GRAMMY-nominated singer, songwriter and musician Billy Strings launches a special six-night event, “The Déjà Vu Experiment,” broadcasting live from Port Chester, NY’s The Capitol Theatre February 18, 19, 20, 21, 23 and 24.
Broadcasting live each night at 9:00pm ET, the first and last performances of the series will be available to view for free via The Relix Channel on Twitch, while tickets for the four additional shows can be purchased now at FANS. A portion of all proceeds will benefit two organizations: The Rex Foundation and Backline.
It is no coincidence that these dates coincide with the 50th anniversary of the Grateful Dead’s legendary six-night run at The Cap in 1971. As a nod to those historic shows, Strings plans “The Déjà Vu Experiment,” in which the band hopes to tap into the musicianship and fearlessness that the Grateful Dead did 50 years ago, unlocking improvisational boundaries of music and psychedelia in a familiar yet unique way. During the 1971 shows, the Grateful Dead conducted ESP Experiments, prompting fans in the audience to focus on imagery shown by the band and telepathically send the imagery to a test subject.
Strings’ “The Déjà Vu Experiment” is aiming to similarly tap into a sense of clairvoyance and togetherness by asking the streaming audience to use their minds to collectively “see” and send imagery to special guest receivers. Concerts in the age of streaming beg fans to transport their mind; to feel connected to a live performance when we cannot physically be together. This experiment is a hypothesis that the collective mind has the power to tap into extrasensory perception and manifest connection. Full details on the experiment can be found at thedejavuexperiment.com.
Of the event, owner of The Capitol Theatre, Peter Shapiro, shares, “Inviting Billy to perform the same six dates that the Dead played in 1971 was in our mind from the beginning, more than a year ago. He personifies the idea of taking genres of music like Bluegrass and Rock and Roll and pushing their boundaries into new areas, in a similar way that Jerry Garcia did 50 years ago. I am super excited for what is going to happen, it feels like a good moment to have a Déjà Vu Experiment.”
Next month’s event continues a breakthrough series of years for Strings, who is nominated for Best Bluegrass Album at the 63rd GRAMMY Awards for his critically acclaimed new record, Home. Out now on Rounder Records, Home was produced by Glenn Brown (Greensky Bluegrass) and furthers Strings’ reputation as “one of string music’s most dynamic young stars” (Rolling Stone). Of the album, Associated Press proclaims, “it is his creative musical storytelling, paired with solid vocals on Home that should seal the deal, pleasing fans of the genre and creating some new ones…the perfect blend of pure talent and pluck,” while The Wall Street Journal declares, “Billy Strings has clearly emerged as a premier guitar flatpicker of this era.” Moreover, Strings and the album topped Billboard’s 2020 year-end chart in both Bluegrass categories: Top Bluegrass Albums Artists and Top Bluegrass Albums Titles.
