Hey Bob

I don’t think you’ll be surprised that we’ve been fortunate enough to have hosted Billy several times at Newport Folk.  Hell, we even had him play two different sets/days last year coming out of covid. One where he played a “traditional” set dedicated to the bluegrass masters before him and one where he completely lit the stage afire with originals. In my 15 years I’ve only given 7 encores and let’s just say if I hadn’t given Billy and the boys another song last summer I wouldn’t have made it out of the fort alive. To all who bore witness it was clearly one for the books and for Newport that’s truly saying something.

But here’s the thing that needs to be said. Why Billy Strings is who he is and why he’s come to your attention in the most organic way is not simply attributable to his indisputable mastery of instrument and craft, which at his tender age is truly remarkable; it’s because of the people he keeps in his corner.

Billy Strings team is as close a tight knit crew as I’ve ever witnessed. Akin to the road crews of yore that ate, slept, shit and breathed for their artist, Billy’s team set out to build their tribe one show, one fan and one mind blow at a time. I know because six years ago in 2016 I walked out of a music industry panel I was speaking at during one of the major conferences after a sardonic, swear laden rant about the bastardization of the word “independent” and “music”. I suddenly realized Newport Folk & Jazz didn’t really fit into the festival paradigm they literally birthed and thus there was no point in trying to convince anyone of anything anymore. I was done, so I put down my mic and walked off the stage and out of the conference all together.

On the way back to the hotel, Billy’s manager, Bill Orner ran me down and  walked the ten blocks explaining his and Billy’s ethos and stratagem, which he professed mirrored what the Newport family has been striving to rebuild for over the last decade and a half.  In short, we clicked and ever since  I’m constantly impressed but not shocked that Billy, Bill, Patrick, Allyson and their entire karass have stayed tried and true to their collective vision. When boiled down it’s pretty simple: there is no higher purpose than serving the music and the community; everything else is just noise.

While actions speak louder than words, music can save your soul. Four years after we first met, right before we had to officially cancel Newport Folk in March 2020 we pulled together the meager resources we had left in our annual budget as a non-profit and created a musicians relief fund to help our artist friends who were in mounting difficulty due to the spread of the virus. It was quickly evident the pandemic was going to last more than “a few weeks”.  We opened up the simple grant process and blew through our funds in 72 hours. We thought we knew how dire it was for artists, but in truth we had no clue. We faced the gut wrenching reality that we’d have to shut it down before helping all those who needed it.

As if on cue Bill Orner called me out of the blue saying he heard what we were trying to do and the Billy Strings crew wanted to do an online campaign to give a third of all merch sales to the relief fund until we could get on our feet. The amazing amount of money raised in an incredibly short time allowed us to keep the fund going until we could regroup. Soon after countless other Newport Folk alum started pitching in and for good and bad it’s still functioning today as the relief is still needed for many. But the first artist to reach out and offer help …. Well, there is a reason Billy and crew epitomize what we call Folk Family. It’s pretty simple, there is no higher purpose than serving the music and the community; everything else is just noise.

-Rock Steady

Jay Sweet

Executive Producer / Executive Director

Newport Folk & Newport Jazz / Newport Festivals Foundation

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Billy and his band are wonderfully talented, we’ve had them through the Cap numerous times for sold out, multi-night runs.  One key aspect to Billy’s development over the past few years you didn’t cover has been the overwhelming support he’s received from the Jam Band community and all the fandom that entails. This demo has a tight network of its own, and its stamp of approval still holds a strong, collective weight across multiple generations.

A Billy show comes with many of the tenets a Grateful Dead show carried in it’s day or a Widespread Panic .moe or Phish show carries today: fans traveling to multiple shows in multiple cities, early-entry rail riders, tapers, exclusive merch and posters for sale, set list scrutiny, lots of tie-dye and good vibes.

Billy surely pulls his fan base from all over the spectrum, but based on what I see when he’s here live the Jam Banders have embraced this guy and play a foundational role in his success.

Bruce Wheeler
GM
The Capitol Theatre
Port Chester, NY

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We’ve been working with Billy for 2-3 years now at Seated and I can say his touring success is largely due to Pat, Liz, Bill, and the amazing team surrounding him.  Since day 1, that team has truly understood the value of capturing first party data on their ticket buyers.

