Until last week, when I attended one of his concerts, I had a very different view of Billy Strings as a musician. Now, again, after attending one of his concerts, I understand. However, I remain completely bewildered by the makeup and behavior of the fans flocking to see him.
I first heard of Billy Strings soon after moving to Asheville. He seemingly comes here every winter and is so popular that he does a 2-3 night weekend-long “residency,” that fans pay obscenely high prices for, sit for hours in line outside Harrah’s Cherokee Event Center to guarantee an excellent floor seat for, and attend donning their best Rastafarian cosplay. Because of this—mainly the Rastafarian cosplay and the way fans effusively talk about “Billy Strings maaaaaan”—I was under the impression that Billy Strings was some Grateful Dead/Phish jam band hybrid with its own annoying subculture that’s been around forever.
Nope.
Billy Strings is a 31-year-old bluegrass musician who really just gained prominence in 2017. His music isn’t particularly psychedelic. It’s not jam band-y. Now, I don’t know a ton about him personally, but sonically, there is nothing about his sound that denotes tie-dye, psychedelics, or getting so high you can’t function and dancing like how you think people danced at Woodstock…and yet…that was very much the experience I had with the crowd at the Billy Strings show.
I attended his recent Friday show in Asheville because a friend had extra tickets. I had nothing else to do, and I was curious about this man; that’s such a big deal here in Asheville. Had I known he was a bluegrass musician, I probably would’ve jumped at the chance since I’m a bluegrass fan, but again, to me, you listen to bluegrass at, like, a brewery on a Sunday afternoon, wearing jeans, flannel…well, really just wearing whatever you wear because bluegrass is unpretentious and for the people—bluegrass is very come-as-you-are. People definitely dressed up for Billy Strings. It felt like Coachella costumes but without the money.
To me, listening to bluegrass is also a very sit-down experience. It’s a show. You sit and watch and eat or drink while doing so, and maybe you tap your foot or clap your hands along, and sure, perhaps there are some people dancing up by the band, but in general, it’s a low-key affair. The crowd at Billy Strings was up on their feet, flailing their arms, clogging the aisles, and generally really getting down to the music. They also gave themselves a lot of high fives.
AND YET.
It was 100% a traditional bluegrass show. I really liked it and will start adding some Billy Strings to my Spotify rotation. However, I remain wholly perplexed by the juxtaposition between his music and the behavior of his Ashevillian fans.
AshevilleExplorer 