Billy Strings Echoes Distant Past In Margaret’s Court
I’m heartbroken and I'm feeling low-down
I'm sick and tired of the life I live around this old town
and I'm getting tired of crying over you
so honey, here's what I'm gonna do
I'm taking the slow train for a long ride
I'm gonna stay a long time/ losing an old love, starting a new life
I'm takin' the slow train, leaving tonight
well, I'm as lonesome as a soul could be
I've got to find someone who cares a little bit for me
and I'm getting tired of going down the track
still, honey, I ain't never coming back.
Slow Train - Drumm Leroy Maxey - Freeman Calvin Lee.
The sun peeped through the cool winter clouds as a diverse army of bluegrass and Americana music fans escaped the evening chill near the empty MCG stadium to find an aromatic arena near the Yarra.
Michigan born bluegrass star Billy Strings pre-concert P.A. featured the music of his slightly older mentor and duet partner Shotgun Willie Nelson, now 92 and on the road again.
It was many moons since Willie graced this city with his singing, songwriting and golfing skills with late Texan Rhodes scholar singer-songwriter actor Kris Kristofferson.
But as soon as Billy, born William Apostol, and his band hit the stage his high-flying antics earned him the imagery of the Bailey Smith of bluegrass.
Strings, now 32, didn’t need Patrick Dangerfield and Max Holmes to kick his bluegrass ball out of the centre to Cats country music spearhead and farmer Jeremy Cameron.
The seven-time Grammy winner had his Oregonian fiddler Alex Hargreaves and mandolinist Jarrod Walker, banjo ace Billy Failing and double bassist Royal Masat driving their dynamics.
Strings lost his musician mum Debra Apostol on June 20, just hours after he returned to Michigan to perform at the Charlotte Bluegrass Festival on June 19 but he was acting out her tutelage tonight with delicious dexterity.
He opened his set with his melancholic Slow Train before hitting top gear with the riveting Hide And Seek and Hellbender that he wrote with Aaron Allen and Jon Weisberger.
It was clear his debut Australian concert may have expanded the boundaries of old school bluegrass to a cosmic collision with Americana in The Fire On My Tongue, also written with Allen and Weisberger.
But the traditionalists were not forgotten as he revived Octogenarian Bob Dylan’s Drifter’s Escape and St James Hospital.
He reminded fans that it was his first time in Australia and proudly announced “I’m going to do some picking for you.”
He did that on his Preston Thompson Billy Strings signature model dreadnought guitar.
Billy saluted a small town near his Ionia, Michigan, birthplace in their instrumental Escanaba that preceded his original Richard Petty Acoustic.
Strings and his band may have been playing different strings but they reached deep into the past for Stanley Brothers classic Love Me, Darling, Just Tonight and Bill Monroe and the Bluegrass Boys hit Uncle Pen.
Billy’s partners in rhyme performed his original Home before joining Billy at stage-front for Pink Floyd cover Fearless midst a volley of a cappella tunes that enabled them to prove their vocals were as impeccable as their musicianship.
The singer’s humour and humility peaked as he then announced a mid-concert break as he suggested fans “go and have a piss and grab a beer.”
Outside in the foyers patrons were advised over the PA system where they could go for a vape and smoke.
Dust In A Strings Baggie
I ain't slept in seven days, haven't ate in three Methamphetamine has got a damn good hold of me my tweaker friends have got me to the point of no return I just took the lighter to the bulb and watched it burn this life of sin (life of sin) has got me in (has got me in) well it's got me back in prison once again I used my only phone call to contact my daddy I got twenty long years for some dust in a baggie well if I would have listened to what Mom and Papa said I wouldn't be locked up in prison, troubled in the head but I took that little pop and sucked until my mind was spun I got twenty years to sit and think of what I've done. - Dust In A Baggie - Billy Strings-Don Julin.
Strings made the most of his stage exit by greeting guests backstage before returning with his band exhibiting the energy of premiership winning cats or tennis racket wielding grass court gauchos.
They opened with Strings original I’m One Of Those before igniting Turmoil & Tinfoil with a slice of Rattlesnake by King Gizzard and another original Love And Regret.
The farmers who hit the big smoke after milking and cropping were rewarded with his revamp of Larry Sparks penned hit John Deere Tractor.
The band punctuated Billy’s traditional flashback Dusty Miller and Jimi Hendrix classic Love Or Confusion with his original Dust In A Baggie penned with Don Julin.
Billy’s Dust Baggie was one of his several originals they performed from his fourth album Highway Prayers that he released in 2024.
It was clear that the enthusiastic audience knew the song as they provided mosh pit harmonies and glowing phones.
Dust In A Baggie detailed Billy’s early career drugs experiments but he never finished behind bars like the song’s anti-hero who had to answer to his musician parents.
Equally accessible were the dynamics of another Strings original My Alice and traditional covers The Train That Carried My Girl From Town and Black Mountain Rag.
Strings, lauded for his diverse set lists announced he was going to accentuate that by pulling a song out of his arse.
My eyesight in the dark and hearing prevented me from identifying which song emerged from his rear end but his audience responded with gusto as he performed his originals Gild The Lily and Pyramid Country and the aptly named cover of Eddie Noack’s Psycho.
It seemed fitting that Strings finished his set with the late Johnny Horton’s Old Slew-Foot.
The singer’s band joined him at the stage front overlooking the moist mosh-pit but it was clear there would be an encore.
It wasn’t long before they returned to rapturous applause for their inspired revamps of the Stanley Brothers Harbor Of Love and The Osborne Brothers Big Spike Hammer.
The show finished on a high as fans headed to their cars, trucks, buses, trams and trains with no need of hammers for protection.
This was a music loving audience of all ages with no animosity or angst who enjoyed the crystal-clear vocals and highly audible instrumentation from the superb sound desk engineers.
CONCERT SET LIST ONE
1 – Slow Train
2 – Hide and Seek
3 – Hellbender
4 – The Fire on My Tongue
5 – Drifter’s Escape (Bob Dylan cover)
6 – St. James Hospital ([traditional] cover)
7 – Escanaba
8 – Richard Petty Acoustic
9 – Love Me, Darling, Just Tonight (The Stanley Brothers cover)
10 – Uncle Pen (Bill Monroe and the Bluegrass Boys cover)
11 – Home
12 – Fearless (Pink Floyd cover)
CONCERT SET LIST TWO
1 – I’m One of Those
2 – Turmoil & Tinfoil with Rattlesnake by King Gizzard
3 – Love and Regret
4 – John Deere Tractor (Larry Sparks cover)
5 – Dusty Miller ([traditional] cover)
6 – Dust in a Baggie (Billy Strings & Don Julin song)
7 – Love or Confusion (The Jimi Hendrix Experience cover)
8 – My Alice
9 – The Train That Carried My Girl From Town ([traditional] cover
10 – Black Mountain Rag ([traditional] cover)
11 – Gild the Lily
12 – Psycho (Eddie Noack cover)
13 – Pyramid Country
14 – Ole Slew-Foot (Johnny Horton cover)
Encore:
1 – Harbor of Love (The Stanley Brothers cover)
2 – Big Spike Hammer (The Osborne Brothers cover)
Review by David Dawson
Photos – Valerie Lee
