Billy Strings

Biography

William Lee Apostol (born October 3, 1992), known by the stage name Billy Strings, is an American guitarist, singer, songwriter, and bluegrass musician. Three of his albums, Home, Live Vol. 1, Highway Prayers, have won the Grammy Award for Best Bluegrass Album in 2021, 2025, and 2026 respectively.

Early life

Strings was born William Lee Apostol on October 3, 1992, in Lansing, Michigan. His biological father died of a heroin overdose when he was two, and his mother remarried Terry Barber, an accomplished amateur bluegrass musician, whom Strings regards as his father. The family later moved to Morehead, Kentucky, and then to Muir, Michigan. While he was still a preteen, his parents became addicted to methamphetamine. Strings left the family home at the age of 13 and went through a period of hard drug use. His family eventually achieved sobriety; Strings stopped using hard drugs and alcohol, consuming only cannabis and other "light drugs" (e.g., psychedelics).
Barber was a heavy influence on his stepson, introducing him to traditional bluegrass artists at a young age, including Doc Watson, Del McCoury, David Grisman, Bill Monroe, John Hartford, Ralph Stanley, Earl Scruggs, and Larry Sparks. Strings is also a rock and metal fan, influenced by Jimi Hendrix, Johnny Winter, Black Sabbath, Widespread Panic, Phish, the Grateful Dead, Pearl Jam, Primus, Def Leppard, Between the Buried and Me, and Cryptopsy, and played in hard rock and indie rock bands in his teens.
Apostol got his stage name, Billy Strings, from his aunt, who saw his ability on multiple traditional bluegrass instruments.

Beginnings, Turmoil & Tinfoil (2012–2019)

After graduating from Ionia High School in 2011, Strings moved to Traverse City, Michigan. In 2012, Don Julin, a mandolin player from Traverse City and author of Mandolin for Dummies, asked Strings to join him on a paying gig. The partnership lasted for the next four years, after which Strings relocated to Nashville.
Rolling Stone named Strings one of the Top Ten New Country Artists to Know in 2017. On February 12, 2018, Rolling Stone published an article titled "Bluegrass Prodigy Billy Strings Plots 2018 Spring Tour", saying: "Billy Strings doesn't have any trouble living up to his name. [He is] one of the latest breakneck guitar pickers to emerge in the bluegrass world." The International Bluegrass Music Association awarded him with the Momentum Instrumentalist of the Year award in 2016. Bluegrass Situation named him a scene tastemaker in 2016. Lisa Snedeker of HuffPost proclaimed Turmoil & Tinfoil as one of the best albums of 2017, writing: "In September it charted at No. 3 on the Billboard Bluegrass charts. 'Nuff said." In March 2018, Rolling Stone released Strings' debut music video for his song "Dealing Despair" from his album Turmoil & Tinfoil×Turmoil & Tinfoil22 September 2017 · Studio albumSpotifyYouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 13 tracks1On the Line2Meet Me at the Creek3All of Tomorrow4While I’m Waiting Here5Living Like an Animal6Turmoil & Tinfoil7Salty Sheep8Spinning9Dealing Despair10Pyramid Country11Doin’ Things Right12These Memories of You13107. He planned to play over 200 shows in 2018.
He has been invited to play on stage with artists including Phish, Dierks Bentley, Del McCoury, Bill Kreutzmann, Bob Weir, David Grisman, Tommy Emmanuel, Larry Keel, Sam Bush, The Marcus King Band, Greensky Bluegrass, The Infamous Stringdusters, The String Cheese Incident, Leftover Salmon, Widespread Panic, Tool, Dead & Company, Zach Top, and more. He has performed at festivals including Frankfort Bluegrass Festival (Frankfort, IL), Hookahville, Blue Ox, Pickathon, Merlefest, DelFest, High Sierra Music Festival, Lollapalooza, Grey Fox Bluegrass Festival, Telluride Bluegrass Festival, John Hartford Memorial Festival, Aiken Bluegrass Festival, Appaloosa Music Festival, Wheatland Music Festival, Red Wing Roots Music Festival, Bristol Rhythm & Roots, Rooster Walk, French Broad River Festival, Makers Trail Festival, Under the Big Sky Festival and the All Good Presents 4848 Festival. At Grey Fox, he served as the very first Artist in Residence in 2017 and 2018. Strings has appeared on famous PBS musical TV programs Austin City Limits and Bluegrass Underground. He has toured with Greensky Bluegrass, The Infamous Stringdusters, Leftover Salmon, I'm With Her, Cabinet and others. Of those bands he played with early in his career, he has cited Greensky Bluegrass specifically as a major influence and his "favorite band."
In February 2017, Strings was named one of the six new rising stars of bluegrass by Acoustic Guitar. He also collaborated with Molly Tuttle on the songs "Sittin' on Top of the World" and "Billy in the Lowground".
In March 2018, PBS announced that Strings was to be the inaugural performer at the new cave for the renowned series Bluegrass Underground in the caverns of Pelham, Tennessee.

