Billy Strings

Billy Strings is the stage name used by singer-songwriter William Apostol, a bluegrass artist and a virtuoso player on the guitar, banjo, and mandolin. He is more or less a traditionalist with respect to his approach to his instruments, but can be quite progressive musically in terms of incorporating elements of country and rock into his songwriting. There are times he and his band come close to sounding like a jam band especially when they go past the usual 3 or 4 minute mark as they earnestly engage in expansive musical explorations. He brings noticeable excitement and extra joy to all the familiar motifs of bluegrass even when he is being more conventional. His skills on the guitar and his contemporary sensibilities have earned him quite an acclaim as an artist who propels the genre forward in ways similar to acts like Old Crow Medicine Show did for a previous generation. His 2022 album Me / And / Dad is an album consisting of songs he used to play with his father Terry Barber as he was growing up.