Event

Old Dog Tavern presents Billy Strings

The Old Dog Tavern in Kalamazoo presents Billy Strings wsg Jesse Ray and the Carolina Catfish outside in our beer garden.

Jesse Ray & the Carolina Catfish is a three-piece rock'n'roll band from Grand Rapids Michigan. Two-time Jammie award winners of the "Best Roots/ Revival Album" for their releases "Gravedigger" and "Dead Man Walking". Influenced by the high-energy performances of the 50's and 60's and Their blend of rockabilly, swing and garage is rowdy, intense, and entertaining.

Imagine taking a hardcore heavy metal band like Pantera and cramming all that energy into the body of a 23-year-old bluegrass guitarist. Thats Billy Strings. He tears up the stage during his set, grimacing, growling, head-banging and tearing the holy sh*t out of a set of super-charged Americana. Kid can pick! DAMN can he pick! Its acoustic music with a punk edge and a lot of youthful enthusiasm and, oh man, that PICKING! Strings covers a wide variety of classic tunes and songs in his show, from a slow-burning cover of Wild Bill Jones to a raw cover of Cocaine Blues or picking delights like Red Haired Boy and Soldiers Joy. But the standout track is the opening song, Dust in a Baggie, a cleverly written mountain song about meth that manages to take a very current and destructive issue and translate it into the bluegrass vernacular. Its a tour-de-force, written by Strings himself, and is the moment you realize just how far this kids gonna go." D.L. "THE BLUEGRASS SITUATION"