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Album Review

Billy Strings – ‘Me/and/Dad’ [Album Review]

Given the high calibre of ‘Me/and/Dad’ (Rounder Records), it’s not long before Billy Strings is a household name beyond the confinements of the genre of bluegrass.

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Me/and/Dad, the newest project from the genre-bending bluegrass phenom Billy Strings, promises to add fuel to the fire that is driving Billy’s unlikely takeover of the music world. The father-son collaboration, coming November 18, is Billy’s third album in as many years and includes fourteen covers of classic bluegrass, folk, country, blues, and gospel songs that Billy grew up playing alongside his musical inspiration and lifelong playing partner, his dad, Terry Barber.

Recording an album alongside his step-father – who raised Billy from the age of three after his biological father overdosed when he was two – has been a lifelong dream of Strings’ and is finally coming to fruition more than a decade after he began touring and building a fanbase whose diversity is only overshadowed by its passion. The intention of Me/and/Dad is to pay homage to his musical inspirations, such as the artists of the songs they’re covering, but also the second half of the album itself in his adopted father, Barber. Both Strings and Barber acknowledge that they play better with each other than they do with anyone else – as one would expect from a family duo with almost three decades of experience and chemistry. Though those years contain more than their fair share of trials and tribulations, the two have a bond that is out-matched only by their combined musical abilities, which is made very apparent with every track on the album.

While much of the success that Billy has found in bluegrass, a genre that is arguably more difficult to sell now than ever before, can be attributed to his captivating vocals and jaw-dropping instrumental abilities, a significant factor driving the fame that he has risen to is the genuine, unwavering passion that fans connect with in his music. That candid passion is on full display with each of the fourteen flawlessly executed songs on the album, each of which gives listeners a glimpse into the inspirations that moulded him into the artist he is today. Musicians like Bill Monroe and Doc Watson, classic songs ranging in variety from bluegrass to gospel hymns, and the love for all the above that he shares with his parents are all honourably on full display beautifully in a manner that is fresh and modern without doing injustice to the qualities that made them in the first place.

Billy Strings and his father, Terry Barber, photo by Joshua Black Wilkins

Three of the fourteen songs were released early and are available as singles today – “Long Journey Home” (Bill Monroe, 1936), “Life To Go” (Stonewall Jackson, 1959), and “John Deere Tractor” (Larry Sparks, 1980) – and they have already garnered over 700,000 streams in just over a month on Spotify. Each uniquely different but rightly complementary to each other, they perfectly foreshadow the rest of the record to come and should leave fans itching for more – which, again, they will get come Friday, November 18th.

Stock in the 30-year-old bluegrass-folk-gospel-rockstar has been rising rapidly for years, but there is still time to buy in before this project propels him to heights not seen by artists of his variety in many years. Major outlets like Rolling Stone and the Huffington Post have highlighted Strings for as many as five years, he’s been sharing the stage with other major artists and playing large festivals for even longer, and more recently, he has developed a viral friendship with pop star Post Malone and even recorded a song with mainstream country superstar Luke Combs; it’s not long before Billy Strings is a household name beyond the confinements of the genre of bluegrass. Me/and/Dad is sure to be another major step in the direction in which he has been headed for many years, increasing in trajectory at every turn, and he shows no signs of slowing down soon.

Me/and/Dad Track Listing:

1. Long Journey Home
2. Life To Go
3. Way Downtown
4. Little Blossom
5. Peartree
6. Stone Walls and Steel Bars
7. Little White Church
8. Dig A Little Deeper (In The Well)
9. Wandering Boy
10. John Deere Tractor
11. Frosty Morn
12. I Haven’t Seen Mary In Years
13. Little Cabin Home On The Hill
14. Heard My Mother Weepin

Run Time: 44 minutes
Release Date: November 18, 2022
Record Label: Rounder Records

St. Louis, Missouri based freelance music journalist specializing in all things country and rock n' roll. Host of the Show-Me Music Podcast, formerly the Arch City Music Podcast. I like music, Saint Louis University Basketball, the outdoors, and my dog.

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