Billy Strings is a flatpicker and singer from Michigan who fills arenas with a bluegrass band. He has won three Grammys for Best Bluegrass Album, for Home in 2021, Live Vol. 1 in 2025, and Highway Prayers in 2026. The IBMA has named him Entertainer of the Year four times and Guitar Player of the Year twice. In March 2025 he sold out Nashville’s Bridgestone Arena with an acoustic string band.
Why Strings matters
Strings put bluegrass guitar in front of arena crowds without changing what the guitar does. His breaks are built from Doc Watson and the flatpicking tradition: melody first, alternate picking, G runs, and crosspicking. Then he stretches a tune to twenty minutes, adds pedals, and lets the band improvise the way a jam band would. Many young pickers now come to bluegrass through him, and they show up at jams with his tunes in hand. That is a big change in the audience for this music.
Life and career
Strings was born William Lee Apostol on October 3, 1992, in Lansing, Michigan, and grew up in Ionia. His stepfather, Terry Barber, is a bluegrass musician who raised him and taught him guitar. Barber played Doc Watson songs on a D-28 when Billy was two years old, and Billy was playing rhythm guitar by age six. His aunt gave him the name Billy Strings after watching him play several bluegrass instruments.
He started touring at age 19. In Michigan he formed a duo with mandolin player Don Julin, and they released two records in 2013 and 2014, including Fiddle Tune X. In 2016 the IBMA gave him the Momentum Award for Instrumentalist of the Year. He released his first solo album, Turmoil & Tinfoil, on his own Apostol Recording Company in 2017, with Glenn Brown as co-producer and Billy Failing on banjo.
Strings signed with Rounder Records and released Home in September 2019, produced by Glenn Brown. The band was Failing on banjo, Jarrod Walker on mandolin, and Royal Masat on bass. Home spent 77 weeks on the Billboard bluegrass chart and won the Grammy for Best Bluegrass Album in March 2021. That year the IBMA named him Entertainer of the Year and Guitar Player of the Year. Renewal followed on Rounder in 2021, and the IBMA named Red Daisy Song of the Year in 2022. Fiddler Alex Hargreaves joined the band full-time in July 2022.
In 2022 he recorded Me/And/Dad with Terry Barber for Rounder. He moved to Reprise Records for Highway Prayers, released in September 2024 and co-produced with Jon Brion. It reached number 22 on the Billboard 200 and number one on the bluegrass chart. His first live album, Live Vol. 1, also came out in 2024 and won the Grammy in 2025. Highway Prayers won the same award in February 2026. He also released a duo live album with Bryan Sutton, Live at the Legion, in April 2025.
Playing style
Strings plays with strict alternate picking: down on the beat, up on the “and.” That is the engine under everything else. His breaks outline the melody while striking the strings next to it, and he leans on chord shapes as landmarks. He mixes in G runs, crosspicking, slides, hammer-ons, and pull-offs. On a droning tune like Reuben’s Train he keeps the melody in view and adds small rhythmic and melodic changes each time around.
He likes the first five frets and works the open strings hard. He uses an Elliott capo, often at the fourth fret, so he can play open-position licks in other keys. He bends notes on 13-gauge strings and has started using slides as another way to move between pitches. He has said he wants to take flatpicking into blues and fusion territory, and he has studied Bach and Coltrane pieces with a flatpick.
His main guitar is a 2017 Preston Thompson dreadnought he calls Frankenstein. He warms up on a 1940 Martin D-28, and Martin has built two signature models for him, a D-28 and a D-X2E. He uses D’Addario XS phosphor bronze strings (.013 to .056) and BlueChip TP48 picks. On stage he runs several pickups per guitar into a Kemper profiler and a Two-Rock amp, with a pedalboard of delays and synth effects for the long jams. Take the pedals away, and what remains is a clean bluegrass guitarist.
Influences and legacy
Doc Watson is the foundation. Strings has performed whole sets of Watson songs and has played Watson’s own guitar on camera. He also names Bill Monroe, the Stanley Brothers, Mac Wiseman, Larry Sparks, Del McCoury, David Grisman, John Hartford, Ralph Stanley, and Earl Scruggs. On the rock side he grew up on Black Sabbath, Jimi Hendrix, Led Zeppelin, and jam bands.
Among living guitarists he points to Bryan Sutton, Molly Tuttle, Jake Workman, Cody Kilby, and Jake Stargel. He has recorded with Tuttle, Sutton, and Tony Trischka, and his Brown’s Ferry Blues with Trischka won IBMA Collaborative Recording of the Year in 2024. He says he leads his band the way Monroe and J.D. Crowe did, by working out arrangements with the group.
Signature tunes and songs
Meet Me at the Creek Red Daisy Taking Water Guitar Peace Salty Sheep Reuben’s Train Brown’s Ferry Blues.
Essential recordings
Turmoil & Tinfoil (Apostol Recording Company, 2017) Home (Rounder, 2019) Me/And/Dad, with Terry Barber (Rounder, 2022) Highway Prayers (Reprise, 2024) Live Vol. 1 (Reprise, 2024)
Awards and honors
IBMA Momentum Award, Instrumentalist of the Year (2016) IBMA New Artist of the Year (2019) IBMA Guitar Player of the Year (2019, 2021) Grammy Award, Best Bluegrass Album, Home (2021) IBMA Entertainer of the Year (2021, 2022, 2023, 2025) IBMA Song of the Year, Red Daisy (2022) IBMA Collaborative Recording of the Year, Brown’s Ferry Blues, with Tony Trischka (2024) Grammy Award, Best Bluegrass Album, Live Vol. 1 (2025) Grammy Award, Best Bluegrass Album, Highway Prayers (2026)
Watch and listen
Strings plays John Henry alone for the Bluegrass Situation. Watch the alternate picking stay locked while the melody moves.
Strings and Bryan Sutton play Texas Gales on Doc Watson’s guitar. Listen to how each player answers the other.
What to learn from Strings
Learn Salty Sheep from Turmoil & Tinfoil. It is a traditional tune, and his version is fast but built from plain flatpicking parts. The technique to steal is his capo-and-open-strings approach. Put a capo on the fourth fret and play your G licks. Now you are in B, a key that shuts down most guitarists, and every open string rings. Work through the tune in first position and let the open strings sustain under the melody. That is how Strings gets a big, ringing sound at speed.
Sources
Billy Strings, IBMA award recipients Billy Strings, Wikipedia Billy Strings discography, Wikipedia Grammy Award for Best Bluegrass Album, Wikipedia Turmoil & Tinfoil, Wikipedia Home (Billy Strings album), Wikipedia Highway Prayers, Wikipedia Interview: How Billy Strings Became the Most Electrifying Bluegrass Artist of His Generation, Acoustic Guitar Explore the Art of Flatpicking Through Two Standout Billy Strings Solos, Acoustic Guitar Billy Strings Could Play Whatever He Wants and Still Chooses Bluegrass, The Bluegrass Situation Billy Strings and Bryan Sutton Release Live at the Legion, The Bluegrass Situation Billy Strings and Thompson Guitars, Acoustic Guitar
Related players
See the guitar players hub and the guitar guide for more flatpickers. Strings built his style on Doc Watson and names Bryan Sutton, Molly Tuttle, Cody Kilby, and Jake Workman as guitarists he admires. Larry Sparks and Del McCoury are two of the heroes he names. His fiddler Alex Hargreaves has his own page.