Photo Credit: Emily Butler
On Friday and Saturday, Sept. 27 and 28, Billy Strings planned to lead the charge for his annual Renewal Festival, returning to The Woodlands of Buena Vista, Colo. for its fourth staging since 2021. But plans change, and fate waits for no man; on Friday morning, the star was spirited back to his home in Michigan to meet the arrival of his first child with his wife Ally Apostol.
Though Strings–whose sixth studio album Highway Prayers arrived on Friday–had left the building, the show at Renewal Festival went on with some help from the all-star team of other acts involved in the two-day staging. After the main event left suddenly following a morning Q&A session with fans, his road-tested and acclaimed backing band rose to the occasion, leading a headline set without the frontman that drew in the festival crowd.
Against the odds, the quartet of banjoist Billy Failing, fiddler Alex Hargreaves, bassist Royal Massat and mandolinist Jarrod Walker staged a top-tier, crowd-pleasing performance; after opening with the tongue-in-cheek opener “I’m Coming Back But I Don’t Know When,” with lead vocal duties shared by Failing and Walker, the bandmates traded off the helm and welcomed a revolving array of special guest sit-ins. The ensemble had support from cellist Nat Smith through the show and John Stickley picked away on Billy’s guitar through the second set, while Larry Keel finished off the first frame with a feature on “Mountain Dew” and Mountain Grass Unit’s mandolinist Drury Anderson and guitarist Luke Black helped to finish the show with “Turmoil & Tinfoil.”
On Saturday, with a bit more space to respond, the festival reshuffled its daily programming, extending sets from the bluegrass luminaries Full Cord, Mountain Grass Unit, Jerry Douglas Band and Molly Tuttle & Golden Highway. To tie up the event with a bow, the performers reconvened with an all-hands-on-deck headline show. For the first set, Stings’ quartet and Smith hosted a “Clusterpick” run, rattling through a left-field lineup of tracks with frequent sit-ins from the members of Mountain Grass Unit and Golden Highway, as well as Keel and Jerry Douglas Band’s Christian Sedelmyer.
The second set introduced attendees to the newly formed Renewal Family Band. Tuttle led a lineup of Strings’ band and Smith, then welcomed Douglas to the stage shortly after to work his dobro wizardry on the rest of the show. Of the 29 tracks dished out on the final evening, six were bust-outs, and a whopping eight were debuts for Strings’ band; in lieu of the bandleader, the crowd caught a rare chance to hear spur-of-the-moment magic charge treatments of the traditional “Pretty Fair Maid in the Garden,” Ola Belle Reed’s “High on a Mountain,” Jimmy Wakely and His Rough Riders’ “I Wonder Where You Are Tonight,” Bill Monroe’s “Stoney Lonesome,” Ole Rasmussen and His Cornhuskers’ “Sleepy-Eyed John,” Bill Frissell’s “Look Out For Hope,” Fred Rose’s “Roly Poly” and the apt encore of The Beatles’ “With a Little Help From My Friends.” For a complete setlist, visit billybase.net.
Earlier today, Sept. 29, Strings shared an update that explained his exit from Renewal and shed some light on things at home. “We were really hoping that baby boy would wait till Sunday morning at least but he had plans of his own,” the artist wrote in an Instagram post.
“I was hanging out backstage getting ready to rehearse for our set when my wife called and told me her water broke,” he continues. “I immediately hopped on a jet (thank you ringo starr for lending me your ride) and headed back.” Fans who’ve had their interest piqued by the mention of a connection with the former Beatle should stay tuned for Look Up, Starr’s forthcoming country record with T. Bone Burnett, which will feature Strings and a stacked team of Nashville, Tenn. guests, per GQ. “I was mortified to leave the fans hanging and to leave the responsibility of the gig to my band and friends who stepped up and kicked ass in my absence. ( I owe you all a cold beer! ) but I was so excited to get back to my wife because she needed me.”
From the hospital, Strings shares the latest “We are still here and she is doing great work. Baby and mother are both healthy. We are hoping to meet our boy today! I’ll let you all know when he’s here. But for now please just keep sending Ally all of your thoughts of love and strength.”
While Strings’ 2024 Renewal Festival may not have gone off as planned, it certainly will not be one that the fans will soon forget. In closing, the artist underscores his gratitude and bearing on the weekend’s events once more, promising to make up for his absence and asserting that his fall tour will as of now continue as scheduled.
His statement concludes, “Thank you for your patience and understanding during this amazing time .. and always for your love and support. You all mean the world to me. Thank you ”
See Strings’ full post below.
A post shared by Billy Strings (@billystrings)
A post shared by Billy Strings (@billystrings)
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