Raised in Michigan and now based in Nashville, Strings is known as one of music’s most compelling artists. His most recent release, “California Sober,” a collaboration with legendary artist Willie Nelson, has landed on multiple “Best of 2023 So Far” lists, while Rolling Stone calls the song “a blazing bluegrass banger filled with howling harmonica and guitar-picked solos,” and Consequence praises, “With just one song, Strings and Nelson seem to bring the best out in each other.” The song is Strings’ first release since partnering with venerable label, Reprise Records.
 

The collaboration follows Strings’ most recent full-length album, Me/And/Dad, which was released last fall and features Strings alongside with his dad, Terry Barber. The product of a longtime dream, the record features new versions of fourteen bluegrass and country classics that the two have been playing together since Strings was a young child. Released to overwhelming acclaim, NPR Music praised, “exuberant interplay…a match made tender by the familiar harmonies of these two lifelong picking partners,” while The Wall Street Journal declared, “Me/And/Dad works beautifully…the guitars from the principals along with mandolin, banjo, fiddle and bass are expertly played with joy and verve” and Billboard proclaimed, “Top-notch, wooly bluegrass picking wraps around distinct, family harmonies throughout.”
 

Since his 2017 debut, Strings has been awarded Best Bluegrass Album at the 63rd GRAMMY Awards, Artist of the Year at the 2023 and 2022 Americana Music Awards, Entertainer of the Year at the 2023, 2022 and 2021 International Bluegrass Music Awards, Best New Headliner at the 2022 Pollstar Awards and Breakthrough Artist of the Pandemic at the 2021 Pollstar Awards among several other accolades. He has also performed on “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert,” “Jimmy Kimmel Live!,” PBS’ “Austin City Limits” and “Bluegrass Underground.”