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The 2023 NCAA March Madness Music Festival will offer up headlining sets from Lil Nas X, Tim McGraw, Keith Urban and Little Big Town. The free ticketed three-day event slated to take place at Discovery Green Park in Houston from March 31-April 2 will also feature performances from Maggie Rogers and Mickey Guyton.
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Fans can register for free tickets here now. The April 1 lineup will have Rogers tipping off the action on the Move by Coca-Cola Stage, with Lil Nas closing things out. The Next night’s Capital One JamFest will feature Little Big Town and Guyton opening for headliners McGraw and Urban; performers and registration information for the AT&T Black party on March 31 will be announced at a later date.
Capital One debit/credit cardholders will get exclusive early access to tickets for the JamFest beginning March 8 at 10 a.m. ET through March 10 at 10 a.m. ET, or while supplies last. Fans can stream Sunday’s live performances on NCAA.com and Bleacherreport.com.
Last year’s March Madness Music Festival at Woldenberg Park in New Orleans had sets from Lucky Daye, BIA, The Kid LAROI, Khalid, Imagine Dragons, Macklemore, Grouplove and Trombone Shorty and Orleans Avenue.
Warner Bros. Discovery Sports/ CBS Sports will broadcast all 67 games from the 2023 NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Championship across TBS, CBS, TNT and truTV. CBS will air the Division I Men’s Final Four, beginning with the Division I Men’s National Semifinals on April 1, then the Division I Men’s National Championship on April 3 from Houston.
A “bonfire” at Dolly’s! Ashley McBryde revealed during her Wednesday (March 1) appearance on The Jennifer Hudson Show that she once accidentally set a fire while house-sitting for Dolly Parton.
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The “Bonfire at Tina’s” singer shared that when she was younger, she and Parton’s niece were in charge of looking after the country icon’s home while construction workers were remodeling its lake house, and she accidentally set fire to a microwave while trying to heat up Bagel Bites.
“We set the microwave on fire on accident in a newly wallpapered room. Bagel Bites are delicious … but you have to be careful. You don’t want to be that person! Like, ‘Oh you know that girl set Dolly’s house on fire.’ “I grabbed [the microwave], it was fully on fire, I grabbed it and took it outside,” McBryde told Hudson, who wouldn’t help but laugh.
Parton, however, wasn’t upset with McBryde over the incident. “Dolly is such a sweet person. When she found out about it, she gave me the microwave,” the 39-year-old shared. “She gave me the microwave because I just moved to town. I was broke, I didn’t have a microwave. It smelled like burnt bowling shoes. I used it for like a year and a half.”
McBryde previously opened up about the incident in an interview with Audacy’s Rob + Holly at the Faster Horses Festival. As it turns out, Parton’s niece was the one who put the Bagel Bites in the microwave that cause it to catch fire, not her.
“I do take the blame for [the fire] because I’m the one who removed the on-fire microwave out of the house, but it was honestly her niece,” she shared. “She stuck a whole box of Bagel Bites in there — like, in the box and then ‘beep,’ there it goes in a freshly wallpapered room.”
Watch McBryde talk about the incident above.
Country Music Hall of Fame band Alabama is set to revive its annual June Jam charity event after a 26-year hiatus, returning to its roots in Fort Payne, Ala., at the VFW Fairgrounds on June 3. Alabama’s Randy Owen and Teddy Gentry will headline the event, with special guests to be announced in the coming weeks.
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Alabama’s Fan Appreciation Week will also be held in the days leading up to June Jam, with events including a talent contest, a songwriters concert, a brunch at Cook Castle for the Jeff & Lisa Cook Foundation, and “Fandemonium” at Owen’s farm. Additionally, a public celebration of life event will be held to honor the late Alabama co-founder Jeff Cook, who died in November 2022 at age 73 following a battle with Parkinson’s Disease.
When the first June Jam benefit concert was held in 1982, more than 30,000 fans attended. By 1991, the event was bringing 67,000 fans to Fort Payne, resulting in one of the most well-attended country music events across the nation. The event has raised more than $15 million for charities, and has hosted entertainers including Dolly Parton, Garth Brooks, Charley Pride, Charlie Daniels, Alan Jackson, The Judds, Tim McGraw, Trisha Yearwood and Willie Nelson.