Before every show goes up, they capture email & phone numbers from fans who may be interested in attending.  Every presale launch then gives fans the chance to share their email & phone for early access to tickets.  Additionally, every single one of the sold out shows that you mentioned has a long waitlist of emails & phone numbers that they can then retarget with the 2nd show (or the next time he comes to town).

In a world where all your streaming data is owned by the DSPs and all of your ticket buyer data is owned by the ticketing companies and promoters, Billy’s team has spent years growing their own list and understanding their fans.

Oh and his music is pretty damn good too.

“Who is the next Strings? Someone who’s been doing it for years, practicing in the shadows, not spamming the labels to sign them for an instant hit.”

We’re seeing the same momentum with Goose.  They played Bowery Ballroom the month before the pandemic in 2020.  This month, they sold out Radio City and just put up a 2nd show.  Not all success stories can be found on the Spotify charts.

-David McKay

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Billy’s agent is Pat May, co-founder of Crossover Touring. You will never meet anyone who has met Pat that wouldn’t say he’s one of their favorite people. He’s the sweetest man on the planet. Pat has been an agent for over 20 years, representing folks like David Grisman and Del McCoury, and Pat is always looking for new artists that he can take on the slow and righteous path to success. Everything you said about Billy’s career arc is the intentional artist development Pat has been building with Billy for years. He wanted people to discover this kid out of a shared love for music, not because some jockey, or playlist, or algorithm pointed them there. Every aspect of this kid’s rise is as real as it comes.

Adam King

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I’m a regular reader, and I’ve never written to you. But because Billy Strings is a bluegrass artist, and I’m a lifelong bluegrass pro who served 15 years as president of the International Bluegrass Music Association, I thought I’d contribute some perspective about what makes Billy special. Several things:

* He is a for-real guitar virtuoso. Having studied Doc Watson deeply for years, his clarity and tone are a close match to Doc’s and just sounds really good even at high speeds. He’s the reigning kind of the flatpicked acoustic guitar sith technique as awesome and as flawless as they come.

* He is 100% authentic, not an easy thing to pull off in today’s big music biz. He sings and writes from the heart, and fully believes in what he’s doing. He grew up on bluegrass (as well as a high interest in metal). There’s a great YouTube of a concert of just him and his dad — an old-fashioned no-mistaking-it bluegrass guy. It’s great to see them interact.

* His band is excellent, no-b.s. bluegrass hounds, and they sing really well. At a Billy Strings show you get to hear first rate banjo picking and mandolin picking, scarcely heard on big stages since the heydays of masters like Earl Scruggs and Bill Monroe.

* His music is fully accessible, easy to follow even at high speeds, and his writing is about real things, not mindless pap.

* His life story as detailed in a big NYT article is compelling, growing up in a meth household and getting into trouble while finding his own path. A very unlikely success story considering his troubled start. This helps make him interesting and an object of admiration by young and old alike. It’s natural to root for him.

* He slides easily between honest traditional bluegrass and open-ended experimental jam-grass a la Phish. Combines the clear virtuosity of bluegrass with a style that appeals to Dead types. Being invited onto shows with Bill Kreutzman has helped him widen his appeal.

* His easy facility on the guitar and his body language as he shreds is exciting to watch and is for-real, not concocted or overblown.

* Bluegrass has an honesty about it and a depth of tradition that takes exceptional skill to sell to a wide audience — and Billy’s  steeped in that tradition and can fully communicate it to people who may have no idea what bluegrass is. They just can tell it’s good and different and authentic.

There’s a YouTube of the full version of what they showed for 8 seconds on the Grammys. Great stuff. Check it out.

Bluegrass has never seen the likes of him in its 75 year history, and still in his 20s he’ll be a force for a long time to come.

