Billy Strings Begins New Year’s Eve Series in New Orleans with Debut Covers of Townes Van Zandt and Tony Rice

Photo Credit: Stevo Rood

2024 is racing to a close and New Year’s Eve residency season is now in full swing. Last night, Dec. 29, Billy Strings took the stage at New Orleans’s UNO Lakefront Arena, where he set off his third consecutive year-ending stand at the venue with a thrilling series opener. Through the evening, the pathbreaking bluegrass powerhouse celebrated a year of immense musical achievement with two sets and 24 tracks, including regular allusions to the three-night run’s gambling theme and debut covers of Townes Van Zandt and Tony Rice.

Strings took the stage in The Big Easy to the tune of the genre standard “If I Lose” alongside his trusty backing quartet of fiddler Alex Hargreaves, bassist Royal Masat, banjoist Billy Failing and mandolinist Jarrod Walker, then merged into the cherished 2021 original “Red Daisy.” An explosive segued cycle followed, setting a tone of restless and dynamic experimentation for the NYE series as the band tore through the recent Highway Prayers fan-favorite “Seven Weeks in County,” “Pyramid Country,” “The Fire on My Tongue” and “Fire on the Mountain,” which arrived as a two-year bust out after debuting in July 2022. The first contemporary cover of the show rolled in as the quintet set up John Hartford’s “I’m Still Here,” then breezed through three further tracks—including more than 15 minutes of intrepid improvisation on Jeff Austin’s “15 Steps”—before the captivating set closer of 2021’s “Secrets.”

Following a brief intermission, Strings and company returned revitalized and charged into the traditional “The Cuckoo,” the original “Slow Train” and well-traveled covers of Johnny Winter’s “Ain’t Nothing to Me” and Danny Barnes’ “Pretty Daughter.” The artist turned to his own catalog with 2019’s unforgettable “Home” and his recent romp “Happy Hollow,” then looked forward to a new entry with a debut cover of “Don’t Let the Sunshine Fool Ya,” first performed by Van Zandt on his legendary 1972 album The Late Great Townes Van Zandt.

Strings kept the covers coming as he shuffled on to his second-ever treatment of Gordon Lightfoot’s classic “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald,” which served as a springboard for the second set’s triumphant jam centerpiece. After another original, the bandleader opened up his debut of the traditional “Temperance Reel,” which features famously on Rice’s 1977 self-titled third album. Billy’s well-noted reverence for Rice led the cover to land as a heartfelt tribute to the late bluegrass guitar icon, priming the band and audience for a fiery run of Eddie Noack’s “Psycho” and Strings’ original “Away From the Mire” that closed the second set and an encore of Bill Monroe’s essential “Roll On Buddy Roll On.”

Strings will return to UNO Lakefront Arena tonight, then ring in 2025 with a final performance at the venue on Dec. 31. For tickets and more information on Strings’ future touring plans, visit billystrings.com.