Don’t tell my Denver friends, but every once in a while something happens there that makes me a little jelly.
After his Saturday night show (the third and final show of a three-night run at 1st Bank Center), Billy showed up unannounced at Knew Conscious, an intimate 450-person music venue/art gallery/club to sit in with a lineup billed with guitarist Ross James (Terrapin Family Band) and banjoist Andy Thorn of Leftover Salmon and their Electric Dead Grass project featuring bass player Garrett Sayers (The Motet) and drummer Mark Levy (Circles Around the Sun). They jammed until about 4 in the morning — the stuff of my dreams.
Alas, the winter Billy run was not in the cards for me. Had I been in Denver for the 1st Bank shows, I probably would have headed over to Knew Conscious on account of being a fan of both Thorn and Levy. The event was also billed as a Billy Strings afterparty, something that clearly had the blessing of Strings. The venue offered a $5 discount to those wearing or holding a Billy wristband or ticket.
Thorn is one of the most skilled banjo players on the jam grass scene. His playing transcends humanity — he counts a local Colorado red fox among his fans and friends.
Levy is in Circles Around the Sun, that set break project that came out of the 50-year anniversary event for the Grateful Dead. Billy Kreutzmann’s son Justin, a filmmaker who had been tasked with the set break entertainment during that three-day run at Soldier Field in 2015, tapped the late Neal Casal with a request for hours of Dead-inspired instrumentals to fill those pre, set break and post-show periods as pictures of the band through the years rolled on the monitors. The magic that occurred led to the project turning into a nationally touring jam band that has continued even after Casal died in 2019.
Speaking of magic, that appears to be exactly what transpired at Knew Conscious. And thankfully the video (embedded below) from the live stream has been posted on Knew Conscious’ Facebook page. Before Billy showed up on stage, two of his band mates Billy Failing (banjo) and Alex Hargreaves (fiddle) popped up on stage. The heat was turned up a notch or 10 with the dream double ballistic banjo action that closed out a fine cover of “Jack-A-Roe.” Hargreaves has a nice solo in “Catfish John.” The “Althea” that follows is hauntingly good with the addition of fiddle and banjo. Hearing that makes me think Althea was born to be a banjo.
Failing and Hargreaves head off stage as the billed lineup plays a fine “Brown Eyed Woman” featuring a rolling, building banjo solo from Thorn.
James then announces, “Well, we’ve got another friend that’s going to join us here.” Billy jumps on stage as they set into Dead staple “Big River,” a Johnny Cash cover. Strings had a short but sweet solo, before they set into a cover of “Sitting Here in Limbo,” a Jerry Garcia Band staple.
That’s when a hot fire ignites between Billy and Thorn, who pick and weave around each other in an incredibly speedy improvisational tangent. Far from limbo, Levy and Sayers are given the spotlight for more improv on the Jimmy Cliff classic.
The sit in ended on the New Riders of the Purple Sage cover “Panama Red” written by Peter Rowan.
While the collaboration ended there, the magic continued with that beautifully banjo-tinged lineup which launched into “Help on the Way,” then “Slipknot,” followed “Midnight Moonlight,” a funky as hell “The Music Never Stopped,” “Black Peter,” and “Throwing Stones,” and an encore of “One More Saturday Night.” Indeed.
With Billy Strings playing larger and larger venues these days, that was about as small a venue he’s graced, however brief it was.
UPDATE: The embedded video below, which previously included the entire set, was pared down to only “Big River,” as Knew Conscious now plans to stream the performance again on Feb. 8, at 7 p.m. MT.