Photo by Jesse Faatz Photography via Billy Strings’ Facebook page

Billy Strings kicked off his first run of 2026 shows at Athens, GA’s Akins Ford Arena last night. The new arena, which opened in 2024, is part of the college town’s Classic Center conference center and entertainment complex, which opened in 1995 on the footprint of where local club The Mad Hatter Ballroom once stood.

As luck would have it, Friday’s show fell on the 40th anniversary of Athens heroes Widespread Panic’s first official show; though group founders John Bell, Michael Houser and Dave School had already been playing as Widespread Panic since 1985, the band considers its true debut show to be a Feb. 6, 1986 appearance at The Mad Batter Ballroom, Todd Nance’s first gig behind the kit. Nodding to the milestone date and his current location, Strings busted into Panic’s ‘Til the Medicine Takes tune “All Time Low,” which he has often covered since 2019, during his first set. (Strings is a longtime Spreadhead and sat in with the group during all three of their recent New Year’s Eve gigs in Atlanta.)

The tributes continued later in the show when Strings used his encore to honor Bob Weir, who passed away on January 10. For his first public performance since the Grateful Dead co-founder’s death, Strings kicked off his encore with “Me and My Uncle,” the John Phillips classic Weir made his own in 1969 and continued to perform with his various projects for decades. Following that cover, which Strings had been playing since his early days but shelved after May 5, 2022, the bluegrass star closed his show with Weir’s enduring Ace song “Cassidy,” a tune Strings first performed at Port Chester, NY’s Capitol Theatre in 2021 but had not played since May 7, 2022–during a show at Nashville’s Ryman that featured an extended appearance from Weir himself.

Strings and Weir have collaborated several times in recent years, including during Dead & Company’s Dead 60 celebration in Golden Gate Park last summer, though Strings has shied away from playing Dead tunes during his own shows in recent years. The guitarist will return to Akins Ford Arena tonight.