“Our wishes are that Fort Payne will take June Jam and it will go on forever,” lead singer Randy Owen said via a statement. “We lost Jeff, and when me and Teddy are gone, hopefully the city will continue with the June Jam. We want this to continue to help the city, the town, the state, and just help people in general.”
Alabama Fan Club presale ticket purchases are available now via ticketmaster.com, while tickets will go on sale to the general public on March 1 at 10 a.m. CT via ticketmaster.com and at the Alabama Fan Club & Museum in Fort Payne, Ala. June Jam is presented by Outback Presents and Tony Conway Entertainment.
The group’s hometown of Fort Payne recently honored the band with the V.I. Prewett Lifetime Achievement Award from the Fort Payne Chamber of Commerce, recognizing the group for its decades of giving back to the community.
HARDY just released a six-track collection of live performances via Apple Music, titled Apple Music Sessions: HARDY, and it includes a cover of a Stone Temple Pilots classic.
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The collection includes renditions of HARDY songs “Wait in the Truck” (featuring Lainey Wilson) as well as “A Rock,” but also a version of STP’s 1994-released hit “Big Empty,” which reached the top 5 on Billboard‘s Mainstream Rock Airplay chart.
“Big Empty” was originally released as part of the soundtrack to the film The Crow, and Stone Temple Pilots later included it on their second album, Purple, and released it as a single.
Of course, HARDY has been crushing things on the rock charts lately, in part thanks to the country-rock duality of his recent studio album, The Mockingbird & The Crow.
In 2021, HARDY released a rendition of Puddle of Mudd’s “Blurry” to rock radio and saw it reach the top 20 on Billboard‘s Hot Hard Rock Songs chart. HARDY previously told Billboard that he had considered releasing “Big Empty” instead of “Blurry” back in 2021.
“‘Blurry’ just fit my brand more,” he said. “We were testing the waters of rock radio to see if they would bite,” he says. “I’m thankful because rock is really intentional. You intentionally have to go there for it to be accepted and I’m thankful they have let me in that world a bit.”
He followed with the No. 1 Hard Rock Songs chart hit “Sold Out,” and earned three other top 10 Hard Rock chart songs from his The Mockingbird & The Crow album, with “.30-06,” “I Ain’t in the Country No More,” and “Radio Song,” featuring A Day to Remember’s Jeremy McKinnon.
Dustin Lynch’s new single, “Stars Like Confetti,” could have long-term consequences for his bottom line.
On one hand, if it succeeds, it could keep fans buying tickets to see Lynch sing it live for years. On the other hand, if “Confetti” becomes a signature song, it pretty much requires he blast celebratory bits of paper and mylar into his concert audiences nightly. And that comes with a cost.
“If this song becomes a hit, I guarantee you we’re going to need more trucks [to get] confetti blowers behind the stage every night,” he says.
That’s just one of the extra expenses. “Not only do you have to get it there, you’ve got to have people to operate it,” he adds. “And then with something like confetti, you have to have a cleanup crew. All those things go into the equation.”
“Stars Like Confetti” actually has its roots in Thomas Rhett’s concert productions — and in a family vacation. He and his wife, Lauren Akins, took their kids to Montana, and the state lived up to its Big Sky Country nickname, impressing one of his daughters. “In Montana, you see stars for years,” Rhett notes. “The light pollution in Montana is like zero, and so we were looking up at the stars, and Willa Gray said something like ‘Hey, that looks like the confetti from your show.’ ”
The comment became a teachable moment. “We just started to have a conversation about how God made the stars and how some of those stars are really old,” he says. “And sometimes those stars aren’t there anymore, but we’re just now seeing the light from the star. I’m not a scientist, but I was trying to tell her the scientific facts about stars, as well as I knew.”
