Billy Strings

One of the most important names to emerge in bluegrass since Alison Krauss, singer-guitarist Billy Strings brought a whole new audience and energy to the genre, taking the music in multiple new directions. Born William Apostol in Lansing, Michigan, in 1992, he grew up in both Michigan and Kentucky and was heavily influenced by his bluegrass-guitar-playing father. As a teenager, Strings played rock as well as bluegrass, and he went pro performing the latter while still in his teens. He developed a style informed by trad bluegrass, rock, country and more, bringing a rock-star dynamism to his live shows—he can serve up straight old-school bluegrass licks, detour into heady, almost psychedelic jamming or blast out a fleet-fingered solo with heavy rock-style distortion on his trusty acoustic axe. Strings’ second solo album, 2019’s Grammy-winning Home, was his breakthrough, and he has since recorded with Del McCoury, Willie Nelson, Béla Fleck and others, establishing his status as a 21st-century bluegrass giant.