Billy Strings did something you don't see that often: he gave all.
Ask anyone older than you, everything is smaller and shorter and more expensive. There was a time you could get a candy bar bigger than your foot for a quarter. Now they're a buck, on sale, and you get three bites, tops.
Billy Strings tried to reverse that trend last week in Redmond, Oregon, but was foiled.
The fresh new face of bluegrass who just released a 10-song live album of some choice cuts from his tour last year, was at the FairWell Festival when organizers pulled the plug on his set when he went over the allotted time.
As if!
After playing 15 songs to the lucky crowd he was deep into "Little Maggie" when those capable of stopping the show did so, leaving young Billy stunned because who pulls the plug on a guy flat-picking an acoustic guitar at a fairground in Oregon in the middle of brat summer?
During the fiddle solo, maybe, but when Billy is singing? Just kidding. The entire set was wonderful, including all the players.
Special guest Sierra Hull on mandolin was a welcome addition to "Baltimore Johnny," "End of the Rainbow" and two others. But when you have a hard curfew at 11pm and it's 11:02 pm, union fines and/or other penalties can become enormous, and in that one case the show, sadly, cannot go on.
Billy later apologized on his Instagram story, saying he had "kinda lost track of time."
Billy is packing them in everywhere he goes, and for good reason. The music is pure, precise, and wholesome brand of Americana you can't fake.
But as big as Billy is, the curfew clock has struck for larger acts than he.
Bruce Springsteen had finished a long cover of "Twist and Shout" with Sir Paul McCartney in 2012 in London's Hyde Park. As the band, including Tom Morello, were preparing to leave the stage, Bruce wanted to play another rocker. It would be the 30th song of the set.
"They told me it's late, but they can't throw us out of here now, can they?" he asked the crowd. Running up behind him was the stage manager who told the boss, yep, they're gonna kill the mics. And that was that.
On the hallowed polo fields of Coachella in 2009, Robert Smith and The Cure went 30 minutes past the curfew and the organizers finally cut off the amps.
Smith, smiling like a naughty boy trying to think of what he could do to rebel.
During that same Coachella, the aforementioned Beatle went a whopping 50 minutes long, and was fined $1,000 a minute. Money he would never, uh, get back.
The Walrus gave the kids 34 songs that spring night.
Billy Strings is getting ready to play a pair of shows in Bridgeport this weekend. Some of his fans are hoping he kicks off the first show by playing "Little Maggie" where they left off as a wink to Oregon.
After some more shows on the east coast, Billy and the band return to the west for the Bob Dylan / Willie Nelson / John Mellencamp Outlaw Music Festival at the Gorge in Washington. He's even doing two nights at the Forum in LA.
Get your tickets on Billy's website.
