If there are two things you can count on in this world, it’s that 1) Billy Strings will jam the hell out of “Hide and Seek” and 2) when he plays “Swannanoa Tunnel”, it’ll be in Asheville. Friday’s third of four sold-out shows at the ExploreAsheville.com Arena fulfilled both of those promises.
Both instances occurred in the second set, beginning with his third-ever performance of the traditional “Swannanoa Tunnel”. The song tells of the Western North Carolina Railroad’s infamous Swannanoa Tunnel, the largest of seven hand-dug tunnels through the Blue Ridge Mountains en route to Asheville. At over 1,800 feet long, it took 20 years to complete and claimed at least 300 lives.
In addition to touching on one of Strings’ favorite topics, trains, his inclusion of “Swannanoa Tunnel” in his 2024 and 2026 Asheville runs demonstrates the guitarist’s respect for the traditions and the region. It’s commonplace for Strings to dig up some locally-specific covers while traveling the nation, opening this winter tour with “Bringing in the Georgia Mail” in Athens last weekend. Or he’ll mark anniversaries as he did with debuting “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald” on the 48th anniversary of the marine tragedy while touring Europe in 2023. In some ways, he’s just as big a nerd as those of us with our little setlist notebooks…