Photo by Jesse Faatz via Billy Strings’ Facebook page
After breaking his leg skateboarding backstage at a show in Virginia this past April, Billy Strings fully returned to the stage over the weekend. The concerts were his first announced gigs in over two months though, as previous reported, Strings sat in with both Primus and Trey Anastasio in his home state of Michigan while he recovered and made a surprise appearance at the 54th Annual Charlotte Bluegrass Festival in Charlotte, MI on June 26, where he joined The Travelin’ McCourys and The Del McCoury Band.
On Thursday, July 2, Strings regrouped with his band–Billy Failing (banjo), Royal Masat (upright bass), Jarrod Walker (mandolin) and Alex Hargreaves (fiddle)–for a full two-set show at Austin, TX’s ACL Live at The Moody Theater that was filmed for future broadcast on an episode of Austin City Limits. Then, Strings stuck around the area to appear at Austin’s Germania Insurance Amphitheatre on Saturday as part of Willie Nelson’s 4th of July Picnic. Notably, Strings nodded to the evening’s host partway through his set by performing “California Sober,” the 2023 song he co-wrote and recorded with Nelson…