The internet rendered the hybrid approach an inevitability, as people have greater and immediate access to a variety of music. Many contemporary artists in their 30s or under hail from diverse backgrounds, influenced by hip-hop, metal, alt-rock, and Americana, as well as electronica and the DIY zeitgeist.
Case in point: the 33-year-old bluegrass phenom Billy Strings. Over the course of four studio albums, he’s consistently struck adventurous balances between mining heritage templates and incorporating elements of metal, neo-psychedelia, and FM rock. In this way, over a 10-year period, he’s operated as a traditionalist and a rebel, a preservationist and a mutineer, someone who reveres his heroes while remaining dedicated to his own creative path.
With his new and fifth album, So Much for Goodbyes, Strings offers, on one hand, his most conservative sequence. That said, though never wandering too far from hand-me-down templates, he integrates refreshing detours, proggy tones, and trippy textures. The album’s instrumental interplays reflect the musicians’ individual talents and simpatico. Additionally, the set’s oscillation between minimalist and maximalist tendencies serves up fertile contrasts.
Strings and banjoist Billy Failing offer a picking masterclass on the hootenanny-ready “Bluewater Breakdown”. Seamless interplays recall Punch Brothers, though with recent work, Chris Thile and company have moved in classical/chamber directions, while Strings stays loyal to the twang and twitch of bluegrass. Strings, Alex Hargreaves on fiddle, and Jarrod Walker on mandolin play tag, trading off adrenalized solos.
“Carry Us Home” is built around minor-key chords and Strings’ fatigued yet confident voice. Accessible images point to the erosion of nature, though Strings insists on believing that good wins out and that a glorious afterlife is no empty promise. The gothy “Burn the Other End” delivers an unequivocal message: self-will is a treacherous guide if you’re seeking the promised land. Midway, Hargreaves’ fiddle erupts from the soundscape, bringing to mind that famous ditty about the devil and a showdown in Georgia.
“I Like Train Songs” mimics the chug-a-lug of a locomotive, before Strings takes off like a racehorse, offering a lightning solo. Vocal harmonies are striking, recalling gospel tracks playing on rural stations through a transistor radio. On “10,000 Miles from a Friend”, Strings pays homage to a tired trucker. His voice is particularly drawly, as he drifts into back-porch or camp-fire country.
“Lucid Daydream” runs the bluegrass playbook through lysergic filters, the track’s slight murkiness a subtle yet significant touch. Strings’ guitar part pushes the tempo while the hazy treatment creates the effect of a lag, resulting in a visceral push-pull tension. “Mill Town Road” is a doomy narrative that begins with romantic possibilities at a train station but ends with alcohol getting the best of the narrator. His beloved, unfortunately but unsurprisingly, leaves him for saner pastures. As with “Lucid Daydream”, there’s a murky overlay on the track, Strings sounding as if he’s singing underwater, his voice straining against the reality that all things are impermanent; even the loudest utterances fade into oblivion.
“Wrestling an Angel” unfolds as a warning tale re: inner conflict, the refusal to surrender, and the way in which “letting go” can take a lifetime. We cling, we fight, we want what we want, even as we consider ourselves easy-going. Closer “Debra’s Waltz” is slower-moving, spacious, and perhaps the most purely euphonic track on the album.
While Goodbyes may capture Strings as he matures into a conventional stance, it’s still chock-full of sensual textures, moody treatments, and sophisticated thematics – not to mention virtuosic instrumentation. The album affirms Strings as an old-school devotee, even as it equips him to further translate bluegrass for a younger and more eclectically minded audience.
