https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-country/billy-strings-lord-of-the-rings-halloween-tour-dates-1234622145/
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Halloween night capped off an unforgettable three-night run for Strings & Co. at the Harrah’s Cherokee Center in downtown Asheville, North Carolina. Dressed as characters from The Lord of the Rings (the shows were dubbed “Away from the Shire”), the band blasted through a collage of acoustic and electric melodies — a rollercoaster Middle-earth soundtrack seamlessly fusing bluegrass and rock-n-roll.
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For Strings, Asheville has been his Halloween home base for several years now, graduating from small clubs around town like the Grey Eagle and Asheville Music Hall to the Orange Peel, and now to the 7,600-plus seat Harrah’s Cherokee Center. In recent Halloween outings, Strings has paid tribute to films like The Wizard of Oz and A Clockwork Orange.
And yet, even the massive Harrah’s space felt too small to contain the pure energy and raw emotion of what Strings, who turned 30 less than a month ago, has created. While he served up his usual dose of high-octane bluegrass gems, it was the back-and-forth between his acoustic and electric guitars that threw gas on the fire. The first set opened with an electric take on Led Zeppelin’s “Ramble On,” while the second included a musical spider web of Zep’s “Battle of Evermore” into Black Sabbath’s “War Pigs” into Pink Floyd’s “Fearless.”
Cellist Rushad Eggleston and flutist Anh Phung fleshed out Strings’ band for the Halloween weekend shows, with Phung re-creating the chilling harmony vocals of Sandy Denny on “Battle of Evermore.” Widespread Panic drummer Duane Trucks, fresh from Panic’s own Halloween run in New Orleans, also backed up Strings and his band for the Monday night showcase.
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