Billy Strings Plays West Virginia Dive Bar for Hours on Day Off
Billy String has always been a fan of trying to keep it intimate with fans, even as he’s playing arenas and other large venues. Upon occasion, he’ll also book side gigs while in town playing sold-out arena shows at places like The Ryman Auditorium in Nashville, or ACL Live in Austin. But a few lucky revelers in Charleston, West Virginia got the ultimately intimate Billy Strings experience on Sunday night (8-2) as Billy stopped into the Empty Glass, cap. 100 or so, with live music every night.
Billy String jumped up on stage with his Gibson SG electric guitar, and according to the lucky bastards who were there, played all night. Video corroborates that Billy sat in with the John Inghram Band, throwing down licks on songs like “Troubled Times” from Leftover Salmon, and J.J. Cale’s “Call Me The Breeze.” He also performed with Candi Jenkins, who happened to be in town taping a performance on NPR’s Mountain Stage.. Strings supplied lead guitar and vocals for a version of “Going Down The Road Feeling Bad.”
According to one account, Billy Strings was at the bar the whole night, and after stepping off the main stage, he went out on the acoustic porch to pick with local guitarist Jakob Thomas for some two hours. So no, this was no “poke your head in, poke it back out” scenario. Strings was up until the wee hours of the morning keeping locals entertained.
The Empty Glass is semi famous in certain circles. First opened in 1985, it’s hosted some legendary performances from folks like Jason Isbell, Chuck Berry, The Avett Brothers, and Gov’t Mule. You can now add Billy Strings to that list. He is in town getting ready to perform at the Charleston Coliseum on Tuesday, August 4th after having to reschedule from April after breaking his leg.
Billy Strting is readying the release of his new album So Much For Goodbyes on August 28th. He just released a new song from the album “Mill Town Flood” on Friday.
Good times in Charleston.
August 3, 2026 @ 6:32 pm
Oh man …
How serendipitous!
August 3, 2026 @ 8:34 pm
What is there not to love about Billy Strings? He walks the walk of an icon.
August 3, 2026 @ 8:52 pm
So many artists get attention by being azzholes but Billy gets attention for being awesome.
August 3, 2026 @ 11:29 pm
He’s just a terrific human being. Much love for him <3
August 4, 2026 @ 1:28 am
Reminds me of an incident in 1978 St. Pete, Florida. My band was scheduled to open for the famous British bluesman, John Mayall at the Sunshine Speedway the next day. The night before, we were playing the bar at the Don Cesar (sp?) Hotel on St. Pete Beach. We didn’t know Mayall was staying there.
Suddenly, John Mayall himself appeared out of the crowd and asked if he could sit in and play one of my harmonicas. Why he didn’t bring his own harp is something I don’t know. I was using Hohner Golden Melodies at the time. He picked through my harp case and declared he didn’t like harps with plastic combs. He chose the only one with a wooden comb, a Marine Band in the key of Bb.
I went and sat down and watched one of my harmonica idols jam with my band. The crowd went wild and a good time was had by all! I guess even famous musicians like to jam with bar bands once in a while!
August 4, 2026 @ 1:34 am
A cherry picker, too 😀
August 4, 2026 @ 5:19 am
Throughout my life as a music lover, there have been artists that I wished I liked and could listen to regularly but they just wasn’t my cup of tea. Billy Strings has been that artist for the last 5-10 years. And I do enjoy some bluegrass, so I’m surprised I don’t get into his music, but I just don’t.
Things like this are so awesome. I wish the music moved me like it does others.
August 4, 2026 @ 6:10 am
Same here. I don’t mind if a song of his makes it’s way into my playlist once in a while and I actually enjoy 1 or 2 of them, but I just can’t listen to him on repeat. His music just doesn’t resonate with me.
August 6, 2026 @ 8:57 am
Exactly. I’m a fan of only hardcore traditional scary “raise the hairs on the back of your neck” bluegrass (Ralph Stanley, Jimmy Martin, Larry Sparks, Del McCoury, etc…) and have been quite snobbish/never been able to get into Allison Krauss, Billy Strings, Molly Tuttle, etc…
However, I highly, highly respect Krauss, Strings, Tuttle, etc. for 1) It’s their right to take the bluegrass tradition in whatever way they feel artistically inclined, and more importantly, 2) They’re obviously very good people, humble and both highly respectful and masters of the tradition that they love. Allison Krauss could’ve jumped from Rounder Records decades ago for 10’s of millions more, but she stuck with the label that stuck with her, and she probably has single-handedly kept Rounder a viable recording label the last 20 years!
