Album Review – Billy Strings – “Highway Prayers” (+ Song Reviews)

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#520 (Bluegrass) on the Country DDS.

If you’re a traditional country or bluegrass fan, it’s always felt like your Billy Strings fandom would come with an expiration date. You’ve been stealing yourself for the moment that Strings takes a hero’s journey dose of psilocybin mushrooms, mashes the effects pedal that makes his acoustic guitar sound like an electric one, and ventures off into the world of psychedelic rock never to return to the bluegrass side except for some fleeting bouts of nostalgia.

With Billy’s last album Me / And / Dad being a collaborative work with his father on classic country and bluegrass standards in traditional form, you just knew his next recorded project would be heavy with 15-minute jams interpolated with tape feedback, taking the listener into the far reaches of outer space, and far away from simple fiddle, banjo, and flatpicking music.

But once again—as he continues to do throughout his illustrious career—Billy Strings proves those fears of his bluegrass fans unwarranted. Aside for some very minor detours, Highway Prayers is a full throttle road trip into 20 original and traditional bluegrass tracks, with some killer tunes, surprisingly involved writing, while still delivering the spellbinding improvisation that is at the heart of Billy’s unique appeal.

If you’re a Billy Strings bluegrass fan first and simply tolerate all the jam band stuff, Highway Prayers doesn’t meet your expectations, if far exceeds them. In many respects, the approach to this new album makes perfect sense. Heretofore, Strings has struggled to capture the frenetic energy and and freak spontaneity of his live shows in the studio, and has admitted as much publicly. He’s a live artist first and foremost.

So instead of struggling to try and bottle those live moments, just do what you know you do well in the studio. Live albums like Billy’s recent Live Vol. 1 is where you can explore the deeper musical world uninhibited, and in a way where the energy of the audience is conferred to the recording. This allows both sides of the Billy Strings appeal—and those that straddle both worlds—to walk away satisfied.


In many respects, this balance of live vs. recorded is what the Grateful Dead perfected in their career. Another good comparison from the jam band world would be the Phish album Farmhouse. Similar to what Strings does here, Phish focused more on songwriting and songs as opposed to extended jams on that album, while still dabbling in the jam side of their music to keep it true to themselves.

With any 20-track album, you worry about quality control. But since Billy’s last original album was in 2021, he’s had plenty of time to compose new songs. Though Strings wrote many of the new songs himself, he also relied on sessions with Thomm Jutz, Aaron Allen and Jon Weisberger, as well as Shawn Camp and mandolin player Jarrod Walker to bring the songs of the album to life.

And though the sound of Highway Prayers might not be as expansive or adventurous as you might be used to from a Billy Strings album, that doesn’t mean it lacks depth or a cohesive theme. On the contrary, this is an album written on the road and for the road, bookended by a song about embarking, and ending with the send off “The Beginning of the End” that you could hear capping off Billy Strings sets for decades to come.

Billy’s jam band fans may feel like this album is a bit dry for them, and that’s probably fair from their perspective. No song ventures over 5:50, and most hover around 3:00 or 4:00. But this also feels like the Billy Strings album that has a chance to finally find some legs with general audience listeners. He doesn’t ask too much from the audience, though he delivers a lot.

Traditionalists in bluegrass will lose their marbles over this assertion, but Billy Strings is perhaps the most important bluegrass player since Bill Monroe, or certainly Flatt & Scruggs. He’s taken the music to the arena and beyond. And every time you believe he’s going to abandon the discipline or stretch it too far, he doubles down on his bluegrass roots like he does with Highway Prayers.

It’s the age of Billy Strings in bluegrass, and the world is better off for it.

8.5/10

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Purchase Highway Prayers

Song Reviews:



1. Leaning on a Travelin’ Song – (Billy Strings, Thomm Jutz)

A straight bluegrass song starts off this album and sets the table for the road trip you’re about to embark on. The twin fiddle melody really takes the song to the next level.

2. In The Clear – (Aaron Allen, Billy Strings, Jon Weisberger)

Another solid, straightforward bluegrass song that fits with the traveling theme to help start off the album. Nothing special, but a really sensible song to get you warmed up.

3. Escabana – (Billy Strings)

This is the kind of instrumental that has put Billy Strings in arenas, and makes him the foremost purveyor of bluegrass for our era. Strings doesn’t need words to create waves of emotion, or to hold the audience in rapt attention. He just needs a smart composition that works like a jumping off point for himself and his band. Skill and imagination do the rest. They come in at an efficient 4:34 on the studio rendition of “Escabana,” but this is definitely the kind of song that could stretch out to 12-15 minutes live.


4. Glid the Lily (Billy Strings, Jarrod Walker)

The first non-traditional bluegrass song of the album gives you Jerry Garcia gone bluegrass vibes. You could see Grateful Dead lyricist Robert Hunter writing this one. “Glid the Lily” has a great lyrical hook and sets a good vibe.

5. Seven Weeks In County – (Billy Strings, Aaron Allen)

Bluegrass and Western? Yes, please. Billy Strings explores some new textures on Highway Prayers, and turns to Western, country, and old-time to do so. This song isn’t groundbreaking or anything, but it is cool to hear Billy venture into some Western-adjacent territory and do well with it.

