The Likes Of Me is a Jerry Reed song, but most Bluegrass fans think of Tony Rice when they think of this one. I know I do. It's part of what might be considered a sub-genre in Bluegrass, the "stay away from me, I'm trouble" song (see Don't Give Your Heart To A Rambler). The Likes Of Me hasn't been in heavy rotation with Billy & the boys, but it's in the rotation and Billy uses Tony's arrangement (minus the dobro). There are a ton of bootlegs with Tony & friends like Jerry Douglas, Sam Bush and Vassar Clements - Superpickers, the Bluegrass Album Band, etc. & they usually include a version of The Likes Of Me. They've played it 90 times as of this writing, with 2022 being the peak year so far (22 plays), according to BMFSDB.com. There aren't a ton of videos of different artist playing this one.
Here's a hot one using Tony's 58957 Martin:
And here's that guitar in Tony's hands playing The Likes Of Me:
And here's another nice one of Billy (glad the 'stache didn't last long):
Where were you when the train left town? It's time to break the seal on train songs. Seems like a no-brainer to start with The Train That Carried My Girl From Town, a song associated with Doc Watson. BMFSDB.com has Billy Strings playing this song 113 times, as of this writing. It seems to have peaked as far as inclusion in 2018, when it was played 21 times. Here's a killer version from that year with John Mailander on fiddle.
The Song
I thought The Train That Carried My Girl From Town was a Doc Watson original, but SecondhandSongs.com, lists the first recording being by Frank Hutchinson, from 1926. Frank Hutchison appears to have been an early white devotee of country blues.
Y'all Come is a fun song that is a frequent show closer for Billy Strings. It was written and performed originally by Arlie Duff, but within about a year was covered by Bill Monroe & His Bluegrass Boys and became his go to show closer. Nice to see Billy putting it in a slot that has some history. BMFSDB lists Y'all Come being played 26 times as of this writing, with 19 of those being show closers. Here's a nice Less Than Face video from 2022.
The Song
Arlie Duff, known as "The Singing Schoolteacher" released You All Come in 1953. It was the big hit of his career, getting him onto shows like the Louisiana Hayride and The Grand Old Opry. Arlie is getting down in this video!
SecondhandSongs.com lists 27 recorded versions of Y'all Come. I'm sure there are many more. Here's Big Mon tearing it up with Kenny Baker on fiddle. Check out the buttery smooth transition from John Henry to Y'all Come!One more fun one before I wrap it up: Dolly Parton belting it out. Notice she calls it a Porter Wagoner song.
Shorter than usual post, but wanted to put something together for The Blaze Foley song Cold Cold World. Cold Cold World is featured on Live At The Legion, Billy's 2025 release with Bryan Sutton, that was released without any advance fanfare. That version is truly great, but it's not the first time Billy's played that song or other Blaze Foley songs that I suspect he heard on the same record.
The Stats:
Bmfsdb.com has Billy playing Cold Cold World 15 times as of this writing, with the first time played in 2022. I've actually been in the audience for two of those. Once at "Rain Rocks" (Red Rocks night 1, 2023) and in Austin a month later. Here's Rain Rocks:
Given which Blaze Foley songs Billy has covered, and when he started playing some of them, I'm guessing he heard this one on The Dawg Years (which is not a reference to David Grisman). I love this record & highly recommend it. You'll get pretty much the whole Blaze experience on one record.
Blaze Foley is deservedly a legend in Texas & especially in Austin. Texas has a long history of guitar picking songwriters, from Blind Lemon Jefferson to Mance Lipscomb to Lightning Hopkins to Townes Van Zandt and Guy Clark. A lot of talent, some demons & generally not a lot of material wealth. It's a rich tradition that Blaze (although not a native Texan) fits right into.
Ole Slew Foot is a great bluegrass song with an interesting history. It's got a great sing-along chorus & gets a great response at Billy Strings shows. According to bmfsdb.com, Billy Strings has played Ole Slew Foot 110 times, as of this writing. That's about 10.5% of the shows, with almost half of the plays coming in 2022 & 2023. Here's a nice vid from '23. Check out Billy Failing getting into it as they get going!
The Song
Ole Slew Foot has J.D. Crowe and Jimmy Martin listed as authors & started life as Bear Tracks, the instrumental B-side to the "You Don't Know My Mind" single in 1960.