Naturally, Rhett logged “Stars Like Confetti” as a possible song title, and he popped it out early in the pandemic during a Zoom songwriting session with Zach Crowell (“Body Like a Back Road,” “Sunrise, Sunburn, Sunset”) and Josh Thompson (“I’ll Name the Dogs,” “Ain’t Always the Cowboy”) on April 17, 2020. It was Crowell’s first experience writing via the video hookup, and he remembers it being awkward. But the nuts and bolts of the process — attempting to match words and music in a way that sticks with listeners — was pretty much the same.
“What in the world do we rhyme ‘confetti’ with?” asks Crowell rhetorically. “Do we say ‘Yeti’ in there? I’m surprised we didn’t.”
“Stars Like Confetti” suggests a cheery topic, though the narrative needed to fit the sound of the words and the down-to-earth mentality of the typical country plotline. “‘Confetti’,” Crowell says, “is a softer word, so we needed to kind of probably tell the story of a guy and a girl kind of thing.”
So they embraced a narrative about a young couple enjoying the same sky Rhett’s family saw in Montana. “I love that picture of looking at the star-filled skies and feeling like God was literally just taking a handful of confetti, just throwing it out over the universe,” says Rhett. “It turned into this love song about an epic night on a back road.”
They stuffed a bundle of images into the verses, providing enough background to get a sense of the couple and the setting: drinking beers in a rusty, cherry-red pickup on a dirt road, with perfume and physical connection encouraging passion. The pre-chorus used an ascendant melody to provide a sense that the mood and images were leading the listener somewhere. “It’s kind of a tension creator,” Crowell says. “Get ready for the chorus.”
In classic form, that chorus has a singalong quality, rolling optimistically toward its hooky payoff: “Stars like confetti — ah, ah.” The tag cinches the commercial effect, the two “ahs” giving it a punchy finality, with a scooped note in the middle providing an ideal “ah” separation. It was a T-Rhett move.
“During 2020, I was on a big kick of trying to find songs that what you thought was the hook actually wasn’t the hook,” he recalls. “When I listen to ‘Uptown Funk,’ Bruno Mars, ‘Uptown Funk’ is not the hook. The hook is [the horn riff]. That’s the part that you remember. And like, ‘Barefoot Blue Jean Night’ — ‘Whoa-oh-oh, we were livin’ it up’ — you remember the ‘whoas’ way more than you remember ‘on a barefoot blue jean night.’ ”
When they finished writing, Rhett recorded a vocal over acoustic guitar. Crowell started layering instrumental parts over that work tape to build the demo, calling on multi-instrumentalist Devin Malone for an assist. They created most of the final production in the process, and they fully expected Rhett to record it. But he never did.
“I don’t know why I didn’t cut it, to be honest,” says Rhett. “I don’t even recall why that wasn’t in the running. Sometimes I do think that God will just kind of put you off something because it wasn’t for you, because it was for somebody else.”
Once it was clear that Rhett was passing on “Confetti,” Crowell sent a copy of it to Lynch, who was partying with friends on his boat when it arrived on his phone. The group gave him immediate feedback.
“Thomas Rhett was actually singing the demo whenever we heard it for the first time, and everybody loved it,” Lynch remembers. “The best gauge you can have is whenever people that hear a song want to hear it again later in the day, and that was the case with ‘Stars Like Confetti.’ It was a great sign and a great starting point.”
Crowell and Malone used the demo as a foundation for the master recording, keeping an estimated 95% of it in place. Crowell brought in live drums and a handful of other instrumental parts, and the end product included appropriate spare touches — short bursts of guitars and steel that darted in and out of the verses behind the melody, creating a sonic stars-like-confetti effect. Lynch delivered his lead vocal with relative ease.
Broken Bow was bullish on “Stars Like Confetti” from first listen and finally released it to country radio via PlayMPE on Dec. 16, 2022. It rises to No. 45 in its fifth week on Billboard‘s Country Airplay chart. As it moves upward, it seems likely that “Confetti” — bolstered by real-life production and airborne paper bits — could be suitable for American holiday celebrations and parades as 2023 unfolds.
“I’m sure those opportunities are going to present themselves,” says Lynch. “It does sit very well for wonderful TV moments, you know. With all it lends itself to, we can really spice things up with the performance. I’m hoping it connects and we’re offered those opportunities.”
