’s traditional instrumental “Home Of The Red Fox” and Johnny Horton’s “Ol’ Slewfoot”, culminating in a deafening roar from the capacity crowd when the band finally transitioned into Horton’s traditional chestnut.
After a brief set break, the quintet returned with the outlaw vibes of “Seven Weeks in County” that featured some psychedelic distortion-fueled solos from Strings. The psychedelia continued to drip from the arena walls throughout a fiery rendition of Ronnie Bowman and Dan Tyminski’s instrumental “Ernest T. Grass” that ultimately resulted in a buttery-smooth segue into Strings’ sing-along special, “Know It All”, from his 2021 LP Renewal.
The group displayed their bona fide vocal harmony abilities on a goosebump-inducing version of Larry Hammond’s “John Deere Tractor” before bringing out Snarky Puppy keyboardist Cory Henry for a five-song sequence that will go down in the annals of Strings live performance history as an all-time moment.
After sticking mainly with a Hammond-B3-related setup on Friday evening, Henry primarily relied on electric and traditional piano soundscapes throughout his appearance on Saturday. Following an intriguing intro from Strings in which the guitarist was willing to wager that Henry had “never heard this song in his life”, the now sextet unveiled a legendary version of Strings relatively new “Gild The Lily” that has already become a fan favorite since it’s release on Highway Prayers a little more than a year ago.
Watching Henry slowly familiarize himself with the songs’ chord progressions and changes, only to insert tasteful, yet subtle, piano runs before taking over with full-fledged solos, was beyond fascinating to watch unfold. Henry fit Strings ensemble like a glove as they tore through a sequence that contained The Stanley Brothers’ “Harbor of Love”, Strings’ infamous “Dust in a Baggie”, Blaze Foley’s “Cold Cold World”, and “Be Your Man”, which Henry recorded with the group on Highway Prayers. To say that Henry should be seriously considered for full-time membership in the group would be a serious understatement.
Henry was exited to a raucous, and well-deserved, ovation before the band wrapped things up with a pair of traditional-leaning offerings, “Gone a Long Time” and Jimmie Driftwood’s “Tennessee Stud”, in addition to a memorable set-closing performance of one of Strings’ most beloved originals, “Away From The Mire”. Henry, along with Cris Jacobs on acoustic guitar, came back for an encore performance of Jackson Browne’s “Running on Empty” and Phish’s “Back On The Train” to wrap things up on a high note.
While questions remain about whether Strings & Co. will continue the tradition of celebrating Halloween in Edgar Allen Poe’s final resting place going forward (spoiler alert: it’s highly unlikely), there’s no doubt that Halloween now officially belongs to Billy Strings.
Setlists:
10/31:
- Set 1: Frankenstein, Tombstone Blues, Alive, Red Daisy, Taking Water, Hide and Seek, Fire, Mummy’s Theme ,The Mummy’s Bracelet, Arabia, Ain’t No Grave, Way Down in the Hole, Mother’s Only Sleeping
- Set 2: Adagio in G minor, Run for Your Life, The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald, Blood Sucking F(r)iends, Highway Hypnosis, War Pigs, Dracula/Wolfman Theme, You’ve Got a Friend in Me, Black Magic Woman, L-O-V-E, Dealing Despair, Wolfman Theme, Home, Wolfman’s Brother, Bitin’ List, Li’l Red Riding Hood, Bark at the Moon
- Encore: Werewolves of London, Monster Mash
11/1:
Set 1: My Alice, Whisper My Name, Malfunction Junction>The Fire on My Tongue>Malfunction Junction, Crossing Muddy Waters, Heartbeat of America, Down in the Hollow, Joseph’s Dream / Get No Better, Home of the Red Fox, Ole Slew-Foot
Set 2: Seven Weeks in County, Ernest T. Grass, Know It All, John Deere Tractor, Gild the Lily, Harbor of Love, Dust in a Baggie, Cold, Cold World, Be Your Man, Gone a Long Time, Tennessee Stud, Away From the Mire
Encore: Running on Empty, Back on the Train
