Billy Strings' next album? A covers collection with his dad

For his next album, bluegrass bellwether Billy Strings returns to his roots – in more ways than one.

Next month, the reigning Americana Awards' Artist of the Year releases "Me/And/Dad," a collection of standard bluegrass and country tunes featuring his father, Terry Barber. The album debuts Nov. 18 via Rounder Records.

The 14-song "Me/And/Dad" includes bluegrass staple "Little Cabin Home On The Hill," Doc Watson tune "Way Downtown" and a rendition of the Carter Family's "Wandering Boy," among others. Strings and Barber tracked the album at Nashville studio Sound Emporium with an ace band including Mike Bub, brothers Ron and Rob McCoury and Michael Cleveland.

Strings' mother, Debra Barber, sings on the final track, "I heard My Mother Weeping," a news release said.

Strings debuted Monday a pair of songs from the project: Longtime bluegrass song “Long Journey Home” and a take on George Jones' "Life To Go."

A prodigious Nashville guitar player raised in Michigan on a childhood soundtrack of his father's favorite bluegrass pickers, Strings described the project as "a bucket list thing for me."

"As long as I can remember, I wanted to make a record with my dad," he said in a statement. "I’ve been burning up and down the highways the last 12 years, and as time slips away, you start thinking, ‘I need to make time.’ ... [It's] something I’ve been afraid I wouldn’t find the time to do. And that scared me; not doing this record scared me.”

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The new album comes on the heels of Strings earning Artist of the Year honors at the 2022 Americana Music Honors & Awards, and Entertainer of the Year at the 2022 Bluegrass Music Awards. Known for barn-burning live performances that attract sold-out audiences at virtually all venues he plays, Strings released his last album, the Grammy-nominated "Renewal," in fall 2021.

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Billy Strings is releasing a bluegrass covers album with his dad