Pete Wernick
“Dr. Banjo”

Bluegrass Grammy nominee

Niwot, Colorado

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Billy is a phenomenon. Pure and simple. Playing with passion every day for years and then finding an audience from the ground up that just wants to experience something as a community around music. I met him and his manager a couple of years ago when they first visited Honolulu. I had reached out to his manager about possibly recording with an artist that i manage for a collaborative album with artists from various decades and styles. They said yes and were excited to stop their vacation for a few hours to play and record. First of all Billy, his girlfriend, now fiance, and his manager were wonderful people from the first second we all met. Watching Billy and Jake meet and subsequently compose and record a new song over a couple of hours was a beautiful experience. We have kept in touch and Billy invited Jake to play with him in Wilkes Barre last fall as we were in the same state touring together. Watching them on stage together play 1 then 2 songs and Billy asking Jake to play the entire second set with his incredible band was inspiring and amazing. I have seen a lot in over 55 years of concerts and 41 years in the biz but this evening was one of a kind as a fan of live music. And i have a feeling most of Billy and his bands live shows feel like one of a kind to his fans. I appreciate you writing about him and spreading the word to your readers. Everyone that follows you should check out a show. You do not have to know one song and may not but I promise you that you will absolutely love the concert experience Billy, his band, and his team bring to the stage.

Thank you Bob!

Van Fletcher
Manager-Jake Shimabukuro

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Indeed, Billy’s music has always been a celebration!

We were fortunate to know him when he was still a young guy in a small town.  He played our wedding! And just a few months later put his nose to the grindstone, quit drinking, and the rest is history.

Colleen​ Wares

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Yessir Bob! So amped to see the Billy Strings wave cresting wider. Here at SiriusXM we’ve been huge supporters from the beginning.

Before the Grammys and Post Malone collabs, he was in heavy rotation on Jam On and Bluegrass Junction.

We also broadcasted the Cincinnati show you mentioned live, as our first ‘Concert of the Week’ on our newest live music channel, nugsnet radio (search for it on the SXM app).

Billy’s music has been resonating for many years now, and the data we use reflected it very early on.

He’s one of the most streamed artists on nugsnet, a live music platform that also has music from Metallica, RHCP, Dead & Company, Pearl Jam, Springsteen, etc etc.

Thanks for spreading the good word.

Ari Fink

SiriusXM

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We’ve been rocking to Billy Strings here in Michigan for about 15 years now.  The first time I saw him was in my friend’s living room.  EVERYONE in that room (all 25 of us) were like……fuck! who IS this kid!?  He was about 17-18 at the time.  Just a matter of time.  A lot of it, but it was inevitable.  Love to see a kid who has continuously worked his butt off get some well-deserved recognition.  And he’s NEVER told anyone how great he is.  Super refreshing.  We’ve got a great roots scene here with a number of great writers/players.  I’ve had the pleasure of working with many of them as a producer here in Grand Rapids.  And Billy, while he’s been at it a while…he’s just getting started.  Cheers!

-Michael Crittenden

Mackinaw Harvest Studios

PS:  and re: Billy Strings….hats off to John Strohm at Rounder.  He truly believes in the careers of the artists he gets behind.

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HI Bob
Definitely something in the water with artists doing things on their own terms.  Another act that should be on your radar if not already is Turnpike Troubadours.   Their recent tour numbers:

All headline hard ticket shows have sold out within hours (if not minutes) of the on sale:
May 14/15 – Morrison, CO (Red Rocks) – 2 nights – 18,560 – 100% sold out – Grossed $1,049,462.00
April 8/9 -Tulsa, ok – 100% sold out – 2 shows- 3400 tickets – Grossed $166,040.
April 21/22/23 – Ft. Worth , TX – 15,000 tickets – 100% sold out – Grossed – $1,320,000
May 6 – Helotes, TX – 4000 tickets – 100% sold out – grossed – $239,000
May 7 – Houston, TX – 5000 tickets – 100% sold out – grossed – $267,650

A few of their Current headline (hard ticket) shows that have yet to play (not including headline festivals)
June 10 – Council Bluff, IA – currently at 8,652 tickets sold
June 11- Waite Park, MN – sold out on on sale date- 5500 tickets
July 29,30 – Nashville, TN – Ryman Auditorium – both dates sold out day of on sale – 4,724 tickets
Aug 19 – St. Louis, MO – sold out within minutes – 3400 tickets
Aug 20 – Bonner Springs, KS – current ticket count at 11,500 tickets sold

This is an artist that has never had a “radio hit”.    With that said, they realistically have a 90 min set full of hits if you if you judge “a hit” by every single person at every show singing EVERY SINGLE SONG IN THE SET, WORD FOR WORD, AS LOUD AS POSSIBLE!

