Billy Strings' bluegrass picking is East Nashville's best-kept secret. Strings, also known as William Apostol, writes about his experiences living in the uninhabited American countryside on his new album, Turmoil & Tinfoil.
Claiming to infuse punk, heavy metal and psychedelia with bluegrass and Americana roots music, Billy Strings claims influence from alt-country artist Sturgill Simpson as much as heavy metal band Dead. Latin American flamenco accents, Jamaican influences and Celtic melodies are equally as significant on Strings' latest.
Turmoil & Tinfoil's title track begins with a melodic build-up of psychedelic electronic effects, while a muted rocksteady guitar chimes in with sea shanty lyrics and melodies. Starting with a quirky and deliberately informal live off-the-floor format, Bryan Sutton and Billy Strings' precise acoustic fast-paced flatpicking guitar breakdowns alternate on the instrumental track "Salty Sheep," while the American hysteria over extraterrestrial life provides the core theme of "Spinning," bolstered by spoken-word and more electronic effects. The roughly ten minutes of redundant, disjointed and incoherent noodling on "107," though, goes off-course and feels disconnected from the bluegrass roots genre.
That said, Turmoil & Tinfoil evinces a wondrous talent. Amid the greatest in bluegrass, the carefully crafted genre-weaving Strings does here should provoke plenty of new fans to engage closely with contemporary bluegrass.
(Independent)Claiming to infuse punk, heavy metal and psychedelia with bluegrass and Americana roots music, Billy Strings claims influence from alt-country artist Sturgill Simpson as much as heavy metal band Dead. Latin American flamenco accents, Jamaican influences and Celtic melodies are equally as significant on Strings' latest.
Turmoil & Tinfoil's title track begins with a melodic build-up of psychedelic electronic effects, while a muted rocksteady guitar chimes in with sea shanty lyrics and melodies. Starting with a quirky and deliberately informal live off-the-floor format, Bryan Sutton and Billy Strings' precise acoustic fast-paced flatpicking guitar breakdowns alternate on the instrumental track "Salty Sheep," while the American hysteria over extraterrestrial life provides the core theme of "Spinning," bolstered by spoken-word and more electronic effects. The roughly ten minutes of redundant, disjointed and incoherent noodling on "107," though, goes off-course and feels disconnected from the bluegrass roots genre.
That said, Turmoil & Tinfoil evinces a wondrous talent. Amid the greatest in bluegrass, the carefully crafted genre-weaving Strings does here should provoke plenty of new fans to engage closely with contemporary bluegrass.