Miranda Lambert is in the mood to celebrate after earning a No. 1 on Billboard‘s Country Airplay chart. “We did good that day y’all,” the country star wrote in a Feb. 27 Instagram post, addressing her songwriting partners Morgan Wallen and Nicolle Galyon, who together crafted Wallen’s current two-week Billboard Country Airplay No. 1 hit, “Thought You Should Know,” a tribute to his mother, Lesli.
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Lambert also shared a photo of herself with Wallen and Galyon in the post, tagging each of them in the photo. “Congrats @morganwallen on your number 1 song ‘Thought You Should Know,’” she captioned the snap. “Proud to be a writer on a song about your mama! This is the first number 1 song I’ve ever had as a writer. … Cheers friends.”
While Lambert has earned seven No. 1 Country Airplay chart hits of her own, “Thought You Should Know” marks Lambert’s first No. 1 solely as a songwriter on a song she isn’t also performing. (She has been a co-writer on some of her own chart toppers, including “Bluebird” and “Heart Like Mine.”)
Galyon also shared her pride in the song’s success, recounting the day the trio wrote the song in August 2020. “Everything about this one feels like a blur. the day it was written (aug ‘20). the life that has transpired since. the fact that it was chosen as a single. the manner in which it rocketed up the charts. it’s been harder for me to absorb as fast as i’ve been running lately,” Galyon wrote in a Feb. 26 Instagram post.
She added, “would be remiss to not give a huge thanks to MW & ML for showing up this day to write (especially when there was no obvious record to write for that day! – a reminder to just write to write). and to @stacytw and the Big Loud radio team for making my first ever big loud single as a writer a big one.” She ended her note with a sweet message to her son, Ford. “and to my fordy, I hope this serves as a reminder to check in on me when i’m old and very grey.. bc i’ve been losing sleep about you since 2015.”
“Thought You Should Know” is on Wallen’s 36-track album One Thing at a Time, which releases Friday (March 3).
After independent duo Muscadine Bloodline’s rapid-fire, flat-picking track “Me on You” went viral in 2022, the independent duo’s Charlie Muncaster and Gary Stanton have found themselves hearing from labels eager to work with them.
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“We’re flattered by that, but it’s just not the right thing for us,” Muncaster tells Billboard via Zoom. “At this point, too, just from a business-savvy perspective, it’s like, ‘How could we be willing to give away a large percentage of our equity, of what we have already built?’ It would be painful, just knowing what we know now after being in the business for eight years — it would be hard to forfeit that, even for the price [of] whatever may be on the other side of the door. We’ve built this team, from booking agents to management and our business manager. It’s like family. We want to keep our team small and take care of those people well.”
Muncaster and Stanton followed their individual musical dreams to Nashville from their Mobile, Alabama hometown before meeting in the city in 2014. Discovering both their geographic and musical connections, they began performing together and issued Muscadine Bloodline’s self-titled EP in 2017. For the past nine years, the duo has built up their fanbase, finally upgrading from a van to a bus last year. Along the way, they’ve become one of Nashville’s indie success stories, earning an RIAA gold record for their 2016 single “Porch Swing Angel” and furthering their audience with last year’s Dispatch to 16th Avenue album.
Stanton and Muncaster cut their teeth writing songs and recording with leading independent Nashville publisher Creative Nation in 2016, before deciding to remain independent.
“When you’re 22 and someone’s willing to pay you to write songs when you’re eating peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, and sharing a room with an air mattress just to make ends meet … We just got in the rat race and got tired of that,” Stanton says. “We did some recording with bigger-name producers, but we realized we missed the feel of just going to Ryan’s basement and feeling like we had a recording home. And since then, of course, his catalog has grown, and he’s grown as an engineer and a producer.”
Their latest album is the 16-track Teenage Dixie, which was released on Feb. 24. The duo revels in nostalgia on the set’s title track, while elsewhere on the album, the lyrics are filled with odes to characters and images of the South — most notably with the unofficial “Devil Went Down to Georgia” sequel “Devil Died in Dixie,” and the Hatfields-and-McCoys tension of “Shootout in Saraland.”