Random video a fan posted from Red Rocks: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=spjNKU7vsF4 – the top row is as engaged as the front row.

Another random video from a fan – undeniable hit :  The Bird Hunters

This band is real and their overnight stardom has taken over 10 years.  Open invitation for you to come to any show.

Cheers!

JON FOLK
RED11MUSIC
As Agent for Turnpike Troubadours
Nashville, TN
www.Red11Music.com

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I asked a friend of mine who owns a guitar shop how did the pandemic affect you. He said, “We sold three times as many guitars to ALL sexes as we did pre-pandemic.” Which means that we are going to have a lot of warm guitar players in the next few years.

Michael Des Barres.

I was island EVP/General Manger for Chris for two years and while the comments talk about his A&R expertise and his tremendous ability to foresee the way music was going, I’ll write about Chris as a label chief. He gave the staff extraordinary freedom to market and promote, never interfering or second-guessing what we did. I never had such freedom at any major labels where I was worked. This led to successes with U2, Melissa Etheridge, Anthrax and others. If he trusted you and your ability, you were home free.

Bill Berger

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I worked for CB (as he was known to us) when I was 20. He gave me my first proper industry job – The University of CB as I call it.

Obsessed by Island Records & the man who had signed so many artists I heard and loved growing up, I had travelled to NY – crashing on the sofa of a friend – expressly to try and meet & work for Chris.

Like so many people who have worked for, or with Chris, we have numerous anecdotes that shaped the executives and people we are today – I have literally dozens & I owe him so much.

What always struck me about Chris – and indeed this is a trait of almost every successful individual I have ever encountered  – was his remarkable and indefatigable curiosity. What did you do at the weekend? Where did you go out? What records were getting a reaction? Who produced it? What’s the best film you’ve seen in the last week? Who directed and who wrote it?

Chris is a visionary entrepreneur who is able to connect with and enable creatives in a way that is unsurpassed – always with dignity and class. Never compromising integrity. His instincts are ungodly and when he’s got a plan…. get with it, or get the fuck out the way!

I asked Chris on a number of occasions when I was with him why he hadn’t written a book – he shrugged it off. It wasn’t his style.

It was always about the artists and their art, and I guess the idea of a book felt incongruous. But I’m so glad he finally did it – his story is important. I can’t wait to read it.
Legend.

Will Bloomfield

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Reading the other folks’ Chris Blackwell stories, I recalled that I have a few of my own. First one was when I was doing a cover story on him for Gavin. He’s an easy interview. You just go down the list of all the amazing artists he worked with, and just check off the list. When we got to Marianne Faithful, he asked if I could hold one a few seconds, he had to take a quick call. I was on hold for 45 minutes, and when he popped back on the line, he dove right into a Marianne story. He didn’t miss a beat. When I got to Bob Marley, I told him that I’d seen the Wailers at the Boarding House in SF, July 4th, 1975. He remembered one amazing thing about that tour, that the band would come out and Bob with sing with his back to the audience and would only turn around once the band was cooking. Sure enough, he was right! When I got to asking about Steve Winwood, he told me nicely that he just couldn’t reply. Winwood had left the label, and he frankly told me he was unable to talk about it. We did a few events with him for Gavin, and he was always elegantly informal. A friend of mine, drummer David Beal who I met through another great drummer, Michael Shrieve, ended up working with Chris on some early music film DVD projects in New York. So when David hit San Francisco, he gave me a call, asking if I wanted to meet up for a drink. We met at a little dive bar in the Mission, and there sat fucking Chris Blackwell, as informal as ever, the most under-dressed dude in the room, flip flops, etc. I recall he wore a dark hoodie with Havana written across the front. I was amused that the other folks in the bar, mostly kids, probably had no idea they were in the midst of such greatness. When I left Gavin to go to a startup, we talked again…can’t remember the circumstances. But I do remember him asking me if I knew of any hotels for sale. As a matter of fact, I told him that the grand old Claremont Hotel in Berkeley was said to be on the block. I wonder if he checked into it. I still have his email address. I wonder if it’s still valid…

Kent Zimmerman

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when I was doing A & R for colorblind A&M in the early 90s , we were trying to sign Tracy Bonham.  At her showcase at the knitting factory in ny ny,  nearly everybody was there

Al Cafaro , showed up last minute  wearing a big black cowboy hat.  It was already too late. Chris had already given Tracy a beautiful 50s Gretsch guitar as a party favor.  The rest is history .  she went on to have her big hit “mother mother “ shortly Thereafter.

