Sam Brigger

Good to be here.

A lot of this material comes from Doc Watson, like some of these songs are songs that are part of his repertoire.

You said that most everything you do comes from Doc Watson.

Can you talk about his influence on you?

I can hear some of his guitar playing in your playing, but what about his singing?

Was that also influential?

He didn't have a big range, but he was expressive and he is singing.

I always think of it as very crisp.

Does playing guitar help, or is playing guitar caught up in all of that stuff because that's what you do for a living?

Well, Billy, if you wouldn't mind doing another song for us that's one of your favorites.

That's Billy Strings playing Doc Watson.

He'll be back after a short break.

This is Fresh Air Weekend.

This is Fresh Air Weekend.

I'm Sam Brigger.

Our guest today is singer, songwriter, and guitarist Billy Strings.

He has two recent albums, Highway Prayers is a collection of his original songs, which he plays with his longstanding Bluegrass band, and Live at the Legion, a Bluegrass guitar duo album of more traditional songs with Brian Sutton.

Well, Billy, some of your songs deal with some pretty heavy subjects that you've dealt with in your life, including losing friends to suicide, family and friends who are dealing with addiction, feeling neglect when you were a kid.

When you write songs about that stuff, is it helping you process those experiences?

Is it easy to sing about that stuff once you've written the songs?