They’ve mastered the tradition, they obviously love the tradition, so in my not so humble opinion, they’ve more than earned the right to do whatever they want. I much prefer the Del McCoury Band to the Travelin’ McCourys, but if you’re in the Del McCoury Band, you get to say whatever you play is bluegrass! Ditto Willie Nelson, Dolly Parton, Jimmie Dale Gilmore, etc…
Contrast this to say Jason Aldean, Morgan Wallen, Luke Bryan, or whoever Trigger is rightly eviscerating this month. Their music sucks, their knowledge/lack of respect for the bluegrass/country music tradition sucks, and they suck!
Yay Billy Strings, Allison Krauss & Molly Tuttle! You just won’t see me at any of their shows…
August 6, 2026 @ 2:36 pm
I like your balanced take Bob. The debate about “real bluegrass” or trad-grass vs Progressive Grass, Jam-Grass etc has raged ever since Earl Scruggs formed The Earl Scruggs Review, JD Crowe formed The New South, Sam Bush formed New Grass Revival and Alison changed Union Stations sound. Its a split that remains in the Grass community even today. You find loads of trad-grass fests all over the place, and then you have the jamgrass fests and if you go to both, you find different crowds entirely. My take is I honestly like all of it. I don’t want bluegrass as founded to ever go away, and at the same time I have no issue with people creatively pushing it a bit. Theres room for all the styles.
August 6, 2026 @ 4:39 pm
Hey Kevin,
Two things— I really like to see some younger people doing it the old way, since the older folks aren’t around anymore.
Second, sometimes what I hear on bluegrass radio shows from newer artists doesn’t sound like old grass or new grass, but something that I might characterize as acoustic country folk. I understand that may just be an album cut on an album that is otherwise bluegrass, I just don’t know.
Tom
— longtime Jim and Jesse fan
August 6, 2026 @ 6:17 pm
I think The Po Ramblin Boys are a good example of a younger band doing very traditional bluegrass. I talked about them on the DelFest piece I did on this site. They have all the right influences and manage to keep it as founded. There are others. In Ohio we have lots of bluegrass bands and i meet some of them and i find a fair amount of traditional minded souls. For example we have The Relentless Mules who play a lot of Flatt and Scruggs styled music. But yes it’s true, there’s a lot of music labeled bluegrass these days that aint. Its complicated. One trend im seeing is many of the younger bands , take Mountain Grass Unit for example, play a certain amount of traditional music, but mix it up with Grateful Dead covers and an occasional jam. Call it a case of musical ADHD. A fair amount of these young folks prefer mixing the sounds up, rather than just sticking to one style. I do think bluegrass is always in a state of slow evolution. Whether that’s good or bad depends on perspective. Look at Billy Strings, he plays the traditional sound all the time but in an instant may go into a jam…
August 4, 2026 @ 8:12 am
Did he fall off the wagon?
August 4, 2026 @ 8:32 am
No, the accounts say he wasn’t drinking. But I wasn’t there.
August 4, 2026 @ 8:37 am
High on life?
August 4, 2026 @ 9:21 pm
He’s California Sober so they say
August 5, 2026 @ 12:01 pm
I’m curious as to why him doing something as benign, though incredibly cool, as playing for hours in a small bar unannounced, would cause you to assume he was intoxicated? He is a musician who loves playing music live. One would assume that your goal was to malign him because you don’t like him as a person. If there is another explanation, please share it.
August 6, 2026 @ 6:19 am
This is the kind of article any true music lover would enjoy. Who hasn’t thought how awesome it would be to be in a bar and suddenly a top artist walks in and starts playing. For hours! But it only has a dozen comments. And a thread of for comments had to do with an arsehole speculating he must have been intoxicated. Even if you don’t like his music, it’s fucking cool. If it had a political element, there’d be a couple hundred comments. I don’t get it.
August 6, 2026 @ 7:18 am
Now you understand.
August 12, 2026 @ 2:41 pm
Honestly I wouldn’t like it if I was in that band doing what I love but probably only making a small amount of money but loving the glory I get from it to be upstaged by some douchebag who already plays much bigger venues than me in a bar. I would be like no douche how bout be humble and have a drink and listen to this bar band play rather than needing to steal our glory after you just played a sold out arena show the night before?
August 12, 2026 @ 3:00 pm
All the performers in that bar were over the moon that Billy Strings showed up because they all posted about it and knew it would get their name in the press and online and elevate their visibility, which it did. This was a win-win-win, with that also including the venue and the patrons.