Billy Strings, Bryan Sutton and Royal Masat Begin Trio Tour with Doc Watson Tribute at  Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame

Last night, Sept. 5, Billy Strings, Bryan Sutton and Royal Masat stepped into the spotlight at Owensboro, Ky,’s Woodward Theatre for a very special trio performance. On the Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame & Museum’s sonorous and storied stage, the progressive bluegrass powerhouses set off their highly anticipated tour as a three-piece with a performance that honored the genre’s roots and one of its most vital innovators, an artist that the torchbearers have reliably cited as a formative influence. In honor of Doc Watson, Strings, Sutton and Massat tore through two sets packed with his associated standards, including many tracks returning to Strings’ live repertoire.

Strings and Sutton’s musical chemistry was well noted before Friday’s show. As both artists have ascended to the fore of today’s bluegrass community, they’ve shared several stages dating back to 2018, including memorable duo sets at Nashville’s Station Inn in early 2020 and during Strings’ first headline show before an audience at the Ryman Auditorium in 2022. Though two decades apart in age, they’ve consistently shown compatible musical perspectives, as evinced by their surprise collaborative EP, Live at the Legion, which was released in April to widespread acclaim. Last night, the guitarists donned their acoustic alongside Masat, who took up an eclectic bass, and set off the show with “Way Downtown, the historic classic previously featured on Strings’ 2022 album Me and Dad.

Sutton led the opening track and the ensuing Carter Family cover “Little Darlin’ Pal of Mine,” though Strings contributed primary vocals to the bulk of the show. The night’s first track resurrection was “Blue Railroad Train,” which arrived onstage for the first time since March 3, 2023. Seven further tracks returned to Billy’s live rotation for the first time this year through the course of the show, the oldest of which were the Watson-associated traditionals “What Does The Deep Sea Say?” (LTP Oct. 2023), “We Shall All Be Reunited” (LTP also March 3, 2023), “New River Train” (LTP Aug. 2022) and “The House Carpenter” (LTP Aug. 2021).

It wasn’t long before the trio’s focus on saluting Watson spurred a series of live debuts, beginning with a first-time take on “Smoke, Smoke, Smoke that Cigarette,” written by Tex Williams and later covered by Doc Watson in 1981. All five of the show’s other debuts–”Talking to Casey,” “Poor Boy Blues,” “St. Louis Blues,” “Solid Gone” and “South Coast”–came after Strings and Sutton returned as a duo after the setbreak, with Strings on his clawhammer banjo for “Frosty Morn” and “The Cuckoo.” The two artists showed off their flatpicking prowess with a racing segued sequence of “Give The Fiddler A Dram,” “Whistling Rufus” and “Ragtime Annie,” then welcomed Masat back for the remainder of the intimate seated show, culminating in an encore of “I Told Them All About You” and “New River Train.”

Strings, Sutton and Masat will return to the Woodward Theatre tonight, then head out on a seven-show Southeast tour through Sept. 16. Find tickets and more information at billystrings.com/tour.

Read the full setlist from Friday night at billybase.net.