Billy Strings sings tales of jail, murder, and redemption in Atlanta

Billy Strings in Atlanta (2/22/25) – photo © Jesse Faatz

From songs about death, murder, going to jail, and losing your mind, to uplifting messages about crawling out of darkness toward the light … Billy Strings took the crowd on a musical journey rich with emotion and powerful stories.

Billy Strings’ performances in Atlanta on February 21 and 22 were a beautiful blend of dark and light themes, with songwriting that spanned from despair to hope, often in the same song. Blending bluegrass and jam rock with touches of grunge and gypsy jazz, the band created an experience that captivated fans across generations. The energy in the crowd was electric—there was plenty of room to dance, and everyone, from the 72-year-old woman behind me to the 19-year-old boy standing next to me, was brought together by the band’s transformative sound.

The band is led by Billy Strings on guitar and vocals, with Jarrod Walker on mandolin and vocals, Billy Failing on banjo and vocals, Alex Hargreaves on fiddle and vocals, and Royal Masat on upright bass and vocals.

A Musical Journey Through Darkness and Light

The evening began with The Fire on My Tongue, and the crowd riled up immediately to this powerful uptempo number with themes of death, despair, addiction, and falling apart.

The energy of the room thickened and slowed with Hide and Seek, a dark and resonant number with banjo player Billy Failing howling an eerie harmony. It was dissonant, spacey, and felt like teetering on a razor’s edge. The band played with alternating tempo in this sharp, spooky number with the haunting lyrics, “Paralyzed and drowned in thought, All the things that I have lost.”

Next, we were treated to two major themes of the nights’ music at once, a jail song and a murder ballad. Blackjack County Chains was smooth, jazzy, and chilling.

Alex Hargreaves’ fiddle playing shined in I’ve Lived a Lot in My Time. The song, which tells a story of a man’s journey from living the high life in a mansion to prison, fighting the grim reaper, and walking through green pastures with God, was deeply moving.

Seney Stretch was the sun that streamed in through the prison bars and pulled us out into a free place. It felt inspirational, uplifting, and slowly building, like crawling out of a dark hole toward the light.

From Bluegrass to Psychedelic Rock

While Billy Strings’ shows honor the roots of bluegrass, they also take listeners on a mind-bending journey, blending in layers of atmospheric sound and psychedelia. The shift from traditional bluegrass to these heavier sounds was perfectly exemplified in Psycho, a song by Eddie Noack from 1949.

In this blood-stained, psychedelic nightmare, Billy made excellent use of his phaser to create a lot of depth and swirling sounds that told a twisted story of a young man spiraling out of control before his loving mother’s eyes. In this spine-chilling tale, sung in a melancholic vocal tone rich with despair, the narrator pleads with his mother to let them lock him up as he begins to murder and destroy everything around him. The rhythm was slow and creeping, like moving down a dark hallway toward a curtain that you’re afraid to pull back.

Next up was Turmoil and Tinfoil, a raw, psychedelic heavy metal anthem that shook the room. The intense, hard-hitting rock sound sent waves of energy through the crowd, with everyone headbanging in unison. This thundering, dissonant number was another stark contrast to the sweet, harmonic traditional bluegrass that we heard earlier.

Night Two Kicks Off with Classic Bluegrass

On night two, the band opened with My Little Georgia Rose, a sweet classic bluegrass song written by Bill Monroe. The beautiful harmonies surely had every lover of classic bluegrass picking their own harmony and singing along, with every Georgia native feeling proud of their home.

Wargasm followed, where we were treated to powerful, rapid-fire solos from Billy on the guitar, Billy Failing on the banjo, and then Alex Hargreaves on the fiddle. Then the song transformed from a fan-favorite classic into a dark and disturbing moment when Billy used a voice distortion effect to warp his voice into a deep, ominous, otherworldly tone.

The second set opened with The Likes of Me, which bled into Pyramid Country. This song was marked by high, sharp, ethereal fiddle playing. Billy and Alex were trading licks in a beautiful back-and-forth build-up that felt like flying and falling at the same time.

Billy returned to traditional bluegrass roots with Bringing In The Georgia Mail, the quintessential down-home southern dance number of the night. The Georgia crowd was going crazy, spinning and jigging to this classic bluegrass tune written by Fred Rose and first recorded by Charlie Monroe in 1947.

Then came My Alice, where we heard tales of jealousy, paranoia, and contemplating murder. Billy gave a manic stare as he sang the lyrics and the crowd was still and enthralled by the performance.

Fire Line followed, a fiddle frenzy that ranged from drawn out, heavenly sweeps of the bow to high, sharp, screeching, rapid notes. Alex’s dynamic playing had the hair on the backs of our necks standing up.

Billy Strings’ performances in Atlanta were a vivid reminder of the power of live music to transcend genres and generations. By blending the raw authenticity of bluegrass with the energy of psychedelic rock, he not only honored the genre’s roots but also brought it into a new era. From the captivating storytelling to the genre-defying solos and the unifying energy of the crowd, his shows were a celebration of both the past and the future of bluegrass. With each note, Billy Strings proved once again why he’s leading the charge of a new wave in the genre.

Check out his website for upcoming tour dates.