#billy failing

[krispyweiss]

Song Review: Billy Strings - “If Your Hair’s too Long (There’s Sin in Your Heart)” (Live, July 30, 2024)

Crazy thing about Billy Strings and his band - those boys sing as well as they play. And arranging the nearly a cappella “If Your Hair’s too Long (There’s Sin in Your Heart)” with barbershop harmonies proves they have a sense of humor to boot.

Gathered around a single mic July 30 in Massachusetts, Strings and fiddler Alex Hargreaves provided light accompaniment as the guitarist, Jarrod Walker, Royal Masat and Billy Failing sung their warning:

You’ll live a life of fear and dread if you listen to the Grateful Dead/if your hair's too long, there's sin in your heart

And the crowd went apeshi … Sound Bites means crazy.

Grade card: Billy Strings - “If Your Hair’s too Long (There’s Sin in Your Heart)” (Live - 7/30/24) - A+

9/6/24

[sinceileftyoublog]

Billy Strings Live Show Review: 5/24, Allstate Arena, Rosemont

From left to right: Jarrod Walker, Royal Masat, Billy Strings, Billy Failing, Alex Hargreaves

BY JORDAN MAINZER

I would have been shocked to see the Allstate Arena full for some traditional bluegrass music. I wasn't surprised one lick to see it packed to the brim for Billy Strings. The prodigious guitar player competes in the bluegrass category at the Grammys--perhaps an American Roots nod here or a Country nod there, depending on the song and whether he's collaborating with anybody--but his brand of old-time string music is something more progressive and modern than what you associate with bluegrass. Not to say he doesn't have chops: If there was every anybody raised to appreciated music of the Appalachians, it's Strings, whose mother married amateur bluegrass musician Terry Barber when Strings was two years old. It was Barber who showed strings the likes of Bill Monroe and Doc Watson. Yet, it was Strings himself, a child of the early Internet age, who discovered rock and metal. Though his recorded music isn't loud, and his live performances aren't necessarily heavy, they exude the raw spirit of bluegrass, the virtuosity of rock and roll, and the jaw-dropping skill of both.

Walker, Masat, Strings, Failing, & Hargreaves

Having never seen Strings before, I didn't know what to expect last Friday at Allstate Arena. Walking in and scanning the tie dye-laden fans, it was clear he had a diehard following with a definite overlap with jam band culture. When he and his band took the stage (mandolinist Jarrod Walker, bassist Royal Masat, banjoist Billy Failing, fiddler Alex Hargreaves), I immediately understood why. Their performance of "Fire Line", a standout cut from 2017's Turmoil & Tinfoil, started out expected enough, Strings' breathtaking picking leading the way, but quickly gave way to something almost resembling improvisational jazz, with fiddle solos and guitar plucks sprinkled between the rhythms. Strings then put his complex pedal board to work to make his acoustic guitar distort like an electric guitar, a clear distinction from earlier in the song where he made it sound like, well, a banjo. That is, this was more Pink Floyd than Earl Scruggs.

Walker, Masat, Strings, Failing, & Hargreaves

And in the same way a few of the non-aggressive electronic music heads have embraced the loose ends of the Grateful Dead and Phish, I could see why they, too, might appreciate a Billy Strings concert. The way Strings intertwines traditional tunes and covers within his original material, often segueing between songs, is akin to a DJ set. During "Long Forgotten Dream", a highlight from Strings' 2019 breakout album Home, at one point, after a long period of ambiance with Strings' subtle guitars wincing above the mostly quiet band, the song's main refrain returned to flashing rainbow lights, the crowd going nuts like the beat had just dropped. Of course, Strings and his band are much more fun to watch than a DJ: Call me crazy, but at one point during a cover of Failing's "So Many Miles", he was picking so fast it looked like there was wind blowing his red mane.

Walker, Masat, Strings, Failing, Hargreaves, & Terry Barber

And for those bluegrass traditionalists, Friday treated them to an encore of Barber himself coming out to join the band, huddled around a microphone, to cover a couple Monroe classics and, fittingly, Charley Pride's "On the Southbound". "Well I woke up this morning when the cold Chicago wind / Blew my newspaper blanket off my back," sang Strings, of course hoping for that thing to happen where you name the city you're playing in or near and the crowd cheers. It didn't matter not only because the crowd was cheering anyway, but because many of them were already avid Strings followers, along for the journey from city to city, from song to song.

