It was wild To watch the rise of William Apostol, aka Billy Strings, a bluegrass prodigy turned crossover star like fellow genre travelers Alison Krauss and Chris Stapleton — but who found a home in jambandlandia, where his transcendent guitar prowess met plenty of fat dancing bear Hugs. He's prone to long musical excursions on stage (see last year's 38-minute single, an epic live sequence of “Meet Me at the Creek” > “Pyramid Country” > “Must Be Seven” > “Meet Me at the Creek “), and Strings. The original songs proved to be solid jam vehicles. Give or take a few of them — particularly the early signature “Dust in a Baggie,” a meth-headed blues riff — weren't particularly notable in their own right.
But recent collaborations with Willie Nelson (“California Sober”), Margo Price (“Too Stoned To Cry”), and rising bluegrass hero Molly Tuttle (a cover of Nancy Griffith's “Listen to the Radio”) — each of them a winner — point to the Cannes There's something afoot. This thing is confirmed, that the art of the song is doubled Highway prayera studio collection produced by Los Angeles studio master Jon Brion, wingman the classics by Fiona Apple, Aimee Mann, Mac Miller, and Kanye West. The result, which is also Strings' major label debut, is an impressive 20-track album that recalls the days when vintage hybrids like Old and on the way and Will the circle be unbroken? It sat proudly alongside country rock classics like The worker died, desperateand Eat peaches On American record shelves.
Longtime Strings bandmates – Billy Failing (banjo), Royal Massat (bass), Jarrod Walker (mandolin) and Alex Hargreaves (fiddle) – are front and center here, and it's certainly still a bluegrass record. A cappella gospel harmonies and Bill Monroe-style double fiddle set the tone on “Leaning On A Travelin' Song,” an opener that sounds like a traditional ballad, while instrumentals like “Escanaba” and “Seney Stretch” hint at Allison's new, catchier music. Brown and Major David Griezmann.
But multilingual studio listeners like drummer Matt Chamberlain, organist Cory Henry, dobro master Jerry Douglas, and Brion himself are also in the mix, taking the music into new territory. On “Gild The Lily,” Brion’s soothing bass and drum groove steer the sound towards American pop, with a touch of cello. “Seven Weeks In County,” another prison blues tune, expands the canvas even further, evoking the cowboy ode of Marty Robbins against the soundscapes of Ennio Morricone, reimagining The Dead’s cover of “El Paso” for a new generation of cowboys Cow Stardust.
The latter is a prime example of how Strings has upped his songwriting game. It featured experienced co-writers, including previous collaborators Aaron Allen (“California Sober”) and John Weisberger, as well as newcomers Shawn Camp and Thomm Jutz. But this isn't a Music Row issue, for better or worse, and Strings is careful, perhaps to a fault, not to stray too far from bluegrass grounding. The playing is so hot on a song like “Cabin Ride,” it's hard to complain, though the slow jam shines brightly; Check out Douglas's dobro on “Don't Call Me (4 AM)” and the woven lead lines of “My Alice.”
For his part, Brion is keen to create a space that doesn't feel too manipulated, not far from the approach a producer like Dave Cobb or T-Bone Burnett might take. But you wonder what might happen if Strings and Brion get weirder. However, music is never memorable when it eschews genre purity and is baked.
On “Stratosphere Blues/I Believe in You,” Strings trades quick picking for the bowed tones of Ebow's electric guitar and gentle fingerstyle strumming. “Catch and Release” is a talking blues in the style of Woody Guthrie or a young Bob Dylan, but with a rhyme flow that sounds 21street last century, where Strings tells a very funny story about being pulled over by a cop while speeding in Tennessee (kids: don't try this at home). “MORBUD4ME” is built on a rhythmic track of light clicks and bong riffs. Sure, it'd probably be funnier if you got stoned. But still funny. And the Strings' bleak family history, which includes hard drugs and dire consequences, deepens and complicates his narratives of “California sobriety.” The fact that he still has a sense of fun about it is admirable.
Highway prayer It seems to have been conceived from front to back as an old-fashioned double album, and like most albums, it has its hills and valleys.. But it ends with one punch. “Beginning of the End” sounds like it will be a signature closing act for the concert – “It's the end of the show/It's the end of the record,” he sings plainly, building an apocalyptic metaphor alongside the encouragement to keep your friends and loved ones close. And echoing the album's first track, the band wraps things up a cappella with their own version of the Dead's early outro, “We Bid You Goodnight.” Another great line, though it could be an inspirational verse, is “Richard Petty” sung in four-part harmony, with the strings announcing:
Now one of these days I'm going to wake up tired of the life I'm living
And I feel inspired to get off my ass
And be on my way
Of course, the joke is that Strings is on his way; Where it goes from here is the question.
