Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
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From WHYY in Philadelphia, this is Fresh Air Weekend. I'm Sam Brigger.
Well, folks, I want to tell you about a traveling man. His home was down in Tennessee.
Today we continue our series highlighting some of our favorite interviews of the year with singer, songwriter, and guitarist Billy Strings. Strings is one of the rare bluegrass musicians who can fill arenas with tens of thousands of fans. He's been working to get to where he is for a long time.
By the time I could play guitar, you know, five, six years old, I was learning those tunes. I might have been able to play some of them before I knew how to tie my shoes or something. You know, it was like I was learning how to speak and talk and walk, and I was learning all these Doc Watson tunes at the same time, and it was just like a religion.
Also, we hear an excerpt of Terry's interview with classical cellist and pop star Leve.
But you think you're so poetic
That's coming up on Fresh Air Weekend. This is Fresh Air Weekend. I'm Sam Brigger. If you ever find yourself at an arena concert where tens of thousands of fans of all ages are stomping about to the Bill Monroe tune Roanoke or the classic bluegrass song Old Slewfoot, chances are you're at a Billy Strings show.
A singer, songwriter, and guitarist, Billy Strings is one of the younger generation of musicians, carrying the torch for traditional acoustic bluegrass, even while his music incorporates excursions into exploratory improvisational jams and the occasional heavy metal guitar riff. and he's been celebrated by both audiences and the music industry.
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Chapter 2: Who is Billy Strings and what is his musical background?
That's Billy Strings and Brian Sutton on the new album Live at the Legion. Billy Strings, welcome to Fresh Air. Hey, thank you so much. 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?
Yeah, he's like the ground upon which I stand, you know. My dad played his music all around the house growing up, and by the time I could play guitar, you know, five, six years old, I was learning those tunes too. I might have been able to play some of them before I knew how to tie my shoes or something, you know. It was like I was learning how to speak, and
talk and walk, and I was learning all these Doc Watson tunes at the same time, and it was just like a religion in my house. His music is just the best. I mean, that's what I was listening to on the way over here, the Sonic Journals, the Owsley thing that he recorded. It's just these beautiful recordings, and gosh, it was so good. Everything they were playing was just churning.
I can hear some of his guitar playing in your playing, but what about his singing?
Chapter 3: How did Billy Strings' childhood influence his music?
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.
I mean, I think his range was really kind of something to behold when you think about it. He had this great low baritone, and he could also yodel and get up into that really high falsetto. But with Doc, it was always just spoken. It was always... The information of the song came through and the conversation of it.
People like him, people like Willie Nelson, people like Dolly Parton, these really great storytellers, when they're singing... If you see Dolly Parton on TV singing and you press mute, it just looks like she's talking to you. Because she is. She's telling the story. That's one big thing that one of my vocal coaches that I've been working with
One of the big things that I took from some of those lessons was just give me the information. I get on stage and I sing and I'm so worried about the pitch. Am I singing good? Is the tone good? Am I singing right? How's my timing? This and that. It's like taking the kids to the park and you're scared to let them go down the slide because you don't want them to get hurt.
It's like, jeez, let them play. And so if you focus on the story and telling the words, it's just like... I know where the pitch is. I just need to tell the story. So you're doing that more? Trying to. It's easier said than done, all this stuff, all the music, kind of zen, kind of mindful stuff that I've been getting into. It's kind of the inner game stuff. You know, I mean...
i'm high strong i'm i got a lot of anxiety and stress and i'm moving around a lot i've been really busy the last several years and i got a lot of my own personal stuff that just haunts me on a daily basis and i try to I try to do everything I can to just be cool and get my nervous system to chill, but it just seems like I don't know what I can do to calm it.
I do the best I can, and I'm doing okay, but it's a daily kind of struggle to just stay on the ground.
Does playing guitar help, or is playing guitar caught up in all of that stuff because that's what you do for a living?
It depends on what kind of playing guitar. If I'm on stage, that's where the joy is. That's where the fun is. I kind of ride myself pretty hard about practice offstage.
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Chapter 4: What role does Doc Watson play in Billy Strings' artistry?
You know. That's the fiddle tune, Beaumont Rag.
Yeah, and so I would play... And so that's how I started, and that's kind of what I did for the first few years of playing. I was my dad's rhythm player, and that gave me a chance to just listen to how the songs worked, to just kind of stay there in the bass kind of notes. and listen to the melodies and listen to the harmonies, how the vocals work together.
And that kind of bluegrass harmony just seeped into my ears, I guess. And later on, I got an electric guitar, a little mini Squier Strat and a Pignose amp for Christmas one year. I think I was probably nine or 10 or so. And that was my first time really trying to play solos and stuff like that. But it was more, I was getting into Hendrix and I was playing more. You know, guitar center stuff.
When I got into middle school, I wanted to play with people that were my age. I'd always played with my dad and his friends, and some of them were much older. And I just wanted to play music with people that were into the same stuff as I was, like skateboarding and video games, whatever. And so the only thing that was really going on in my middle school at the time was heavy metal.
And I went to a couple of shows, and I just hated it at first. It was like, this is not music. I don't know what this is, but it ain't music. But I fell into that friend group, and then next thing you know, I acquired a taste for this music, and then I fell in love with it.
But after my bands kept breaking up and falling apart, I kind of got back into Doc Watson at this time, and just bluegrass in general. This would have been around the time that stuff was really rough around the house. I remember specifically stealing my mom's old Chevelle one day. How old were you? 14, 15.
You know, because I'd go over to my parents' house and hang out with them and stay there and party, and it's not like I just totally left and disowned them. I just... Once I realized stuff wasn't going to change, I mean, I didn't end up really moving back there, but I'd go there for a weekend and hung out there a bunch, but it wasn't like my home.
And so, yeah, I stole my mom's car one day when I was just sitting around getting drunk by myself. And that's how bored I was, and that's how, kind of, there was nothing to do in this town. I mean, there's 600 people that live here. There's nothing to do.
So I was just getting drunk during the day, and I stole mom's car, and I went down Hayes Road, this old country road with cornfields on either side. And, man, I put the pedal to the floor, and I just, I was going, and that corn... It was just a blur on either side. And there was a tape sticking halfway out of the deck, and I pushed it in, and I'm like, I wonder what my mom's listening to, right?
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