Buena Vista, Colo. —
The second day of Billy Strings’ third annual Renewal festival was another day packed full of musical surprises and appearances from William Apostol himself. The band played another outstanding performance on the main stage to just about cap the festival, though there was one more set of music on the side stage.
The band opened the show with “Red Daisy,” off 2021’s Renewal LP.
The band segued into “On The Line,” from 2017’s Turmoil and Tinfoil, and while the band’s official setlist does not denote it, they segued into “Train 45,” the track they returned to at the end of the show.
“Away From The Mire,” off 2019’s Home was next.
“Spring lied to us again this year
And still, I can’t stand to face the fear
Will you always laugh about those things?
It’s enough to make a man stay humble
Every day is just a new chance to stumble
Just to end up gone like everything else”
Billy (William Apostol) led things instrumentally here before Billy Failing started up with some solid banjo play as the band jammed a bit on the back end. Royal Masat stood out a bit, too, here on the low end.
From there, Billy Strings covered Drew Emmitt and Bill Nershi’s “New Country Blues.” Failing’s banjo and Jarrod Walker’s mandolin got a good workout.
The opening lines from the next song “Fire Line,” seemed about perfect for this somewhat chilled, windy evening.
“It’s a careless wind that carries me
across the great divide”
Billy Strings brought the instrumental fire to this song.
Fiddler Alex Hargreaves had some major contributions to that heat and the band segued into the instrumental “Running the Route,” off Renewal and written and arranged by Walker and Christian Ward. Hargreaves kept up the fiddling mastery on this one, and Apostol was quite involved, as well.
The band cohesively had a real locomotive vibe, by design for sure, though Apostol, who seemed to be conducting this train, did have some delicate phrasing on one passage.
They segued, naturally, into Bill Monroe’s instrumental “Blue Grass Breakdown,” the unit carrying that steam into this number that seemed to climb higher into the surrounding mountain peaks, driven to higher altitudes by Walker’s mandolin.
“Hellbender,” off Renewal was next, followed by Apostol’s original “Cabin Song,” which was first debuted in March, according to billybase.net.
Clarence Ashley’s “Old Man At The Mill,” was next, and Walker’s mandolin was prominent between some of the verses on this old song. The back end got spacey, and Billy cranked up his electric, psychedelic pedal as they rolled into John Hartford’s “All Fall Down,” which was the top highlight of the first set for me.
The band was on fire even before Apostol addressed the opening lines of this classic song.
Failing’s banjo was ready to combust throughout, and Billy sounded electric even keeping things acoustic. He ripped, and ripped hard. Masat and Walker figured big into this jam, which turned quite psychedelic.
Apostol used trippy vocal effects as he returned to the songs lyrics coming out of that heated jam.
I thought the set should have ended right there, but that’s not to criticize the decision to cover the traditional “I’ve Been All Around The World,” and then close out the set covering Jeff Austin’s “Run Down.”
The former hadn’t been played in 65 shows, according to billybase.net.
The second set mustered even more energy and was a fitting way to close out two incredible days on the main stage.
They opened the set with “Dust In A Baggie” off Billy Strings’ self-titled 2016 EP. The popular song was a great jam vehicle that segued into Pink Floyd’s “Brain Damage.”
The banjo play on this version was notable, and the song was a highlight of the show for me.
“Love and Regret,” with its “Down by the river” opening line seemed like a nod to the host property, The Meadows, where Cottonwood Creek flows through.
“Doin’ Things Right,” from Turmoil & Tinfoil saw more elevated banjo play from Failing. The band took this deep, with Billy shredding on guitar, Masat taking a solo and funks down, though the band follows him, especially Hargreaves. The band gets funkier as the jam proceeds, and Billy takes some time to shine near the end.
The band returned the LP Renewal with “This Old World.”
The band’s explosive instrumental powers were on display again with the cover of Ronnie Bowman and Dan Tyminski’s “Ernest T. Grass,” which started up with a bit of banjo and guitar play before highlighting mandolin and fiddle. It was a great jam that Billy led into the galaxy, with Masat laying down a space funk structure. The band ripped here and built to a crescendo accented expertly via banjo and fiddle to new peaks in the show.
If you didn’t know where things stood, trippy electric laser gun effects told you where: Outer Space.
Though the band wasn’t done with heavy instrumentation, they segued into Renewal’s “Secrets,” and Apostol’s vocals put a hot stretch of jamming on pause.
Fans were pleased with the band’s next choice, “Home” the self-titled track of the band’s LP released in 2019. I was hoping that they would stretch this one out myself. They didn’t disappoint, as Apostol took things slow and dark before hitting an electric guitar effect, while Masat maintained a great foundation for Billy to launch from.
Though the show was rounding the bend, there was a great stretch left. Shadow Grass guitarist Kyser George and banjoist Clay Russell were brought up on stage and stayed there until the very end. Apostol had played earlier in the day with Shadow Grass, who opened the festival Friday and played three sets on Saturday. Billy Strings also played an unscheduled set at 1 p.m.
But here the expanded ensemble launched into a cover of David Grisman’s “E.M.D. (Eat My Dust),” and nobody on stage was playing around. They started it out hot, and Hargreaves was active early. Failing had some major contributions here, but so did Russell on banjo, as did George.
“You can really pick,” Apostol told the two guests after the song concluded.
They proceeded to cover “Doin’ My Time,” which again got into experimental space with the Shadow Grass fellas, particularly Russell, adding to the display before they segued back to “Train 45” to close the set.
But even though the sound curfew had been reached, Apostol decided to play one more.
“I don’t think anyone will get too pissed,” he said. “We got one more bluegrass song because it’s what’s for breakfast.”
They cranked out Bill Monroe’s “Uncle Pen,” where Hargreaves’ fiddle shined a bit though the song was played pretty straightforward.
Apostol wasn’t done for the night. He emerged on the side “Soapbox” stage afterwards in the final scheduled set of the festival with Della Mae, who along with East Nash Grass, had earlier in the day appeared on the main stage.
In the end, I was glad I made it out to this fest. I love Billy Strings, and I hope he returns here next year. It’s hard to imagine a better spot for a music festival of this size (7,500 or so people).