Billy Strings NYE Run

The words “bluegrass” and “prodigy” are not often found in a sentence together but when it comes to describing Michigan-born Billy Strings, it’s not merely music critic hyperbole, it’s a fact. Now, at the age of 26, Billy Strings (born William Apostle) has garnered praise from Rolling Stone, Huffington Post, and PBS, and will ring in 2019 with a three-night run at the Flagstar Strand Theater in Pontiac. While bluegrass purists may roll their eyes at a young experimental virtuoso like Strings, what he’s made clear is that he is his own brand as evidenced by his debut record, 2017’s Turmoil & Tinfoil, a carefully curated blend of his earliest influences — Earl Scruggs, Doc Watson, Jimi Hendrix, and Black Sabbath — with a whole lotta strings.