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Highway Prayers
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Highway Prayers
Current price: $15.39
Barnes and Noble
Highway Prayers
Current price: $15.39
Size: CD
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Billy Strings
' follow-up to 2021's
Renewal
was the nostalgic
Me/And/Dad
, a collection of traditional bluegrass and country cuts made with his father, singer/guitarist
Terry Barber
. It was straightforward, heartfelt, and enjoyable, and that was its point. With 2024's
Highway Prayers
,
Strings
is back on his future-facing trajectory with another sprawling set of originals that challenge bluegrass norms while borrowing its framework. It's also his first studio album -- he released a live album earlier in the year -- for
Reprise Records
, a major label founded by
Frank Sinatra
and not known for its deep bluegrass roster. Co-produced by veteran Los Angeleno
Jon Brion
(
Fiona Apple
Jellyfish
),
' fourth album is an inventive, freewheeling ride that flaunts its increased budget not through studio gloss but a heightened sense of ambition and a strong dose of frivolity. At 74 minutes in length, its 20 tracks jump all over the place, hemmed in only by their adherence to string-band instrumentation and showstopping musicianship. The laid-back country-rocker "Gild the Lily" has an appealingly vintage West Coast feel, while the atmospheric ballad "Seven Weeks in County" makes great use of its spaghetti Western motif, with a
Sergio Leone
-inspired music video to match. The jaunty "Leadfoot" feels like a nod to '70s trucker culture and features audio from
' prized Chevy Chevelle, the muscle car that adorns the album's cover. He and his crack band touch on psychedelia ("Stratosphere Blues / I Believe in You") and warm Americana ("The Beginning of the End"), but also goof off with weed-joke toss-aways like "Catch and Release" and "MORBUD4ME," the latter of which is built around a percussion bed of bong hits. Although
has lived in Nashville for nearly a decade, his home state of Michigan still occupies much of his imagination and is referenced frequently both in his lyrics and instrumental odes to Upper Peninsula locales like "Escanaba" and the 25 miles of arrow-straight highway known as the "Seney Stretch."
is too long -- there is a fantastic 40-minute album in there -- but it's also a lot of fun, and it may take a young superstar like
to bend and stretch bluegrass enough to deliver it to the masses. ~ Timothy Monger
' follow-up to 2021's
Renewal
was the nostalgic
Me/And/Dad
, a collection of traditional bluegrass and country cuts made with his father, singer/guitarist
Terry Barber
. It was straightforward, heartfelt, and enjoyable, and that was its point. With 2024's
Highway Prayers
,
Strings
is back on his future-facing trajectory with another sprawling set of originals that challenge bluegrass norms while borrowing its framework. It's also his first studio album -- he released a live album earlier in the year -- for
Reprise Records
, a major label founded by
Frank Sinatra
and not known for its deep bluegrass roster. Co-produced by veteran Los Angeleno
Jon Brion
(
Fiona Apple
Jellyfish
),
' fourth album is an inventive, freewheeling ride that flaunts its increased budget not through studio gloss but a heightened sense of ambition and a strong dose of frivolity. At 74 minutes in length, its 20 tracks jump all over the place, hemmed in only by their adherence to string-band instrumentation and showstopping musicianship. The laid-back country-rocker "Gild the Lily" has an appealingly vintage West Coast feel, while the atmospheric ballad "Seven Weeks in County" makes great use of its spaghetti Western motif, with a
Sergio Leone
-inspired music video to match. The jaunty "Leadfoot" feels like a nod to '70s trucker culture and features audio from
' prized Chevy Chevelle, the muscle car that adorns the album's cover. He and his crack band touch on psychedelia ("Stratosphere Blues / I Believe in You") and warm Americana ("The Beginning of the End"), but also goof off with weed-joke toss-aways like "Catch and Release" and "MORBUD4ME," the latter of which is built around a percussion bed of bong hits. Although
has lived in Nashville for nearly a decade, his home state of Michigan still occupies much of his imagination and is referenced frequently both in his lyrics and instrumental odes to Upper Peninsula locales like "Escanaba" and the 25 miles of arrow-straight highway known as the "Seney Stretch."
is too long -- there is a fantastic 40-minute album in there -- but it's also a lot of fun, and it may take a young superstar like
to bend and stretch bluegrass enough to deliver it to the masses. ~ Timothy Monger
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