It’s been this combination of reverence for tradition, while also breaking its bounds that has earned Strings a massive audience full of bluegrass purists right beside jamgrass party kids and old stoner hippies.
Billy Strings has taken bluegrass 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.”
Even Billy Strings himself admits openly that the best way to imbibe in his music is in the live setting. But that doesn’t mean he can’t get into the studio between shows and see what kind of trouble he can get into.
Billy Strings commonly includes traditional bluegrass songs in his live shows, but there is ample improvisation showcased too, which despite the bluegrass instrumentation, can take Billy beyond the bluegrass genre. That’s not what Sunday night was about though. “This is hallowed ground.”
You know going into a new Billy Strings album that whatever it is you experience live will never be captured at the same caliber in a studio. But instead of trying to ensnare those surreal moments on a disc, Billy Strings and his cohorts must embrace the studio time as a separate medium.
What’s for certain is that we’re living in the era of Billy Strings. What this young man and his band are doing right now when they step up to the microphones in municipalities all across the country is other-worldly. Of course capturing that electric magic in the studio is another matter.