Here's a J.D. Crowe story. A couple of years ago I went up to Tennessee to attend Cave Fest. I was walking around in my "J.D. Crowe For President" shirt. A guy called me over & we started talking about the badassery of Mr. Crowe. He asked me if I had heard the Jimmy Martin album Good 'N Country, an all-instrumental album which he recommended as a J.D. showcase. I had not, but checked it out back at the campground the next morning. Good 'N Country contains a little ditty called Bear Tracks.
J.D. Crowe has a version on his killer Blackjack record.In 1961, Johnny Horton put words to it & Ole Slew Foot was born. It was more of a straight country or even rockabilly song. To me, the genius of this song lies in the fun subject matter and that last line of the chorus "some folks say he looks a lot like me". For me, that really puts it over the top. I can't put my finger on exactly why, but it does.
About a year later, Rose Maddox released a bluegrass(ish) version. After that you start to see it pop up from a decent number of bluegrass and country acts.
Jim & Jesse
Doc Watson
The Stonemans (this one smokes)
Buck Owens
All told, secondhandsongs.com lists 41 versions of Bear Tracks/Ole Slew Foot. Billy Strings is not listed ;->
Pretty Daughter is a song that I would call "murder ballad adjacent". I've always felt like there's something ambiguously creepy about the father/narrator, but nothing concrete. Unlike most murder ballads, it's the "boy from the town" who gets the wrong end of the pick axe, not the woman. Billy Strings took the original lo-fi, kind of messy original & turned it into a powerhouse, building on what Jeff Austin had done with it earlier. Billy emphasizes the opening melody and really turns it into a riff. The song only has 2 chords, Gm & F. Billy plays with a capo on the 3rd fret, so he's playing in position for Em and D. Em has all the same notes as G major, so there's a lot of familiar runs available, with emphasis on different starting & ending notes.
As of this writing, bmfsdb.com shows that Billy Strings has performed Pretty Daughter 68 times, with it showing up in 6.75% of shows. Secondhandsongs.com doesn't list any covers for Pretty Daughter, but I know of a few.
Here's one pre-Alex
And one with Alex.
The Bad Livers
The Bad Livers were a rowdy string band from Austin. Although I doubt they would like the description, they sounded like a cross of folk, bluegrass & punk. Maybe like the Velvet Underground of acoustic music, not a ton of people knew about them but a lot that did started a band. Pretty Daughter comes from an album with one of the greatest titles of all time - Delusions of Banjer.
Covers
There aren't a ton of other covers of Pretty Daughter other than those by Billy Strings. Here's a nice one by The Kitchen Dwellers. They get into Pretty Daughter at about the 7 minute mark.
Here's a great clip of Jeff Austin & Bill Nershi playing Pretty Daughter with The Travelin' McCourys from way back in 2012.
Here's another of Jeff with his own band, featuring Kyle Tuttle, who now plays with Molly Tuttle's Golden Highway band.
This one's a little bit of a mystery. After The Billy stats, I'll talk about why. This is a quartet vocal that bmfsdb.com lists as 'traditional', probably because there is nothing online indicating the origin. Speaking personally, I'm always happy when the boys break this one out. First off, it means we're in a single mic segment, where they're playing old-school bluegrass style. The first time I saw them play it was Red Rocks night 2 in 2023. The night before was rainy, cold & miserable, forever to ber known as "Rain Rocks". For night 2, I'm pretty sure the plan was to open with "I Can See Clearly Now The Rain Is Gone", but fate, in the form of rig problems, intervened. After a few minutes of standing & waiting, they made the call to get the single mic & pick a few. If Your Hair's Too Long, was the last one before they went back to the original set. A mighty cheer went up for the line "You'll live a life of fear & dread if you listen to the Grateful Dead" as it always does.
BMFSDB.com says that (as of this writing), Billy Strings has played If Your Hair's Too Long 26 time, with it appearing in about 2.6% of shows. 2023 seems to have been the big year so far, with 9 plays.
The Song
If Your Hair's Too Long (There's Sin In Your Heart) sounds like an old gospel quartet song from the '60's or '70's, I couldn't find anything on discogs or secondhandsongs about it. When I looked on Youtube I found this (in addition to a bunch of BMFS vids).
Not particularly helpful, or good. After some more searching, I found this clip.
So this is interesting. LaVerne Tripp sang for the Blue Ridge Quartet, a southern gospel group. Otis Forrest was their producer for a bunch of records. In the clip, Edith Tripp says to Otis "you produced it" and Otis goes on to talk about how heavily bootlegged the song was. It certainly sounds like something the Blue Ridge Quartet could have performed, but I just can't find it online.
I went through the track listing on every one of their albums & singles I could find, but no joy. If anyone knows the original recording, please leave a comment,