While the album does include a few ballads, such as the sweetly romantic “Azalea Blooms,” the bulk of the set reveals a duo armed with more songs aimed at keeping a live audience on its feet. Muncaster’s industrial-strength vocals add an urgency to songs like “Knife to a Gunfight” and “Pocket Full of ‘90s Country” – the latter of which namechecks numerous ‘90s country artists, including Travis Tritt, Alan Jackson, Brooks & Dunn, Reba McEntire and Martina McBride.
Similarly, the bluesy, a cappella vocal that introduces “Me on You” was tailor-made to draw the attention of those scanning through any playlist.
“Charlie came out of nowhere and was like, ‘Dude, what if [“Me on You”] had a line like ‘Girl, I hope your daddy doesn’t own a gun/ If he does, I’m done, from the things that you’re doing to me.’” Stanton says. “We wanted a lyric kind of drastic, like, ‘What if we started the song with that instead of an intro?’ And if someone’s going to see that on a playlist and they just heard all these mid-tempo, top-40 sounding songs, this is ear-catching.’”
Muscadine Bloodline also eschewed the typical Music Row recording process, opting to record Teenage Dixie with their live band instead of the usual collection of studio musicians who play on the majority of Nashville’s country releases.
“This is the most collaborative we’ve ever been with the band,” Muncaster says. “It was cool to see these guys shine and express their ideas on the music. That freedom makes the live show even better, because during the live shows, these guys aren’t just playing something they’ve rehearsed — they are playing something they’ve created. And it’s helped give the band an identity as well.”
Teenage Dixie reunites Stanton and Muncaster with co-producer Ryan Youmans, who also contributed production duties to 2022’s Dispatch to 16th Avenue. the duo holed up at Youmans’ Amber Sound studio for six weeks. Stanton met Youmans while each was on the road working for another artist. “I was trying to get my foot in the door. I had a camera, so I told a couple of artists that I could make recap videos for concerts,” Stanton says. “They took me on the road and I did my best. I mean, the videos were terrible, but I got paid. Ryan was subbing on bass for one of the guys one weekend and we got to know each other. When Charlie and I got together, the only guy I knew who recorded was Ryan, and the first song we did together was ‘Porch Swing Angel.’”
As their hard-driving music attests, the duo has spent the better part of the past decade on the road, playing everywhere from clubs to arenas — like so many artists, Muscadine Bloodline makes the bulk of its income from touring. In 2023, in addition to the pair’s own headlining shows, they have prime opening slots for Turnpike Troubadours, as well as for Eric Church.
“We were honored when we heard that,” Muncaster says of opening for Church. “We know how particular artists are about who they bring out on the road, so it’s a very prideful moment for us as artists and for what we’ve built, that he wants us to come open shows for him. To have that opportunity to open for one of the GOATs of country music — I mean there’s not an Eric Church album that we can’t pretty much sing front to back.”
The duo, who is repped by Red 11 Music, has worked hard to hone its live show. “If we get you to buy a ticket and come to our show, we’re gonna work to keep you coming back. We ain’t the best-looking guys in country music — I don’t look like Riley Green or Parker McCollum,” Muncaster says with a laugh. “You get one shot of a first impression on audiences, and that’s why we want our shows to be the best they can be.”
As part of Rolling Stone‘s third annual Icons & Influences feature, reigning ACM entertainer of the year Miranda Lambert opened up about the influence of Emmylou Harris as part of Rolling Stone‘s third annual Icons & Influences feature. Lambert said that although she grew up hearing Harris’ music, she discovered Harris’ music in a whole new light when she began writing her own songs around age 16.
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“I think the first song was ‘Two More Bottles of Wine,’ which was written by Delbert McClinton. I’d heard the male version, but it hit harder with her singing, because I had gone through this phase of ‘How do I be a bada– and still be feminine?’ Emmy exuded all of that. Her delivery in a beautiful song like ‘Boulder to Birmingham’ just rips your heart out. But then ‘Two More Bottles of Wine,’ I was like, ‘This girl’s here to party and not take s–t.’ I like this, too.”