[dijidweeeb]

Billy Failing - Calling My Trouble By Name Album Cover

[manny-jacinto]

BILLY ELLIOT (2000) dir. Stephen Daldry “Don’t know. Sorta feels good. Sorta stiff and that, but once I get going… then I like, forget everything. And… sorta disappear. Sorta disappear. Like I feel a change in my whole body. And I’ve got this fire in my body. I’m just there. Flyin’ like a bird. Like electricity. Yeah, like electricity.”

[batcavescolony]

Ok let's go back to this line from Agatha All Along

"it's underwater! There's a boy. It's a prank. They tricked him. He's gonna drown. it's a bad place. And the people, the family, there's no one to love him! He's got no one!"

Guys we're getting some Tommy lore and it's heart breaking💔 (we knew it would be).

[harringroveera]

Time traveler Steve is determined to find his boyfriend in every lifetime

[imperatrice21]

Bruce: "You're an orphan?" Billy: "Yes." Batman: "You're a vigilante?" Billy: "Yes." Bruce: "Your name is Billy Batson?" Billy: "Yes." Dick: "No... I know that look, B." Bruce: "You know I can't help it, Dick." Dick: "B—no!" Bruce: "C'mon, his name is literally Batson."

[theadventurezoneoftruth]

Billy Bluejeans: an incredibly stupid fan theory

Recently, I saw this post by @pocketsizedcrab .

But it got me thinking. "We met Billy too"? Who, exactly, did they meet?

The sensible answer is that "there is nobody in Faerun named Billy Bluejeans - this is just an extended goof that isn't meant to be canon".

But. The nonsensible answer.

We know that Faerun contained some of the same people from the Two Sun Planet - the extended way to explain away Gundren Rockseeker being Merle's cousin. So you could assume that Billy Bluejeans is also some extended Bluejeans family cousin. Case solved, right?

Unless...

If you subscribe to the fan theory that Barry's legal name is Sildar Hallwinter, as it was in the original adventure (Sildar > Darry > Barry, Bluejeans is a nickname that stuck)... You know what other name corruption you could get out of Sildar..?

Sildar > Silly > Billy... and a man's love for Bluejeans transcends dimensions...

Basically, what I'm saying is this: imagine you are Billy Bluejeans. And these 3 chucklefucks come up to you in Neverwinter and start talking about your brother, Barry - oh, they're so sorry for his loss! And you don't know what they're talking about, but you were always one to avoid conflict, so you smile and accept their condolences.

You are Billy Bluejeans. And it's the day of Story and Song. And you get blasted a story about how your alternate universe self went on an impossible journey and defied death itself and fell in love with the most wonderful woman in the world.

And you are Billy Bluejeans. From Neverwinter.

[fizzigigsimmer]

Y'all remember when Joe & Dacre were just so professionally into each other - in a super serious homerotic but totally platonic TM sort of way - that everyone talked about it and whole articles were written about how gay Billy was for Steve and how open to that Joe was?

Cause I do. I was there.

[chisfics]

two gay senior citizens going on a date after finally reconciling their decades of unresolved (sexual) tension

[krispyweiss]

Song Review(s): Billy Strings - “Leaning on a Travelin’ Song,” “Taking Water” -> “Running” (Live, Oct. 11, 2024)

As they sink deeply into “Taking Water,” Billy Strings and his band suddenly shoot a flaming arrow upward and break the surface “Running.”

The “->” concludes the experimental nature of the former, full of echoing voices, electrified guitar and ethereal sounds in the background. A little too much mucking about for the good of the song, but the segue is striking.

“Running” emerges on pure bluegrass music with dewy harmonies glistening with perfection as guitarist Strings, mandolinist Jarrod Walker, bassist Royal Masat, banjoist Billy Failing and fiddler Alex Hargreaves hit the homestretch of the livestream sampler from their Oct. 11 gig in Indiana.

It all began with a look toward Bakersfield on “Leaning on a Travelin’ Song,” a number with room to grow that seemed a good choice for easing into the show after a week off.

