Billy Strings (from the album Highway Prayers

Billy Strings (from the album Highway Prayers

Billy Strings (from the album Highway Prayers available on Billy Strings/Reprise Records) (by Danny McCloskey)
Heading into his recent release, Highway Prayers, Billy Strings offers a tune about having blacktop under your wheels; a subject the guitar/banjo player knows well due to non-stop touring. The song cycle stays aimed down the road for “Leaning on a Travelin’ Song” as first cut, keeping the tires rolling through “Gone a Long Time”, sidetracking for a little staycation with “Seven Weeks in County”. With a current tour schedule that moves into 2025, Billy Strings shows log multiple consecutive nights playing arena shows in Denver (2 nights), Asheville (6 nights), Atlanta (2 nights) and Nashville (2 nights) while Highway Prayersrelease week saw the album debuting a #1 in Billboard’s Top Album Chart, the first Bluegrass album in 22 years (since the O Brother, Where for Art Thou soundtrack) landed in the peak position. Produced by Jon Brion (Fiona Apple, Aimee Mann), Highway Prayers showcases Billy String singing, playing, and songwriting with 20 original songs.
The years fly with Billy Strings promising to find his way home to “Happy Hollow” as bong tokes become part of the percussion in “MORBUD4ME” while harmonies testify ‘a friend with weed is a damn good friend of mine’. Heartbreak tumbles through a tale of NYC when Highway Prayers lets the story in “Be Your Man” unfold as it issues a warning with “Don’t Be Calling Me (at 4AM)”, fast-tracks banjo picking to sing the praises of “Leadfoot”, and makes a instrumental stop at “Malfunction Junction”. A wandering hum surrounds the notes that sparkle as an intro to “Statesboro Blues/I Believe in You” while a slightly twang wraps around the Bluegrass jam taking place in “Escanaba” as Highway Prayers philosophizes in “The Beginning of the End”. Billy Strings spins a shadowy tale with the Celtic tones for “My Alice”, hops a runaway train rhythm to sing of loneliness in “Cabin Song”, and exits Highway Prayerwith an introduction to “Richard Petty”. (by Danny McCloskey)
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