Billy Strings Goes All In on New Year’s Eve Finale, with Debuts, Bust-Outs and Covers of Phish, Pearl Jam, The Beatles and More

Photo Credit: Stevo Rood

Last night, Dec. 31, Billy Strings assumed the spotlight and stepped into 2025 with a triumphant staging at New Orleans’ UNO Lakefront Arena. For the third and final night of his annual New Year’s Eve series, the bluegrass pioneer leaned heavily on the run’s gambling theme, delivering an awe-inspiring three-set, 36-song show packed with fan-favorite covers, bust-outs and live debuts that stirred a sense of good luck heading into the new year.

To set off the evening’s festivities, Strings rolled the dice with a brand new cover of Merle Travis’ twangy, high-spirited country classic “I’m a Natural Born Gamblin’ Man,” then turned to his own tunes with the recent Highway Prayers standout “Leaning on a Travelin’ Song.” The band looked back to Renewal with “Running the Route,” then merged into a cover of Jackson Browne’s “Running on Empty” between further original road stories before hitting it big with a bust-out of JD Crowe & The New South’s “Blackjack,” which they last staged in Sept. 2021.

Fortune kept smiling as the faithful ensemble–featuring fiddler Alex Hargreaves, bassist Royal Masat, banjoist Billy Failing and mandolinist Jarrod Walker–blew through “In the Morning Light” en route to Greensky Bluegrass’ “Reverend,” then burned rubber with a segued first frame finale of “Must Be Seven” and the Robert Hunter-penned “Thunder.” They tore into the second set with a debut of Townes Van Zandt’s “Mr. Mudd and Mr. Gold,” which was preceded by another Van Zandt debut of “Don’t Let the Sunshine Fool Ya” on Dec. 29, then followed that hot streak into “Everything’s the Same” and a debut of Flatt & Scruggs’ “Someone Took My Place With You,” led by Hargreaves.

Strings brought on yet another debut as they conjured the stormy country blues of Red Lane’s “Blackjack County Chain,” then issued top-tier performances of two more Highway Prayers cuts before launching into Phish’s “Back on the Train.” The covers kept rolling in when the group picked on Bill Emerson’s “Home of the Red Fox,” Johnny Horton’s “Old Slew-Foot” and George Gershwin’s “Summertime,” plotting a solid string of understated classics to ease the show’s pulse. It wasn’t long before Strings slammed on the gas again with “Long Forgotten Dream” and ripped through the end of the second set with a medley of Alice in Chains’ “Nutshell” and his own “Wargasm.”

Billy and the band rode again just before midnight, coasting into the new year with “Turmoil and Tinfoil” before marking the passage into 2025 with “Auld Lang Syne.” After a beat, they floored it again through “Thirst Mutilator,” “Running” and “California Sober.” Masat took the lead for a cover of The Beatles’ “I’ll Cry Instead,” then Billy summoned his best Eddie Vedder for a cover of Pearl Jam’s iconic “Elderly Woman Behind the Counter in a Small Town.”

Strings and company picked a winner with Creedence Clearwater Revival’s “Proud Mary,” which they played last in Dec. 2021. The group then let that windfall ride into “My Alice,” “Leadfoot” and J.J. Cale’s “Ride Me High.” Finally, after Walker led a cover of Crowe’s “You Can Have Her,” the band formally bid a fond farewell to 2024.

After an incredible year, Strings has earned a moment of reprieve. The bluegrass firebrand will return to the road later this month to kick off his Winter Tour, which begins with a Jan. 24 performance at Denver’s Ball Arena. For tickets and more information, visit billystrings.com/#tour.

See the complete setlist from New Year’s Eve below.

12.31.24 | New Orleans, LA 🎰 pic.twitter.com/7e9RenontX

— Billy Strings (@BillyStrings) January 1, 2025