Grade card: Billy Strings - “Leaning on a Travelin’ Song,” “Taking Water” -> “Running” (Live - 10/11/24) - B+/B/A+

10/12/24

[harringroveera]

Steve wakes up and feels weird. His bedroom isn’t his bedroom anymore. He takes another look.

It is his bedroom. Of his parents’ house back in Hawkins. He is back in his old bedroom. The house is empty. Everything looks odd.

He turns on the TV. Will Byers has gone missing. He stumbles outside the door and picks up the newspaper. November 6th, 1983.

He’s gone back in time somehow. 15 years backwards. To the first day it all started.

Steve crumbles the newspapers in his hand and decides this time he’s going to fix everything.

Including saving his soulmate from his death 13 years ago

[fizzyorange-v2]

on not being able to save those you love, even from themselves

“I've been inside his head. That guy's a piece of shit.”

“It doesn't matter. I-I don't want to be someone who leaves people behind. I want to be someone who saves his family. And for better or worse... he's family.”

Credits:

1 - Billy-Ray Belcourt, A History of My Brief Body / Virgina Woolf, Final Letter to Her Husband // 2 - Nick Schager, The Boys Recap: Don’t Forget Your Second Wind // 3 - Adrienne Rich, For the Dead // 4 - Jodi Picoult, Handle with Care / The Boys, Assassination Run / Lena Oleanderson, Love in the Thoracic Cavity / Friedrich Nietzsche / @ell-hs, x / unknown // 5 - The Front Bottoms, Twelve Feet Deep / Dazai Osamu, No Longer Human / Walter Benjamin, One Way Street (tr. Edmund Jephcott), Selected Writings, Vol I: 1913-1926 / lillie, via Pinterest // 6 - John Le Carré, The Looking Glass War / Bring Me the Horizon, True Friends / starparkdesigns, via Instagram // 7 - Clive Barker, The Hellbound Heart / The Crane Wives, Tongues and Teeth / @neuxue, x // 8 - Susan Sontag, As Consciousness is Harnessed to Flesh: Journals and Notebooks (1964 - 1980) / Molly McAdams, Stealing Harper (Taking Chances, #1.5) / The Mountain Goats, Training Montage / Hael, Who Made You A Monster? // 9 - Bares, Montage // 10 - Aeschylus, Agamemnon / Garth Ennis, Preacher / D.N., excerpt from a book i'll never write #71 / @catradoraism, x / Poor Man’s Poison, Black Sheep // 11 - The Mountain Goats, Up the Wolves // 12 & 13 - Natalie Young, Notes on Earth Life // 14 - Brandon Sanderson, The Final Empire / unknown / David Fincher, The Social Network // 15 - Margaret Atwood, "Hesitations outside the door", Power Politics / @theartistichuman, x / Jorge Rivera-Herrans, No Longer You // 16 - unknown

as always please let me know if any links break, any credit is incorrect, or if you’re aware of where a missing piece of media is from :]

[krispyweiss]

Song Review(s): Billy Strings - “Running,” “Taking Water” -> “Ice Bridges” (Live, Oct. 19, 2024)

After a day listening to Leftover Salmon at a barbecue festival, Billy Strings took the stage Saturday night in Alabama to do his own entertaining and cooking.

Guitarist Strings and his bandmates Jarrod Walker (mando), Billy Failing (banjo), Royal Masat (bass fiddle) and Alex Hargreaves (fiddle, fiddle), were feeling it from the get-go Oct. 19 with instrumental and vocal precision abounding on “Running,” which opened the gig and was one of three giveaways from the associated pay-per-view livestream.

As strong as the kickoff was, the following “Taking Water” found Strings and company in compounding-excellence territory with each minute of stage time. This “Water” was a touch slower than typical renditions - an effective tack - and had no reverb on the vocals, allowing the quintet to coalesce around their harmonies and fire off into a jam that was both probing and full of direction.

It led to an obviously planned and perfectly executed segue to the instrumental “Ice Bridges,” which quickly melted into a fiery display of bluegrass prowess. Songs often require words to command rapt attention; this one let the music doing the talking.

And it was raving.

Grade card: Billy Strings - “Running,” “Taking Water” -> “Ice Bridges” (Live - 10/19/24) - A-/A/A+

10/20/24

[harringroveera]

And he will behave (probably)