Home and Renewal (2019–2021)

In January 2019, Rolling Stone wrote an article titled "Why Guitarist Billy Strings Is the Bluegrass Star You Don't Want to Miss." He was signed to Rounder Records in June 2019. Strings released his album Home (produced and engineered by Glenn Brown) under the label on September 27, 2019. It became his most successful release yet, reaching No. 1 on the Heatseekers Albums and Bluegrass Albums charts, as well as debuting at No. 11 on the Emerging Artists Chart. On September 26, 2019, Billy Strings was voted the International Bluegrass Music Association Guitar Player of the Year in Raleigh, North Carolina.
His album Home won the Grammy for Best Bluegrass Album at the 63rd Annual Grammy Awards.
In 2021, he joined Bill Kreutzmann's Billy & the Kids for five shows, along with James Casey (saxophone).
As a solo artist, he was part of the Newport Folk Festival in July 2021. On September 24, 2021, he released his third studio album, Renewal×Renewal23 September 2021 · Studio albumSpotifyYouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 16 tracks1Know It All3:252Secrets4:433Love and Regret4:154Heartbeat of America6:215In the Morning Light4:426This Old World3:557Show Me the Door4:598Hellbender3:259Red Daisy2:4110The Fire on My Tongue2:4411Nothing's Working3:1512Hide and Seek9:2613Ice Bridges4:0014Fire Line4:3415Running the Route3:3516Leaders4:18.

Me/And/Dad and live releases (2022–2024)

Strings' touring band was expanded from a quartet to a five-piece when frequent guest fiddler Alex Hargreaves was asked to become a permanent member during a show in Baltimore on July 3, 2022. The band consists of Billy Failing (banjo), Royal Masat (bass), Jarrod Walker (mandolin) and Alex Hargreaves (fiddle).
At the 2022 International Bluegrass Music Awards, Strings was nominated for six awards, winning Entertainer of the Year for the second consecutive year, while "Red Daisy" won Song of the Year.
On October 3, 2022, Strings announced the album Me/And/Dad×ME/AND/DAD18 November 2022 · Studio albumSpotifyYouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 14 tracks1Long Journey Home2:572Life to Go3:063Way Downtown3:074Little Blossom3:125Peartree3:326Stone Walls and Steel Bars2:087Little White Church3:228Dig a Little Deeper (In the Well)3:139Wandering Boy3:4110John Deere Tractor4:3111Frosty Morn2:4912I Haven't Seen Mary in Years2:4913Little Cabin on the Hill3:2314I Heard My Mother Weeping3:04, a project with his father Terry Barber. While Barber is not his biological father, Strings has said, "Terry raised me and taught me how to wipe my ass, tie my shoes, and play guitar. That's my fucking dad."
The album, released in November 2022, is a collection of traditional, country and bluegrass music from George Jones, Doc Watson, Hank Thompson, A.P. Carter and others. The same day the album was announced, "Long Journey Home" / "Life to Go" was released as a two-song single. Barber takes the lead vocal on the Jones-written song "Life to Go".
On December 8, 2023, Strings released his first official live recording. The 38-minute long single, recorded on March 4, 2023, at Lawrence Joel Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, contained a three-song medley of "Meet Me at the Creek", "Pyramid Country", and "Must Be Seven".
On July 12, 2024, Strings released his first full-length live album, Live Vol. 1. Announced on May 28, the album contained live recordings of eight tracks from 2023 and 2024. The album would go on to win the Grammy Award for Best Bluegrass Album at the 67th Annual Grammy Awards.

