STRINGS: I think he's the best guitar teacher in the world. It's called "Me/And/Dad."īILLY STRINGS AND TERRY BARBER: (Singing) Way downtown, fooling around, took me to the jail. Last year, he won the Grammy for best bluegrass album, and now he has a new album out, which he made with his dad, Terry. Fast forward a couple decades, and today Billy Strings is one of the most celebrated bluegrass musicians in America. It just projected from there.ĬHANG: Terry taught Billy how to play guitar. I looked over, and he's right in rhythm with his little wrists. STRINGS: It's such a tender thing, this man stepping in and raising me and my brother because he loved my mother and us.ĬHANG: And the bluegrass stuck around, too.īARBER: When he was in his high chair and I had a friend over, and we're playing one day. Two years later, when Billy's biological father died, Terry stepped in. There was too many others doing that (laughter).ĬHANG: But Terry stuck around in Billy's life. TERRY BARBER: I was playing music with your uncle, Bobby (ph).ĬHANG: Terry Barber was a friend of the family at the time, and as they played, Debbie went into labor and was rushed to the hospital.īARBER: Yeah, I didn't get up to help. (SOUNDBITE OF BILLY STRINGS AND TERRY BARBER SONG, "WAY DOWNTOWN") And yeah, my mom was there.ĬHANG: And in the middle of the festivities there was a bluegrass jam session.
It was October 1992 in Lansing, Mich., and his mom, Debbie, was nine months pregnant.īILLY STRINGS: It was my grandpa's birthday party, and everybody was out in the garage hanging or whatever.
Billy Strings was born into music, like, literally.
0 kommentar(er)
