Billy Strings Welcomes Jon Stickley for Six-Night, No-Repeat Asheville Run Finale
Photo Credit: Stevo Rood
On Sunday, Feb. 16, Billy Strings stepped into the spotlight at Asheville, N.C.’s ExploreAsheville.com Arena for the final engagement of a six-night residency commenced last weekend, Feb. 6-8, and continued on Friday and Saturday nights. With his last stand in the expansive series, the fearlessly innovative bluegrass posterboy continued to dig deep in his catalog, turning up fan favorites to the last without repeating a single song issued earlier in the run. The artist’s efforts were amplified early on with a sit-in from longtime friend and collaborator Jon Stickley, who lent his guitar talents to a range of genre staples.
Strings set off his final night in Asheville with an eagerly-anticipated treatment of “Dust in a Baggie,” the original tracing back to the outset of his career that has since become his most popular offering. The bluegrass firebrand set further into his discography with “Hellbender,” then diverted to New Grass Revival’s “This Heart of Mine” before merging into the 2017 Turmoil & Tinfoil standout “Dealing Despair.”
Strings and company cut to the chase at the midpoint in their first frame by welcoming local legend Stickley to the stage, who slipped in alongside Billy’s trusty backing quartet to add yet another masterful acoustic voice to the mix. Stickley bolstered renditions of Bill Emerson’s “Home of the Red Fox” and traditionals “Little Maggie” and “I’ve Been All Around This World,” the latter recalling the Grateful Dead’s beloved treatment, before parting with Bill Monroe’s “Big Mon.” In his wake, Strings and the band blazed through to the set break with the sprawling odyssey “Stratosphere Blues/ I Believe in You,” Clarence Ashley’s “Old Man at the Mill” and an explosive set closer of John Hartford’s “All Fall Down.”
Billy returned for his second set with his own “Everything’s the Same,” then broke into bust-outs of Monroe’s classic “Blue Grass Breakdown,” staged for the first time since October 2023, and Béla Fleck’s “Tentacle Dragon (Revenge Of The),” which last reared its head in April 2024. After issuing one of the evening’s most awe-inspiring jams on “Doin’ Things Right,” which featured a quick tease of Bill Withers’ “Use Me,” Strings churned ahead through a thematically centered medley of consistent crowd pleasers “Slow Train,” “On the Line” and “Train 45.”
Another high point in the sixth show arrived with the Highway Prayers standout “Gild the Lily,” into which the frontman embedded an allusion to the Dead’s “The Other One,” which built up just enough steam to rush the ensemble through “The Beginning of the End” and a massive finale of “Meet Me at the Creek.” As a cherry on top, Strings called Stickley back up to join in an encore of “Y’all Come.”
Strings will return to the stage later this week for a double-header at Atlanta’s State Farm Arena on Feb. 21 and 22. For tickets and more information on the artist’s ongoing Winter Tour, visit billystrings.com/tour.
Find the full setlist from Sunday night at billybase.net.