Highway Prayers (2024–present)

Strings' fourth studio album (and first for Reprise Records) Highway Prayers×Highway Prayers27 September 2024 · Studio albumSpotifyYouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 20 tracks · 2 discsDisc 11Leaning on a Travelin’ Song3:572In the Clear2:573Escanaba4:344Gild the Lily5:065Seven Weeks in County4:166Stratosphere Blues / I Believe in You5:517Cabin Song3:158Don’t Be Calling Me (At 4AM)3:159Malfunction Junction4:52Disc 21Catch and Release2:142Be Your Man4:013Gone a Long Time3:024It Ain’t Before3:465My Alice4:056Seney Stretch4:347MORBUD4ME2:558Leadfoot2:469Happy Hollow2:4610The Beginning of the End3:5711Richard Petty1:57 was released on September 27, 2024. The album reached the first No. 1 on Billboard's all-genre Top Album Sales survey dated October 12, 2024, the first bluegrass album to do so in over 20 years. On November 1, 2024, during a fall tour stop in Baltimore, Maryland, in support of the album, Strings performed the album in its entirety for the concert's first set. On January 24, 2025, Strings launched his Winter Tour in continued support of the album with three shows at Denver's Ball Arena. The 21,000-seat arena featured the biggest crowd he'd ever played for indoors on Friday night, only to top that crowd with a new personal best on Saturday night. As pre-planned weeks in advance, due to lower than expected ticket sales, Strings played Sunday's show for a reduced capacity configuration at Ball Arena. That same year, he recorded a bluegrass cover of "Yahoos and Triangles" for the end credits of the Hulu revival of King of the Hill.
On August 1, 2025, Strings performed an opening set for Dead & Company at San Francisco's Golden Gate Park as part of the Grateful Dead's 60th anniversary celebration. He later joined the band during their second set to perform "Wharf Rat".
On February 1, 2026, Highway Prayers won Best Bluegrass Album at the 68th Annual Grammy Awards.
Strings is also featured on Kacey Musgraves' seventh studio album, Middle of Nowhere, released on May 1, 2026. He is featured on the track "Everybody Wants to Be a Cowboy".
On June 30, 2026, Strings released the first single, "Burn the Other End", from his fifth studio album So Much for Goodbyes×So Much for Goodbyes28 August 2026 · Studio albumSpotifyYouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 16 tracks1I’m One of Those4:212Burn the Other End4:403Carry Us Home4:114Lay Me Down4:005Lucid Daydream6:366Mill Town Flood5:057Live to Tell6:228Bluewater Breakdown3:309Light the Way2:4510I Like Train Songs4:481110,000 Miles From a Friend5:0612Still I Crash5:0013I Wish I Wanted To6:3514Remember to Cry3:4915Wrestling an Angel3:4516Debra’s Waltz4:10. The album, which was released on August 28, 2026, features original artwork created by Strings' late mother.
On August 29, 2026, Strings joined Canadian death metal band Cryptopsy onstage at Ionia Freak Fair in Ionia, Michigan, performing the band's song "Open Face Surgery" on electric guitar. Strings curated and headlined the two-day festival and later described Cryptopsy as "one of my favorite bands of all time."

Personal life

Strings began dating yoga instructor Ally Dale in 2014 after meeting at the Ore Dock Brewing Co. in Marquette, Michigan. Dale also worked as his tour manager during the beginnings of his career. They married on September 9, 2023, in a private ceremony, after nine years of dating, at the Hoxeyville Music Festival venue in Wellston, Michigan. Musicians Trey Anastasio, Les Claypool, and Bob Weir performed at the ceremony. On June 22, 2024, they announced they were expecting their first child together. Their son was born in September.
On June 20, 2025, Strings announced that his mother, Debra, had died in her sleep. Just hours after learning of her death, Strings dedicated a show in Lexington, Kentucky to his mother. It was reported that Debra died of a drug overdose, just as Strings's biological father had.
On April 18, 2026, on the second night of a sold-out two-show run in Charlottesville, Virginia, Strings suffered a fracture of a tibia while performing a backside 180 skateboarding trick backstage prior to a planned encore at the John Paul Jones Arena. He subsequently posted an X-ray image of the injury on Instagram. As a result of his injury Strings was forced to postpone the four remaining spring tour shows to the summer.

Americana Music Awards

The Americana Music Honors & Awards are awarded annually by the Americana Music Association to honor the best in Americana and American roots music. Strings has two wins from four nominations.

Grammy Awards

The Grammy Awards are awarded annually by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences. Strings has three wins from eight nominations.

International Bluegrass Music Awards

The International Bluegrass Music Awards are awarded annually by the International Bluegrass Music Association to honor the best in bluegrass. Strings has won seven awards from 16 nominations.