On Saturday morning, I sat on the balcony of my hotel and waxed poetic about the Billy Strings community, about how the shows are much more than the notes played onstage. More so than any Billy Strings shows I can recall, this past weekend’s run at the St. Augustine Amphitheatre was a testament to the profound impact that set, setting, and cast can have on a series of concerts.
Now, we could get into the nitty-gritty of Saturday night’s setlist, dissecting the thrilling “Psycho” > “Pyramid Country”, the climactic, set-closing “Wargasm” and all the effects Billy used, or the “Highway Hypnosis” jam that gave the feeling of being abducted by a UFO. We could talk about yet another new original debut, “Love Among the Tombstones”, a melancholy tune about smiling through tears that brought the weekend total to four new original songs.
I could also spend 1,250 words tying together some overarching (and somewhat corny) theme connecting Saturday’s songs and lyrics to disillusionment with organized religion, amid passover and on the eve of Easter. The pessimism of “Nothing’s Working” (“Praying to the hologram / High up in the sky / Is it for justice or is it just for the crime”) and “Wargasm” (“Kill a man over a sentence in a book / And collect the reward for his pain”) were glaring alongside spirituals like “Harbor of Love” and weekend closer “We Shall All Be Reunited”.
Or, I could tell you about Tracy and Everett.
Billy Strings — “Psycho” (Leon Payne) > “Pyramid Country” > “Must Be Seven” — 4/4/26
[Video: Todd Norris]
Billy Strings — “Love Among The Tombstones” — 4/4/26
[Video: Todd Norris]
If you read Friday’s review, then you’re already familiar with Everett. He was the “tie-dye-clad, gray-bearded Gen X head a few rows ahead of me, gleefully twirling around his seat with his lady [Tracy] and singing along to everyone around him.” Even amid an exceptional show, one of my evening’s great joys was watching Everett’s great joy.
Walking through The Amp lot on Saturday afternoon, something stuck out among the rows of flat-top grills and tie-dye t-shirt stands: a raffle. An array of prizes, including Jay Blakesberg‘s Rainbow Full of Sound photo book of his years with Dead & Company, tickets to see Phish at Madison Square Garden this summer, and a Billy Ryman Auditorium poster were up for grabs, just $5 per ticket. Organized by the Red Daisy Ladies Facebook group for female Billy Strings fans, the raffle raised money for cancer treatment for a vendor who sells her embroidered Billy Strings patches on lot and online under the name Smiles with Her Eyes. But her friends call her Tracy.
Last year, Tracy Leahy was diagnosed with uterine papillary serous carcinoma, a rare subtype of ovarian cancer that accounts for only 10% of new cases of uterine cancer. After a marathon of surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation, she finally finished her treatment in March and is on the road to remission.
On lot today, there’s a brightness to Tracy, and it’s not just the fuzzy rainbow dress she’s wearing. Her hair is growing back, her natural color is returning, but her smile does even more to accentuate her glow.
A rec supervisor at the St. Augustine Pier, Tracy does everything from renting out fishing poles to grilling hot dogs to simply being a friendly face to locals and tourists alike. Fortunately, Tracy has decent insurance and was able to set up a payment plan with the hospital. Still, living ain’t cheap. That’s where Daphne and the Red Daisy Ladies come in.
What started as an online network for women traveling alone to Billy Strings shows has ballooned to over 3,400 members. For the past four St. Auggie runs, Daphne and her Ladies have organized a raffle for a local non-profit, usually the Betty Griffin Center, a 54-bed emergency shelter for domestic abuse survivors (which also runs a thrift store, where Tracy bought her rainbow dress). This year, the Ladies rallied behind Tracy to raise money to offset the costs of her life-saving cancer treatments.
As many of us would, Tracy naturally had trouble accepting such an outpouring of love and support, much of it from strangers.
“When we accept love from somebody, it’s a gift to them as well,” she told me in the Amp’s parking lot after Saturday’s finale.
