Approaching the Harrah’s Cherokee Center in downtown Asheville last Wednesday evening, a mob scene had overtaken the sidewalks surrounding the venue.
The entry line stretched down the hill on Flint Street, across the Interstate 240 overpass and around the Asheville Skatepark on Cherry Street. Thousands of joyous faces aiming to witness one of the “must-see” live acts of the modern era — Billy Strings.
“People are looking for something real,” Strings told me backstage before a Kentucky gig for a Rolling Stone profile piece I wrote on him in 2019. “They’re looking for some good songs and they’re looking for some honest, good people singing them. I think music does that every once in a while.”…