Billy Strings is set to release one of his most personal projects to date. Today (Oct. 3) — Strings’ 30th birthday — the bluegrass talent revealed that he has recorded a brand new album in collaboration with his father, Terry Barber.
Me/And/Dad, set for release on Nov. 18 via Rounder Records, fulfills a longtime dream for the award-winning musician, who has been performing music alongside his dad since he was a young child.
“As long as I can remember, I wanted to make a record with my dad,” Strings says. “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.”
The project features 14 covers of bluegrass and country standards that the pair cite as longtime favorites. To coincide with the album announcement, the father-and-son duo have shared their version of “Life to Go,” written by George Jones and made famous by Stonewall Jackson in 1958, which you can hear below.
Strings co-produced Me/And/Dad with Gary Paczosa and recorded the project at Nashville’s Sound Emporium Studio. Strings and Barber recruited a list of all-star musicians for the record, including bassist Mike Bub, mandolinist Ron McCoury, banjo player Rob McCoury and fiddler Michael Cleveland. Additional special guests include Jerry Douglas, Jason Carter and Strings’ mother, Debra Barber, who contributed vocals to the record’s closing track, “I Heard My Mother Weeping.”
Billy Strings and Terry Barber, Me/And/Dad Track List:
1. “Long Journey Home” (bluegrass traditional)
2. “Life to Go” (written by George Jones)
3. “Way Downtown” (written by Doc Watson)
4. “Little Blossom” (written by Hank Thompson)
5. “Peartree” (written by Arthel Lane “Doc” Watson, Gaither Carlton)
6. “Stone Walls and Steel Bars” (written by Ray Pennington, Roy Eugene Marcum)
7. “Little White Church” (written by Eugene Wellman)
8. “Dig a Little Deeper (In the Well)” (written by Jody Emerson, Roger Bowling)
9. “Wandering Boy” (written by A.P. Carter)
10. “John Deere Tractor” (written by Lawrence Hammond)
11. “Frosty Morn” (bluegrass traditional)
12. “I Haven’t Seen Mary In Years” (written by Damon Black)
13. “Little Cabin Home on the Hill” (written by Lester Flatt, Bill Monroe)
14. “Heard My Mother Weeping” (written by Carl Story, Lowell Blanchard)
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