So, when did you find out about Billy? Well, back in the summer of 2019, I heard this song

[The Polack MSgt]

Holy shit

[Claire Oh Nette]

1. 2019

My Deadhead friends were going to see him i Florida in 2019.
Then I listened to him play.

Holy Smokes!

[Docreed2003]

2. Have you heard him and Molly's newest jam?

[cemaphonic]

3. They were roomates for awhile

Bet there were some crazy jam sessions.

Her new album is just stuffed with great guest musicians. Gillian Welch, Margot Price, Old Crow Medicine Show (Ketch co-wrote a bunch of the songs), and just about everybody from Union Station other than Alison Krauss.

[Docreed2003]

4. Yeah her new album is incredible

Saw her a couple weeks ago at a benefit concert for Planned Parenthood of Nashville. She played a set solo, just her and her guitar...it was incredible.

[cemaphonic]

6. I'm going to see her current band opening for OCMS in a few weeks

Looking forward to it. Last time I saw her live was at a festival about 6 years ago, right before she started winning awards and getting lots of publicity.

[Docreed2003]

7. That'll be a great show..I'm sure!

[Brother Buzz]

5. I was chasing down the Molly Tuttle story, then boom!, Billy Strings dropped into it

Lots of guitars between the two of them, and there was a time they performed on almost identical Thompson Dreadnoughts

Then I started chasing down the Billy String story, then Boom, I discovered this. Damn, this is solid gold, and I'll let you learn the story of Terry Barber's Martin guitar

[Docreed2003]

8. They both still have a "signature" line of Thompson acoustics

They're beautiful guitars

[Brother Buzz]

9. Cool!

I believe I was fleshing out the story on Preston Thompson guitars when I stumbled upon Molly Tuttle. I never know where I will end up when I chase things down.

[The Polack MSgt]

10. I randomly stumbled on Molly Tuttle doing a guitar demo

I had googled something about vintage guitars, and she popped up demonstrating an old Gibson

This opened up a rabbit hole that I'm still in.

I was a Bluegrass/Mountain Music fan since I was small. It's the music I took in from birth, but I didn't know that there was a whole generation of great players coming down the road.

Molly Billy Sarah and Sierra are the Stars currently but there are so many other youngsters out there who are crossing over from Bluegrass into Country and Popular music

warms my cold dark heart just a bit to see it happen

[Brother Buzz]

11. That was a Gryphon Stringed Instruments production!

I know one of the co-founders, Richard Johnston. Gryphon is totally an institution in Northern California, and just celebrated their 50th anniversary. We had a big laugh when he asked if I had a brother, and I said, "Yes, he's the city historian". Turns out the two owners did a Pandemic Zoom interview with my brother.

Richard is the go-to man for anything C.F. Martin. He's been a regular on PBS's Antique Roadshow, and even wrote a pair of books for C.F. Martin.

Check out Gryphon's used instrument inventory (pack a lunch, Baby!).


https://www.gryphonstrings.com/

[BluesRunTheGame]

12. For most of my life I had not yet found out about Billy...

…but at some point somewhat recently I knew who Billy was. Not sure about the day. Might have had something to do with Molly since that’s how a lot of people came to know about Billy. But maybe it was some other way. Can’t be sure. But yeah, I know who Billy is.