6. Stratosphere Blues/ I Believe in You – (Billy Strings)

The two-minute “Stratosphere Blues” is the only truly trippy moment on the entire 20-song album. But it’s important it’s there because this is part of the Billy Strings experience.

“I Believe in You” is less a bluegrass song, and more a singer/songwriter moment. Strings assure folks that whatever they’re trying to overcome, they can do it. Despite Strings seeming to sing to the audience, you get the sense that he’s singing this song to himself as well.

7. Cabin Song – (Billy Strings)

This is a great traditional bluegrass song Strings has been playing for a while live, and really shows off Billy and the band’s chops. It was also featured on the recent Hunger Games soundtrack. You could hear the Osborne Brothers cutting a song like this in 1967. Great stuff.


8. Don’t Be Calling Me (at 4AM) – (Billy Strings, Shawn Camp)

This is a mid-tempo bluegrass song that’s really a country song at heart, centered around the writing as much as the instrumentation. Billy and co-writer Shawn Camp combine a timeless sentiment with a somewhat modern twist as cell phones lighting up in the dark from drunk dials and lonely hearts is something that has become an occurrence of regular life for many.

9. Malfunction Junction – (Billy Strings)

If you’re one of those Billy Strings fans who could care less about all the fluff and just want Billy’s compositional and instrumental prowess injected straight into your veins, navigate to “Malfunction Junction” and jam the repeat button down.

This song really highlights the genius of the approach to Highway Prayers. This is a 15 minute song live, but understanding that playlist listeners don’t have the patience for that, they serve up the kernel of the song here, and then can expand on it live and give the audience something they’ve never heard before. It’s also cool that this track is mostly mandolin driven by Jarrod Walker with Billy just along for the ride.



10. Catch and Release – (Aaron Allen, Billy Strings, Jon Weisberger)

A fun little interlude of a song that Strings originally released a while back. It’s a true story with “Vince” being Vince Herman of Leftover Salmon. The song combines Billy’s avid pastimes of fishing and partaking in a little green. It’s tracks like these that keep Highway Prayers interesting throughout, and give the album and overall fun aspect.

11. Be Your Man – (Billy Strings)

Billy Strings doesn’t do a lot of love songs, but this is a good one with a great chorus that accentuates his vocal strengths. Really cool production decision to feature piano playing the solo part in this song as opposed to guitar. Also interesting to note that Billy welcomed in his first child (a son) shortly after this album was released. Perhaps we’ll get more love songs from him in the future.

12. Gone a Long Time – (Billy Strings, Jarrod Walker)

Billy Strings and co. return to the traveling theme in this great little traditional bluegrass tune that mentions Traverse City where Strings got his start in the music scene. It’s the 2nd shout out the northern Michigan town receives on the album. Great solos on this song.

13. It Ain’t Before – (Billy Strings, Thomm Jutz)

Refusing to allow the 20 tracks of the album to become monotonous, Billy Strings and the band approach this song more as an old-time tune than a bluegrass one, featuring clawhammer banjo, juice harp, and harmonica.

14. My Alice – (Aaron Allen, Billy Strings, Jon Weisberger)

What an excellent song, and perhaps the best-written one on the album. You have to double check the liner notes to make sure this isn’t some old bluegrass standard lost in time since the writing feels so faraway in time, but still captures a relevant feeling. There’s lots of great instrumental moments on this album, but don’t overlook “My Alice” as one of the standouts.


15. Seney Stretch – (Billy Strings)

This is the more thoughtful, mid-tempo, introspective instrumental on the album. Though it runs the risk of being overlooked or buried within the 20 other tracks, it’s a nice song that you can hear folks warming up to and eventually becoming one of their favorites from the album.

16. MORBUD4ME – (Billy Strings)

A silly and stupid stoner song taking lighter clicks, bong rips, coughs, and looping them. This kind of throwaway track would have been cool in the ’90s maybe, but now it just feels superfluous and lends to the stereotype of the dumb stoner. There is a space where you can tie the prohibition of alcohol and bootlegging songs to songs about marijuana these days and the similar themes. But this just feels like a waste.

17. Leadfoot – (Billy Strings)

The was surprisingly picked as the lead single since it doesn’t really represent the album. Played mostly by Strings himself, it’s more of a primitive country song than a bluegrass one. It’s a fun song and a fun video that helped introduce the album’s artwork, but doesn’t really feel like a track that will ultimately graduate to being timeless in the Strings catalog.

18. Happy Hollow – (Billy Strings, Thomm Jutz)

Another solid little traditional bluegrass song, but one that fails to make a strong impression, and lends to perhaps the softest portion of the album as it nears the end.

19. The Beginning of the End – (Billy Strings)

A great song to conclude the journey that Strings takes you on through this album, and a song that perhaps might be overlooked in the short-term, but you could hear becoming a fan favorite and a show closer for years to come. “The Beginning of the End” has a great melody that lingers with you the more times you listen.



20. Richard Petty – (Billy Strings)

An excellent little a capella track and a great way to conclude the album. It reminds you that bluegrass is just as much a vocal discipline as it is an instrumental one. “Richard Petty” has already become a favorite of Billy’s live shows.


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