Our last experience with Billy Strings earlier this year was so overwhelmingly positive that it seemed fairly obvious that we would be back. Fortunately, the opportunity came sooner than later. Thanks to a generous follower on twitter, we were able to secure a ticket to this very sold-out show featuring Billy Strings playing on the South Street Seaport rooftop this past Wednesday.

While the buzz after this event was the appearance of Phish’s Trey Anastasio for the last half of the second set, my personal experience was more focused on the continual growth of Billy Strings as a performer. We have always been entranced by the sheer virtuosity of Strings’ guitar playing and the wizardry of the band as a whole, and we were able to confirm those expectations at the Cap in February. But this performance at Pier 17 raised the bar even higher. Joined by fiddler extraordinaire Alex Hargreaves (who later in the tour apparently agreed to become a permanent band member), the quintet performed a flawless first set of Strings material and choice covers.

With the backdrop of the NYC skyline and the Brooklyn Bridge, the juxtaposition of the city center with bluegrass music seemed to motivate both the band and the song choices. The cover of John Hartford’s 1976 classic “In Tall Buildings” was most poignant, although several numbers drew upon the rural/urban dichotomy for inspiration. When the set closed with Strings’ apparent hard-life autobiographical and compositionally brilliant “Turmoil & Tinfoil” this night had already delivered exactly what we had come to see. But there was clearly more to come.

The band started the second set with Hargreaves shining throughout an instrumental run through the traditional “Sally Goodin”. Ultimately the set evolved into the show’s highlight – a furious nearly 20-minute “Meet Me at the Creek”, that managed to remain vital and driving for its entire improvisational five-member instrumental segment. As had been rumored in crowd whispers all night, the appearance of Trey Anastasio was not entirely surprising, but quite welcome. It certainly motivated Billy. The five-song mini-set with the star guest featured a couple of Phish numbers, but it was the three bluegrass covers where the massive amount of talent on stage truly excelled. At the end, this show instantly catapulted into a “best of year” category and we continue to be amazed at the level of excellence achieved by this band. See you at Nassau in November!

I recorded this set in an ad hoc roped-off taper’s section next to the soundboard with the outdoors-friendly Neumann large diaphragm mics. While the wind ultimately cooperated and rarely can be heard during this recording, the crowd yapping is a problem during quiet moments. Fortunately, the venue’s sound quality and the superb mix by uber-talented FOH Andy Lytle provided us with the ingredients for an excellent capture, and I’m still quite pleased with this recording. Enjoy!

Download the Complete Show from Archive.org [HERE]

Stream the Complete Show:

Billy Strings
2022-06-29
Pier 17
New York NY

Digital Master Recording
Recorded at Soundboard Cage

Neumann TLM-102s > Sound Devices 744t > 2 x 24bit 48kHz wav files > Soundforge (post-production) > CDWave 1.95 (tracking) > TLH > flac (320 MP3 and tagging via Foobar)

Recorded and Produced by nyctaper

Setlist:
Set 1 [Total Time 1:08:26]
01 Red Daisy
02 End of the Rainbow [Frank Wakefield]
03 Running The Route
04 Hellbender
05 Dust In a Baggie
06 Dealing Despair
07 [banter]
08 Watch It Fall
09 In Tall Buildings [John Hartford]
10 Home
11 Fearless [Pink Floyd]
12 [banter – rooftop]
13 Turmoil and Tinfoil

Set 2 [Total Time 1:20:15]
14 Sally Goodin
15 Must Be Seven
16 Meet Me at the Creek
17 16-16 [David Grisman]
18 Close By [Bill Monroe]
19 Back on the Train
20 Love and Regret
21 I’m Blue I’m Lonesome [Bill Monroe]
22 All Fall Down [John Hartford]
23 My Love Comes Rolling Down [Watson Family]
24 Gotta Jibboo

*Tracks 19 through 24 with Trey Anastasio

SUPPORT Billy Strings: Website / Bandcamp