Anthony J. Resta

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Hi Bob — I never met Chris and have no stories to add, except these two:  when I worked at CBS Records during the 1970’s, in the Epic Records group, we shared the 13th floor of Black Rock with CBS Records International.  CBS Records International distributed Island in parts of the world and Island releases were always available if you knew who to ask from the International promotion and PR staff.  Those Jamaican albums were wonderful.  U-Roy, Mighty Diamonds, I-Roy, in particular, truly fueled my love for the music.

We got Stanley Clark on the bill when Bob Marley & the Wailers played Madison Square Garden.  I still say that was the greatest show I have ever had the pleasure of attending.  The entire social and ethnic fabric of New York together that night in the Garden, from babes in arms to the elderly, grandmas and grandpas, all swaying together in harmony to Marley.  It was an absolutely magical evening.

Jim Charne

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Chris was the first record company person I met. It was 1969 and he along with legendary manager John Gaydon (King Crimson, Roxy Music and other British greats ) came to Beverly Hills mansion I shared with my boss Jerry Goldstein. Chris had a cool and laid back style. He was with his elegant black girl friend named Esther. We all have great memories, the lists of artists he discovered and how great a ‘record man’ he is.

I love his style… I remember his desk always had a bowl of pistachios, fresh fruit and a huge poster behind him  that said in enormous letters..”WHEN YOU DON’T PROMOTE A TERRIBLE THING HAPPENS’, and in tiny type below was the word ’nothing’. Cool running, jeans, black leather motorcycle jacket, and sandals. Always gracious  and interested in music. I have kept in touch over the years and will be sending my edition to Jamaica for his signature.

Bruce Garfield

Haven’t read the book, but will soon. I know many of the stories and made a few with the legend himself albeit briefly, but as much as anyone I’ve encountered on my music journey, Chris Blackwell was the coolest,  and shrewdest I was lucky enough to learn from and smoke many a phat joints with. (How many people can say Chris picked them up in a helicopter in Kingston, flew to his hotel home at Golden Eye and then jumped on individual jet skis and raced him around the island? I did!)  Chris was James Bond with a spliff sans the gun.

I met Chris in 1988 through Marty Schwartz, who was working at Island Pictures. He had hired my partner Matt Dike to DJ a party he was throwing for a movie premiere. Matt had told Marty about a label he was starting and Marty was eager to please Chris (as anyone who worked for Chris would know could lead to bigger and better things) and set up a meeting for us to meet him. We had been shopping a tape of rappers we were producing at the time for our one year old indie label Delicious Vinyl. We had already self distributed  12” records on Tone Loc, Young MC, Mellow Man Ace and Def Jef and was hoping it was just a matter of time we would start getting some interest from majors, as we were running low on money and muscle, but getting lots of airplay on KDAY here in LA.

Well thanks to Marty, Chris took a meeting with us and as much as he may have liked what he heard, I got the impression he saw something in us that may have reminded him of starting Island 28 yrs earlier. He respected the fact we were doing it all ourselves, and he also knew hip hop was here to stay, as he had just had a taste of it with Eric B and Rakim on his 4th and Broadway label.

Anyway, long story short, he gave us a 50k advance, which was 10 times what we started the label with and a 16 point royalty. I remember sitting with him in his backyard above the Chateau Marmont, 26 yrs old, wet behind the ears, high on his weed, with a lawyer I had hired from the yellow pages, negotiating with him on things I knew nothing about regarding packaging deductions and 75% on sales of CD’s and shit that would cost us a ton of bread when we delivered our first album Tone Loc “Loc’ed After Dark”.  Who knew? Chris knew.  lol.

