Photo by Jesse Faatz via Billy Strings’ Facebook page

After breaking his leg skateboarding backstage at a show in Virginia this past April, Billy Strings fully returned to the stage over the weekend. The concerts were his first announced gigs in over two months though, as previous reported, Strings sat in with both Primus and Trey Anastasio in his home state of Michigan while he recovered and made a surprise appearance at the 54^th Annual Charlotte Bluegrass Festival in Charlotte, MI on June 26, where he joined The Travelin’ McCourys and The Del McCoury Band. 

On Thursday, July 2, Strings regrouped with his band–Billy Failing (banjo), Royal Masat (upright bass), Jarrod Walker (mandolin) and Alex Hargreaves (fiddle)–for a full two-set show at Austin, TX’s ACL Live at The Moody Theater that was filmed for future broadcast on an episode of Austin City Limits. Then, Strings stuck around the area to appear at Austin’s Germania Insurance Amphitheatre on Saturday as part of Willie Nelson’s 4^th of July Picnic. Notably, Strings nodded to the evening’s host partway through his set by performing “California Sober,” the 2023 song he co-wrote and recorded with Nelson. 

Later in the night, Strings joined Nelson himself for the country great’s classic, show-closing, hootenanny-style mashup of “Will the Circle Be Unbroken?” and “I’ll Fly Away” as well as “I Saw the Light.” As is tradition, members of the extended Nelson family and several other acts on the bill, including Sheryl Crow, Margo Price and the members of Wilco, returned to the stage for the sing-along. The spot capped off a busy day that was full of collaborations: Earlier in the program, Crow invited out fellow festival performer Rodney Crowell for her new number “Freedom Bus” while Wilco brought out Nelson’s veteran harmonica player Mickey Raphael for “California Stars,” their enduring classic from Mermaid Avenue. Lukas Nelson, Particle Kid, Steven Wilson, Jr. and Lily Meola were among the other acts on the bill.

Strings will kick off a run of summer dates at Roanoke, VA’s Berglund Center on July 14. He has also added a few dates to his fall tour. Those new stops include Chattanooga, TN’s Tivoli Theatre on October 20 and 21 and Austin’s Moody Center on December 12.