Me/And/Dad is the first album Billy Strings made with Terry Barber, his stepfather. Barber, an amateur bluegrass musician, raised Strings after his mother remarried, and Strings has said Barber taught him to play guitar. Rounder Records released the album on 18 November 2022. Its fourteen songs are bluegrass and country standards the two had played together since Strings was a young child, among them George Jones’s “Life to Go,” sung by Barber. It was recorded at Sound Emporium in Nashville and produced by Strings and Gary Paczosa.
The two trade guitar parts and lead vocals: Strings sings lead on “Long Journey Home,” “Way Downtown,” “Dig a Little Deeper (in the Well)” and “John Deere Tractor,” while Barber leads “Life to Go,” “Little Blossom,” “Little White Church” and “Wandering Boy.” Most tracks add a band of Ronnie McCoury on mandolin, Rob McCoury on banjo, Michael Cleveland on fiddle and Mike Bub on bass, with Jerry Douglas on dobro and Jason Carter on fiddle as guests. “Frosty Morn” is a duet for Strings on banjo and Barber on guitar. The closing track, “I Heard My Mother Weeping,” is led by Strings’s mother, Debra Barber.
Me/And/Dad was nominated for Best Bluegrass Album at the 2024 Grammy Awards.
Tracklist
- 1 Long Journey Home alt version 2:57
- 2 Life To Go 3:06
- 3 Way Downtown alt version 3:07
- 4 Little Blossom 3:12
- 5 Peartree 3:32
- 6 Stone Walls and Steel Bars alt version 2:08
- 7 Little White Church alt version 3:22
- 8 Dig a Little Deeper in the Well Source Recording 3:13
- 9 Wandering Boy 3:41
- 10 John Deere Tractor alt version 4:31
- 11 Frosty Morn 2:49
- 12 I Haven’t Seen Mary in Years Source Recording 2:49
- 13 Little Cabin Home on the Hill alt version 3:23
- 14 I Heard My Mother Weeping 3:04