Although she was an old-school Deadhead who started seeing the band in the late ’80s, she still felt she had missed the bus: After keyboardist Brent Mydland died of an accidental drug overdose in 1990, she hopped off. A few decades and a few kids later, Tracy and her partner, Everett, were at their home a few blocks away from The Amp in March 2021 when the sounds of Billy Strings’ first-ever headlining show at the venue wafted through their windows. They haven’t missed an Amp run since, and within a few years, they were seeing Billy full-time.
“I half-jokingly [told Everett], ‘Why don’t we quit our jobs and go on Billy tour?'” Tracy recalled.
Today, they’ve got Smiles with Her Eyes embroidery for sale and are serving some Whirly Pigs Pulled Pork sandwiches. The pork was smoked by their 20-year-old son, a newly converted Billy fan. On tour, the booths help pay for their tickets, gas, and hotels from one show to the next. Back at home, they keep regular jobs around Billy’s now-relaxed tour schedule, Tracy at the Pier and Everett as a cook at a restaurant out on Vilano Beach.
What may look like a mass of hippies that gathers for concerts a few dozen days a year is, in fact, an actual community of people invested in each other’s well-being.
“She’s part of our family,” said Daisy Ladies founder Daphne in her Barbie-pink overalls. “If people were more like this out there,” Everett observed, “the world would be a better place.”
Stories like this one have played out time and again within the Billy Strings fanbase. There was Strings himself returning to his Michigan hometown in 2021 to hand out 200 free guitars at an elementary school, or the $15 million his six sold-out shows brought to Asheville, NC last year following Hurricane Helene.
The “lot” only exists because of the vendors willing to get up at dawn and set up their booths. Clothespins are everywhere because of the fans who sit up late at night decorating each one, channeling their excitement for a show into creating something beautiful. Folks print their own stickers and stick them on you as a welcoming gift, just because they’re glad you’re here.
Are there horror stories of rude and aggressive Billy Strings fans? Certainly. But the core of the fanbase is built on genuine connection—something that could come from the music itself, singing with a stranger, buying a $5 raffle ticket, or taking grassroots action to help a woman you met on Facebook.
Or, as Tracy put it, “There’s a familiarity because we’re meant to be together.”
[Photo: Lorie Arthur – Tracy & Everett at Billy Strings in St Augustine, 2026]
If you’d like to help support Tracy as she pays for her cancer treatment, you can Venmo Red Daisy Ladies founder Daphne @Daphne-Boogaard and indicate in the description that it’s for Tracy.
Check out videos by Todd Norris and the setlist from Billy Strings’ finale in St. Augustine on Saturday. The spring tour presses on with shows in Tampa, FL; Savannah, GA; Greensboro, NC; Charlottesville, VA; and more. Find tickets and tour dates here. [Editor’s note: Live For Live Music may earn a commission on ticket purchases completed via the links on this page.]
Billy Strings — “Wargasm” — 4/4/26
Setlist [via BillyBase.net]: Billy Strings | St. Augustine Amphitheatre | St. Augustine, FL | 4/4/26
Set One: The Fire On My Tongue > Know It All, Psycho (Leon Payne) > Pyramid Country [1] > Must Be Seven, Home, Harbor of Love (The Stanley Brothers), Slow Train (Leroy Drumm, Cal Freeman), Nothing’s Working, Wargasm
Set Two: Leaning on a Travelin’ Song, Seney Stretch, Don’t Be Calling Me (at 4 AM), End Of The Rainbow (Frank Wakefield) > Dawg’s Rag (David Grisman), In The Morning Light, Cattle In The Cane (Traditional), Age (Jim Croce), Enough To Leave, Lumpy, Beanpole, & Dirt (Bad Livers), Love Among The Tombstones [2], Highway Hypnosis
Encore: The Beginning of the End, We Shall All Be Reunited (Newton S. Sitzlar)
[1] “Sally Goodin” (Traditional) tease
[2] FTP – Original
Train songs: 1