But, he also was quick to let us renegotiate that horrible deal less than a year later, (with our new lawyer, the great Peter Paterno) before we dropped our second album, Young MC’s “Stone Cold Rhymin”.  I remember telling him I wish I knew then what I knew now, and he just laughed. It was like, welcome to the record business kid.

Being in biz with Chris as we were starting to have success just made the process so much easier for a couple of young cocky DJ’s turned hip hop producers who thought are shit didn’t stink. He spoke our language and was as excited about music as we were. How lucky were we? We didn’t even know at the time.

He would put us up at the legendary Essex House in NYC, which I only knew about through SNL commercials as a kid. Lol. (He had a fly penthouse there ) We had access to his houses for videos and anyone on the Island roster for features or collaborations. We got to work with the legendary Etta James for a feature on the Def Jef underground classic “Dropping Rhymes on Drums” He flew us to DC to work and produce tracks with our Go Go idols, Trouble Funk. He basically gave us the keys to his castle so we could flex and make a name for our label. Who does that these days?

Unfortunately, Camelot with Blackwell ended as quickly as it started. Unbeknownst to us, he was about to sell Island to Polygram for like 300 million bucks.

We went from being the young hot label at Island, working with the great Chris Blackwell as our boss to being thrown into a corporate shit show of labels consolidated under an umbrella called PLG.  Talk about a buzz kill. I won’t go into that tragedy, but let’s just say it was never the same again. Yes, records were made and sold, but it became a lot harder, much more cut throat, and a lot less fun.

I always wonder what would have happened if we could have had a 10 year run with Chris instead of those 18 months.  Who knows, but I’m grateful I got to know the man and learn from him and chase his wake on that jet ski going full throttle!

Mike Ross
Delicious Vinyl

Richie Furay was a member of Buffalo Springfield, Poco and the Souther, Hillman, Furay Band and has a new album of country covers produced by Val Garay. Richie is open and honest and tells a good story. You’re gonna dig the insider truth.

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/richie-furay/id1316200737?i=1000564949441

https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/9ff4fb19-54d4-41ae-ae7a-8a6f8d3dafa8/episodes/5dfe49ad-da21-465c-a151-d70b52db04ce/the-bob-lefsetz-podcast-richie-furay

https://www.stitcher.com/show/the-bob-lefsetz-podcast/episode/richie-furay-203695341

He’s big everywhere but Texas. And maybe Santa Barbara. But in the rest of America HE SELLS OUT!

This is the artist development story of the year, and it’s been growing for the last half decade. Strings is finally breaking through.

You might have seen him briefly during the Grammy telecast, then again he was on that outdoor stage playing during commercial, so if you blinked, you missed him. And nobody watched the Grammy telecast anyway, at least no one on the cutting edge, who believes in music as opposed to stardom.

You won’t find Billy Strings in the Spotify Top 50. His success is not hit-based.

Used to be success of this magnitude was impossible without a ton of radio play on a specific track. But the recordings are not selling Billy Strings tickets, it’s the experience. As opposed to going out with production, hard drives, click tracks…his performances are organic, they evidence humanity, and that’s the essence of attraction. Machines are cold, blood is warm.

Now if you read through the concert grosses you’ll notice that they don’t align with the aforementioned Spotify Top 50. That’s a different game. Of course Olivia Rodrigo is doing well, but almost all of the big sellers are heritage acts. However, these numbers can be skewed, by virtue of who is on tour, the venues they’re playing, what they’re charging for tickets, was the gross even reported… But in truth, most of today’s hit music is not live-based, it’s recording-based, and the two worlds don’t necessarily align.

So Billy Strings sold an average of 4,457 tickets per show. For a gross of $251,545 per gig. Selling 94% of the tickets available.

Strings went clean at Red Rocks. 18,650 tickets for a gross of $1,78,178. Tickets were only $55 to $60, and Red Rocks is like the Hollywood Bowl, stuff sells out there that doesn’t elsewhere, but notice this is a different ethos from the touring dinosaurs. Tickets are cheap because music is the draw, as opposed to image. Yes, there was an article about Strings in “Relix,” but you won’t find him on the gossip sites, you don’t know who he’s dating, you don’t see him in TV commercials. Strings is the antithesis of the twenty first century paradigm, which is you maximize your income right away, because you may not last.

