Turmoil & Tinfoil

Something must be wrong with my ears. Every advance review of Turmoil & Tinfoil, the debut album by Nashville-based fourth-generation flat-picking wunderkind William Apostol (alias Billy Strings) talks about how his music is a hybrid, psychedelic, punk-metal-bluegrass creature, the likes of which has never shredded its way across the land. What I hear is a preternaturally gifted guitarist infusing standard bluegrass charts with Western swing, southern boogie and more than a hint of jam-rocking stoner bliss in the spirit of Commander Cody & His Lost Planet Airmen, the Flecktones, Peter Rowan or David Grisman.
Billy Strings is surrounded by an equally talented cohort: Drew Matulich on mandolin, Billy Failing on banjo and Brad Tucker on bass, augmented by guest flatpickers Molly Tuttle and Bryan Sutton, and fiddlers Shad Cobb and John Mailander. All of whom contribute to making Turmoil & Tinfoil a wonderfully entertaining recording. For every over-extended mandolin solo, à la Phish, there is a ‘Salty Sheep’, which features Billy Strings and Bryan Sutton trading riffs like the virtuosic phenomena they are. Buy now and rave.