Lambert also added that Harris’ 1978 recording “Easy From Now On” inspired not only a tattoo, but also played a role in Lambert’s hit song “Bluebird,” which topped Billboard‘s Country Airplay chart in 2020.
“What I love about Emmylou is when I’ll have no clue which song she wrote and which she didn’t write, because she owns every single thing she does with such grace and heart, and it all kills me,” Lambert said. “‘Easy From Now On’ was another one of those songs, at 18, where I was like, ‘This song is life-changing.’
“I have a huge wild card tattooed on my right arm, a queen of hearts, because the line in that song hit me so hard: ‘Don’t worry ‘bout me, I got a wild card up my sleeve.’ When we were writing my [2019-released] song ‘Bluebird,’ I was like, ‘Can we just do an ode to that?’ The emotion in that song was the same emotion being stated in ‘Easy From Now On.’”
Lambert covered “Easy From Now On” on her 2007 album Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, and added that she would love to cover Harris’ “Red Dirt Girl” at some point.
“I’ve always said from day one, I want a career like Emmy’s, because it’s a never-ending career. She has 26 albums and none of them are the same. Emmy’s got this certain freedom because she sings with whoever she wants, whenever she wants; she covers whatever she wants; she writes whatever songs she wants to write. It’s very inspiring to watch.”
It seems Lambert is well on her way. To date, she has earned seven No. 1 hits on Billboard‘s Country Airplay chart, and last year took home the ACM’s triple crown honor, after earning the ACM’s top new female vocalist honor, female vocalist of the year honor and entertainer of the year honor during her career. Lambert is one of only seven artists that have been honored with the Triple Crown Award, and is the most-awarded artist in ACM Awards history, with 37 total wins.
On Monday (Feb. 27) Miley Cyrus finally revealed the track listing for her upcoming eighth studio album, Endless Summer Vacation. The 13-track collection opens with the singer’s Billboard Hot 100 No. 1 smash “Flowers,” and also features the songs “Jaded,” “”Rose Colored Lenses,” “You,” “Handstand,” “Violet Chemistry,” “Wildcard” and “Wonder Woman,” as well collaborations with Sia (on “Muddy Feet”) and Brandi Carlile (on “Thousand Miles.”)
At press time Cyrus had not release any additional production or songwriting credits for the follow-up to 2020’s Plastic Hearts, which is due out on March 10 on Columbia Records.
“Flowers” is blossoming into one of Cyrus’ biggest hits to date, with six consecutive weeks atop the British singles chart. It is also in the midst of its fifth consecutive week at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100. Additionally, the empowering anthem recently notched Cyrus her third leader on the Pop Airplay chart (dated Feb. 25), becoming the fastest song to reach No. 1 on the chart since 2016 when Justin Timberlake’s “Can’t Stop the Feeling!” made the same leap to the top.
And, in case you were wondering, “Flowers” has already surpassed the three-week No. 1 run of Miley’s “Wrecking Ball,” making it her biggest charting single so far thanks to its hefty streaming and radio airplay numbers. “Flowers” will, however, have some way to go to match the singer’s most-streamed song ever, which is “Party in the U.S.A.,” with more than 970 million on-demand streams to date; “Flowers” has 182 million streams so far.
Check out the full Endless Summer Vacation track list and a video promo from Cyrus below.
Endless Summer Vacation:
“Flowers”
“Jaded”
“Rose Colored Lenses”
“Thousand Miles” (feat. Brandi Carlile)
“You”
“Handstand”
“River”
“Violet Chemistry”
“Muddy Feet” (feat. Sia)
“Wildcard”
“Island”
“Wonder Woman”
“Flowers (Demo)”
In December 1945, Nashville’s Ryman Auditorium hosted the meshing of sounds that was Bill Monroe’s mandolin, Earl Scruggs’ three-finger banjo-picking style and Lester Flatt’s guitar, along with Chubby Wise’s fiddle and Howard Watts’ upright bass, becoming what would become the exemplar for the sound of bluegrass music.
