Billy Strings Announces New Album, ‘Me/And/Dad,’ Shares Two Tracks
The album is out November 18 via Rounder Records.
To help celebrate his 30th birthday, GRAMMY Award-winning singer, songwriter, and musician Billy Strings has announced Me/And/Dad. The album is the first that he’s recorded with his father, Terry Barber, and it will be released November 18 via Rounder Records.
The product of a longtime dream, the record features new versions of fourteen bluegrass and country classics that the two have been playing together since Strings was a young child.
In advance of the release, the pair’s new versions of bluegrass traditional “Long Journey Home” and George Jones’ “Life To Go” are out now. Additionally, Strings have unveiled the official video for “Long Journey Home,” directed by Roger Pistole and Scott Mele.
Reflecting on the project, Strings shares, “As long as I can remember, I wanted to make a record with my dad. I’ve been burning up and down the highways the last 12 years, and as time slips away, you start thinking, ‘I need to make time.’ It’s been a bucket list thing for me, something I’ve been afraid I wouldn’t find the time to do. And that scared me; not doing this record scared me.”
Produced by Strings and Gary Paczosa and recorded at Nashville’s Sound Emporium Studio, the record finds Strings and Barber playing with familiar ease, naturally trading off leads both vocally and on guitar. In addition to Strings and Barber, the album features an all-star band including bassist Mike Bub, mandolinist Ron McCoury, banjo player Rob McCoury, and fiddler Michael Cleveland as well as special guest appearances by Jerry Douglas, Jason Carter, and Strings’ mother, Debra Barber, who sings on the final track, “I Heard My Mother Weeping.”
The new record follows Strings’ widely acclaimed album, Renewal, which landed on several “Best of 2021” lists including The Bitter Southerner, No Depression, Glide, The Boot, Folk Alley, and was one of the Top 50 Most Played Albums at Americana Radio last year.
Produced by Jonathan Wilson, the record was released to overwhelming praise with The New York Times declaring, “a premier bluegrass mind for this post-everything era…he has zigged and zagged between the form’s antediluvian traditions and rapid-fire improvisations that hit like hard bop, all within songs with hooks so sharp that he seems poised for crossover stardom.”
