William Lee Apostol (born October 3, 1992) is an American guitarist, singer, songwriter, and bluegrass musician. He has released four studio albums, with his album Home winning the Grammy Award for Best Bluegrass Album in 2021, an award he won again in 2025 for Live Vol. 1. Billy Strings was born William Lee Apostol on October 3, 1992, in Lansing, Michigan. His 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. He left the family home at the age of 13 and went through a period of hard drug usage. His family eventually achieved sobriety; Billy stopped using hard drugs and drinking alcohol, becoming "California sober" and consuming only cannabis and similar "light drugs" (i.e., psychedelics). Strings's fourth studio album (and first for Reprise Records) Highway Prayers was released on September 27, 2024. The album reached the first No. 1 on Billboard's all-genre Top Album Sales survey dated Oct. 12, 2024, the first bluegrass album to do so in over 20 years.
Bluegrass definitely has a place on this list, and while I’m not expert I have been raised around a lot of classical bluegrass and this was up there as far as I could tell. Bonus star because I’m pretty sure my dad would be thrilled with Billy Strings!
I really love this. I've been aware of Billy Strings for a while, seeing clips of him occasionally on social media. I'm always pulling for a fellow Michigander as well. But, I've never listened to a complete album of his material. It's really impressive. 4 stars.
Bluegrass has had a decent revival over the past decade. When you think bluegrass I’m sure the first city that doesn’t come to mind is Lansing Michigan but the sound is definitely there. I don’t listen to a ton of bluegrass outside of sturgil and a few similar artists on a playlist but this album was pretty good. Very talented while still having good lyricism that makes bluegrass the unique genre it is. The three instrumental tracks may have been overkill but that’s the bluegrass difference. 6.9/10 (nice)
Initially rolled my eyes at having to listen to 75 minutes of twangy pop-country, but this LP did grow a bit on me. When Strings focuses on narrative lyricism or just lets his band rip, the album finds a strong melodic groove and is a treat to listen to. The only bumps in the road tracks like the weed song, which feel like blatant attempts to get the TikTok virality or push a single onto the Top 100 with gimmicky songwriting. Overall a solid listen, doesn't fully cohere as an album but some great tracks for sure.
No more country