Just over 77 years later, on Sunday evening (Feb. 26), another Bill held court on that same hallowed stage, playing to a sold-out crowd of bluegrass aficionados, as an artist revitalizing the genre and taking it to greater heights. Since releasing his debut album in 2017, Billy Strings has won a Grammy for best bluegrass album (2021’s Home), been named artist of the year at the Americana Music Awards, picked up six International Bluegrass Music Association (IBMA) Awards and performed on Jimmy Kimmel Live.
Strings’ performance at the Ryman concluded a trifecta of Nashville shows over the weekend, which also included two sold-out shows at Nashville’s approximately 20,000-seat Bridgestone Arena. The arena shows are among several such dates included on Strings’ current tour — a rarity in bluegrass, and a testament to Strings’ gut-punch vocals, fleet-fingered guitar prowess and high-octane approach to performing.
But on Sunday night, he told the fervent, sold-out crowd that had gathered at the 2,362-person capacity venue, that the Ryman had special significance for him and his genre. “This is hallowed ground. This is ground zero for bluegrass music.”
For the Ryman show, Strings teamed with Nashville-based clothing line Imogene + Willie for an exclusive merch collection — which was well-received, judging by a merch line that wound from the Ryman’s upstairs lobby into the auditorium itself, snaking behind the upper-most wooden pews. Last year, Strings performed three sold-out shows at the iconic venue.
During Sunday’s show, instead of diving deep into his own catalog of music, as he did with his Bridgestone concerts, Strings’ Ryman concert leaned heavily on the copious amount of songs he learned to play since first picking up a guitar as a child. Donning suits and their signature hats, Strings and his bandmates — banjo/vocalist Billy Railing, bassist Royal Masat, mandolin player Jarrod Walker and fiddle player Alex Hargraves — launched their Ryman show with the appropriate “Tennessee,” followed by the Dillards’ “Old Home Place,” and soon after, renditions of “Foggy Mountain Breakdown,” “Katy Daley,” and Larry Sparks’ “A Face in the Crowd.”
“Each of us has been playing this music since we were little kids so it’s fun to just play bluegrass,” Strings told the crowd. “We’re sure glad y’all like it, because we’d be sitting here doing this shit either way.”
His nearly-three-hour show did not feature an opener; instead, the evening was all Strings and his band, who played two sets with a brief intermission.
“Freeborn Man,” with its lyrics, “You may not like my appearance, may not like my song/ May not like the way I talk, But you like the way I’m gone,” drew especially fervent cheers, feet stomping and rafter-scrapping singing from the crowd. Strings also performed “Long Journey Home (Two-Dollar Bill),” which he recorded on his 2022 album Me/And/Dad, with his father Terry Barber.
His sole guest during the nearly three-hour show was banjoist Rob McCoury, who joined for a rendition of “Bringing Mary Home,” and “Eight More Miles to Louisville.” McCoury played banjo on Me/And/Dad.
Strings said of making the project, “It was so awesome to be in the studio with you and your brother to make that record. We made the whole record and Rob never had to overdub anything or change one part. Everything he played was just fine and I asked him, ‘How did you do that? You got through the whole record with every take was the one.’ He said, ‘Man, those notes are flying by so fast anyway that nobody notices the wrong ones.’”
Joking about letting a few curse words fly while onstage in the Mother Church, Strings said, “Gonna need to do a gospel number now. We could do that, or I could just get a haircut,” before introducing mandolin player Walker, who led the Clinch Mountain Boys in the Stanley Brothers classic “Nobody’s Love Is Like Mine.” Hargreaves led on “Ashland Breakdown,” while the band followed with another Monroe classic, “My Sweet Blue-Eyed Darling.”
“Thank you for coming out tonight. We love and appreciate you,” Strings concluded the set’s main run, before introducing each member of the band once again. “I’m Bill. What a thrill,” he said. However, given that the audience had not sat down once during this nearly three-hour show, it was clear that wouldn’t be their last song.
From there, they offered another Monroe classic, “Roll On, Buddy, Roll On,” which seemed appropriate, given that’s just what Strings will be doing on tour for the majority of the year, bringing his celebrated brand of bluegrass to new converts. “Thank you and goodnight,” Strings offered in closing.