Billy Strings and Don Julin
Band · Active 2012–2015 · Traverse City, Michigan
Billy Strings and Don Julin were the Michigan-based guitar-and-mandolin duo that introduced a 19-year-old William Apostol — later to become Billy Strings — to national bluegrass audiences. Their two albums of high-speed traditional material, recorded with a single microphone and largely live, captured Strings's rapid-fire early flatpicking before his solo career took him to arena stages.
- Mandolinist Don Julin — author of Mandolin for Dummies (Wiley, 2012) and a fixture of the Traverse City scene — met Apostol when the guitarist was still a teenager playing hard-driving traditional bluegrass around northern Michigan.
- Debut album Rock of Ages (self-released, 2013) established the format: old-time and early-bluegrass material played with fiery tempos and virtuoso instrumental breaks.
- Fiddle Tune X (2014) is the duo's signature release — 17 tracks recorded with a single microphone, mixing studio sessions with live recordings captured at an Elks Club, a Brooklyn house concert, and Third Man Records' Voice-O-Graph booth.
- The repertoire drew from Ralph and Carter Stanley (“That Home Far Away,” “Sharecropper's Son,” “How Mountain Girls Can Love”), Bill Monroe (“Lonesome Moonlight Waltz”), Merle Travis (“I Am a Pilgrim”), A. P. Carter, Jimmie Rodgers, and traditional sources (“Beaumont Rag,” “Salt Creek/Old Joe Clark,” “Shady Grove,” “Poor Ellen Smith,” “Little Maggie”).
- Julin contributed two originals (“The String Changing Tune,” “Fiddle Tune X”); Strings contributed “Dos Banjos,” a clawhammer/tenor banjo duet.
- Strings broke out as a solo act shortly after, signing with Rounder and releasing his self-titled EP (2016) and Turmoil & Tinfoil (2017); the duo stopped recording as Strings's career accelerated.
- These recordings remain essential for fans tracing the pre-stardom Strings style — already showing the clean flatpicking, acoustic-guitar speed, and traditional ear that would soon make him a Grammy-winning, arena-filling phenomenon.
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Billy StringsPlayed on recordings with Billy Strings and Don Julin
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Don JulinPlayed on recordings with Billy Strings and Don Julin