Strings only did 98% in Saint Augustine, Florida. But there were three shows. 13,637 tickets were sold. The gross was $720,261. Tickets were $39.50 to $74.50.

Like I said, Strings couldn’t sell every ticket in Santa Barbara, he only sold 80% of two gigs. Then again, the second was on Sunday, and it’s always harder to move tickets on that day as opposed to Friday and Saturday. But Strings grossed $518,755 on 7,859 tickets priced from $39.50 to $84.50.

Strings sold out two shows in Cincinnati $8,653 for a gross of $376,783. And tickets were under a hundred dollars, as they were for all of the Strings shows.

Strings went clean in Austin, which is almost a separate state from the rest of Texas, 4,374 tickets sold for a gross of $275,423.

Clean in San Diego: 4,370 sold for a gross of $220,235.

Clean in Denver at the Mission Ballroom: 3,803/$212,940.

But Strings was “soft” in Irving, TX, 84% sold: 3,641/$196,849.

Clean in Boston: 3,500/$176,086.

Clean in Cleveland: 3,119/$169,105.

54% in Houston: 2,512/$138,831. But that was a Thursday night in April. And that’s the last gig/gross Billy Strings has on the chart.

Now if you’ve been paying attention, you know that Kate Bush has a #1 record with “Running Up That Hill” as a result of the track being featured in the new season of “Stranger Things.” Most of the talk is about the value of a synch. But really, that’s not what I think is important. I believe this is an INTERNET story. Used to be product had to be manufactured, labels would have to promote it to radio, there was an inherent delay, momentum was lost and therefore most companies didn’t even try to amplify the use of a catalog cut. But with everything available online instantly, if you hear something you like you can immediately play it.

And anyone around back then, in 1985 when the track was originally released, knows “Running Up That Hill” is both different and better than what’s being sold today. Come on, compare it to the rest of the Spotify Top 50, it’s not even in the LEAGUE!

And we’ve seen this story again and again with the internet. The most famous example being that Fleetwood Mac song being featured in that TikTok clip.

You see greatness never fades, it’s just waiting for the light to shine on it once again, for new generations to be exposed.

Now “Running Up That Hill” went to #3 in the U.K. back in the eighties, but nowhere close in the U.S. They say it went to #30, but I don’t know a single person who got turned on to Kate Bush by Top 40 radio. There must have been some sales. But there was MTV airplay. But the video was not ubiquitous. But Kate Bush is an entire ethos, outside the mainstream, I remember buying “The Kick Inside” and being stunned at her voice and loving “Wuthering Heights.” Bush wasn’t even mainstream back then.

But all the gatekeepers have changed.

And in truth it is the public that is the gatekeeper.

So youngsters drive fresh product made for them up the chart, and this is promoted, but it’s only a small part of the music world today, many never listen to these “hits” at all. They’re foraging for something different, heartfelt songs. With melodies. Which is one of the reasons Morgan Wallen’s double album “Dangerous” is still Top Ten eighteen months in.

And there’s the whole player community. Keeping the music stores alive. People who marvel at playing. And that’s very different from the hit parade. Where it’s computer beats or some nitwit singing a song written by committee selected by their handlers and released in a gussied-up, overproduced final version.

We are going to see more examples of the Billy Strings paradigm.

And I’m not saying it’s going to dominate the business. It takes years to get the word out, to permeate every community, but that’s where the internet helps. And you don’t need radio AT ALL! And since the shows live and breathe, are different each time, you want to go back and experience it again.

I don’t think you’ll get it if you pull up Strings’s songs on Spotify. It’s not like he’s got a transcendent voice. But you will hear the picking. But it’s all refined, aligned in the studio. Whereas live, it’s a CELEBRATION!

And we all know you can only get this hit at the show. Web streams can’t compete, they’re a poor facsimile.

Strings is gonna get bigger. But who is the next Strings? Someone who’s been doing it for years, practicing in the shadows, not spamming the labels to sign them for an instant hit.

This is a great story, I can’t wait for more!