See Billy Strings and Chris Thile Bring Bluegrass Classics to ‘Saturday Sessions’

Fresh off Billy Strings and Chris Thile’s first collaborative concert, the Grammy-winning bluegrass artists reconvened once again for a television audience as part of CBS Saturday Morning’s Saturday Sessions.

For the performance, the virtuosic guitar picker and the mandolin master delivered three traditional bluegrass classics: the oft-covered “I Am a Pilgrim,” “Wild Bill Jones,” and “I’ve Been All Around This World,” the latter popularized by the Grateful Dead.

More from Rolling Stone

• '60 Minutes': Everything You Need to Know About How to Stream the Acclaimed News Series Online

• Hear Billy Strings Join Banjo Great Tony Trischka on a Fiery Salute to Earl Scruggs

• Golden Globes Host Jo Koy Booed During Monologue, Blames His Writers

Both Strings and Thile are up for Grammys at Sunday’s ceremony, albeit in separate categories: Strings is up for three awards, Best Bluegrass Album (Me/And/Dad), Best Americana Roots Song (“California Sober” with Willie Nelson), and Best Country Duo/Group Performance (for Dierks Bentley’s “High Note”), while Thile, as a member of Nickel Creek, is up for Best Folk Album for Celebrants.

Strings and Thile staged their first concert together earlier this week at New York’s Geffen Hall, with the pair playing a set that included a heavy helping of bluegrass classics alongside covers of the Beatles’ “Yesterday” and Del McCoury’s “Queen Anne’s Lace.”

The Grammys nods capped an especially trophy-filled year for Strings, as the guitarist raked up at both the International Bluegrass Music Association awards as well as the 2023 Americana Awards, where Strings took home Artist of the Year; at that same award show, Thile’s Nickel Creek won the Trailblazer Award.

Best of Rolling Stone

• The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time

• All 243 of Taylor Swift's Songs, Ranked

• Carrie Underwood Was a Teenage Metalhead: Her Best Hard Rock Covers