Billy Strings brings festival feel to sold-out Bridgestone Arena show in Nashville

A night with Billy Strings is not your grandma's bluegrass show.

Instead, he takes everything traditional bluegrass fans love — a banjo, a mandolin, some four-part harmonies and the truth — and layers in a dash of his own headbanging, a rock concert-worthy light show, endless jam sessions, serious vocal chops and three hours of blazing guitar playing and non-stop music.

There were some special surprises on Strings' first of a two-night run of sold-out shows at Bridgestone Arena. He brought out harmonica player Mickey Raphael and bluegrass legend Béla Fleck, who joined in for the last hour or so of the show.

Strings opened the show promptly at 8 p.m. Friday with "Red Daisy," "Hellbender," and "Red Rocking Chair." He welcomed the crowd, saying "I love this place. I've been to many dates here with my wife watching everything from monster trucks to Suicide Boys."

"We're gonna do our best to pick and sing some songs for you and we want you guys to just settle in with us and have a good a** time," he told the crowd. "I know in the bottom of my heart we can just blow the roof of this mother****er."

And then he and his band (Billy Failing – banjo, Royal Masat – bass, Jarrod Walker – mandolin and Alex Hargreaves - fiddle) proceeded to do just that.

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Masat even took a turn on the mic singing Willie Nelson's "Blue Skies," which was a nice segue into his hit "California Sober," which he recorded with Nelson and Raphael. He said when he wrote the song he realized he'd just written a Willie Nelson tune.

After a short intermission, the stage lights pointed at two chairs and a microphone. Fleck walked out, banjo in hand, began to serenade the roaring crowd with his very own rendition of "Rhapsody in Blue."

Strings joined him in the spotlight and the two played "Groundhog" together, then "Boulderdash," one of Fleck's songs. The two traded licks and showed that bluegrass music can straddle banjo pickin' and lightning-fast guitar licks.

After their duet, Strings had to fan girl a little.

"Béla, I've always wanted to tell you that you calling me to play on your record was a huge deal to me," he said to Fleck. "It was a huge validation in my heart and it was a really good deal for me. It helped me believe in myself. We had a great time recording it and it won a Grammy."

Strings and Co. rolled through some of his new, unreleased music, an old gospel tune "Harbor of Love," and gathered at "the can" microphone to sing a few songs that brought a true old-time bluegrass feel.

All in all, Strings turned Bridgestone Arena into an indoor music festival Friday night. Half of the floor was general admission, so the crowd stood, danced and mingled which felt more like Bonnaroo than Bridgestone.

Strings was set to play to another sold-out crowd Saturday night followed by a sold-out show at The Ryman on Sunday.

Melonee Hurt covers music and music business at The Tennessean, part of the USA TODAY NETWORK — Tennessee. Reach Melonee at mhurt@tennessean.com, on X @HurtMelonee or Instagram at @MelHurtWrites.

The Setlist (Friday night)

• "Red Daisy"

• "Hellbender"

• "Red Rocking Chair"

• "Escanaba"

• "All Fall Down"

• "Blue Skies"

• "California Sober"

• "Catch and Release"

• "Crawdad Hole"

• "Hide and Seek"

• "Katy Daly"

• "Am I Born To Die?"

• "Jazz Odyssey" (Vol. 6)

• "Groundhog"

• "Boulderdash"

• "Summertime"

• "John Hardy"

• "Seven Weeks in County"

• "Cabin Song"

• "Love Like Me"

• "Thunder"

• "If Your Hair's Too Long"

• "Freedom"

• "Harbor of Love"

• "Freeborn Man"

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Billy Strings creates festival vibe with three-hour Bridgestone Arena show Friday