Terry Barber
Terry Barber is a bluegrass guitarist and singer from Michigan and the stepfather of Billy Strings, who regards him as his father and learned the music from him. In 2022 the two made Me/And/Dad for Rounder, fourteen songs they had played together since Strings was a small boy, and the album was nominated for the Grammy for Best Bluegrass Album.
Barber is married to Strings’s mother, Debra, and was an accomplished amateur bluegrass musician when Strings was growing up. He introduced his stepson early to the records of Doc Watson, Del McCoury, David Grisman and Bill Monroe, among others, and the two played together from the time Strings was about three. The songs on their album come from that home repertoire: Monroe and Watson numbers, hymns and traditional pieces, and country songs such as George Jones’s “Life to Go.”
Strings announced Me/And/Dad on his thirtieth birthday, 3 October 2022, releasing “Long Journey Home” and “Life to Go” the same day, and Rounder issued the album on 18 November. Strings produced it with Gary Paczosa at the Sound Emporium in Nashville, bringing Barber down from Michigan to play with Rob McCoury on banjo, Ronnie McCoury on mandolin, Michael Cleveland on fiddle and Mike Bub on bass, with Jason Carter and Jerry Douglas as guests. Barber played the same Martin guitar he had played when Strings was a boy. The two traded guitar breaks and vocal leads: Barber sings lead on “Life to Go,” Hank Thompson’s “Little Blossom,” “Little White Church” and A. P. Carter’s “Wandering Boy,” and tenor or harmony behind his stepson on “Long Journey Home,” Doc Watson’s “Way Downtown,” “Stone Walls and Steel Bars” and “Little Cabin Home on the Hill,” and the album ends with “I Heard My Mother Weeping,” sung by Debra Barber with Terry on harmony. Me/And/Dad was one of the nominees for Best Bluegrass Album at the Grammy Awards in 2024.
