William Lee Apostol was given his stage name by his aunt Mondi just before her death. A glance at the typical setup at a Billy Strings concert makes everything clear.
This was also the case during the second of as many sold-out performances at the Ronda (TivoliVredenburg). Drums, keyboards, horns… none of it needed.
So the 33-year-old singer-songwriter opted for strings, a whopping 27 of them spread across a mandolin, a stand-up bass, his own acoustic guitar, a banjo, and a violin.
For the die-hard bluegrass fans, it was a two-and-a-half-hour treat!
Billy Strings is one of the young talents who has released six studio albums and two live recordings in the past decade, establishing himself as a household name.
Since his 2017 debut, the man has racked up awards and is a welcome guest on TV shows. Musically, Strings—a master guitarist, by the way—switches between highly traditional bluegrass, including instrumental gems, and more folk-influenced numbers. Live, he doesn’t shy away from covers.
These range from traditionals and old bluegrass gems to songs by rock legends from the seventies. That was exactly what we were treated to that evening at the Ronda.
The setlist included no fewer than 10 cover songs, including Ashland Breakdown (Bill Monroe), Harbor of Love (The Stanley Brothers), Sunny Side of the Mountain (Hank Snow), and… Fearless by Pink Floyd!
That last song was, quite surprisingly, the second song in set two, right after the solo acoustic performance of Guitar Peace. It was performed with respect for the original, and sung beautifully in harmony by the band.
That was about the moment all that nimbly bluegrass inspired the (new?) term “speed grass.” No, I’m not referring to the use of mind-altering substances, but rather an allusion to speed metal.
Because, boy, can Strings really rock. It wasn’t just him, by the way; Jarrod Walker (mandolin), Billy Failing (banjo), and Alex Hargreaves (fiddle) also regularly found themselves in the spotlight, torturing their strings so intensely that smoke seemed to billow from them.
Royal Masat (bass) was the antithesis, the calm amidst the surf, the glue that held everything together.
Every concertgoer has their favorite songs, and for me that night, it was “Seven Weeks in County” from his latest album, “Highway Prayers.” It wasn’t until this album that I truly discovered and appreciated Strings.
I especially like the diversity of influences, because, let’s face it, wading through twenty songs, a vast majority of which are authentic bluegrass, is only for the diehard fans. And of course, there were plenty of them in the Ronda.
No old, pot-bellied, balding white men, mind you. Strings attracts a rather colorful audience, including many women, diverse generations, nationalities—yes, Americans were in the majority—and hip hippies.
There was no sign of traditional cowboy hats, but trucker caps were everywhere. The five musicians closed in a very traditional way, breaking their usual formation for the first time: Freedom and Uncle Pen were beautifully brought together around a single microphone.
A real goosebumps moment.
Let me finish with something truly mind-blowing. When I looked at the setlist from the three previous shows, I could tell that, with the exception of one song, no two songs were the same!
How amazing these musicians must be to perform about 25 different songs every night. How exciting it must be for fans who attend the concerts multiple nights in a row.
Talk about value for money. Or how terribly disappointing (?) when you can only catch one show and your favorite songs have already been played.
True fans, of course, belong to that first group.
