Kara Frame | December 10, 2025
It’s rare these days for an artist to ask for fewer microphones, but after warming up in our space, Billy Strings did just that. Surrounded by his band, the bluegrass virtuoso brings back the spirit of Tiny Desk’s early days. We capture, in his own words, “the way these instruments are meant to sound.”
“We’ve been lucky to play a lot of cool venues,” Strings says, pausing to reflect. “But this one’s different. It has that same soul to it because — I’ve seen so many amazing performances that happened right here and I kind of believe that love and spirit kind of soaks into this environment, so just standing here feels like a special thing.”
Strings found his roots in bluegrass from his dad. Since then, he’s managed to expand the genre to new audiences, amassing a following of super fans — self-proclaimed “billy goats” — that sometimes schedule their lives around his tour. Once you meet Strings, it’s not hard to understand why: He’s a humble musician and a sorcerer of his craft, wielding a guitar as if it’s a part of him.
SET LIST
“Red Daisy”
“My Alice”
“Malfunction Junction”
“Gild the Lily”
MUSICIANS
Billy Strings: vocals, guitar
Alex Hargreaves: fiddle
Billy Failing: banjo, background vocals
Royal Masat: bass, background vocals
Jarrod Walker: mandolin, background vocals
TINY DESK TEAM
Producer: Kara Frame
Director/Editor: Maia Stern
Audio Technical Director: Josh Newell
Host/Series Producer: Bobby Carter
Videographers: Maia Stern, Kara Frame, Joshua Bryant
Audio Engineer: Neil Tevault
Production Assistants: Dora Levite, Dhanika Pineda
Photographer: Michael Zamora
Series Editor: Lars Gotrich
Executive Producer: Suraya Mohamed
Executive Director: Sonali Mehta
Series Creators: Bob Boilen, Stephen Thompson, Robin Hilton
#billystrings #nprmusic #tinydesk
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NPR Music’s Tiny Desk Concerts is a popular video series featuring live, intimate music performances by diverse artists, from major stars to up-and-coming musicians, recorded in the small workspace of Bob Boilen’s NPR office in Washington, D.C.brought to you by SloppBoxx.Com.
So, Malfunction Junction, is that considered progressive bluegrass? Fairly complex tune.
It’s a BMFS hoedown…..
Thank GOD for Billy Strings. I pray he lives a l o n g life.
My children will grow up with this music in there life for sure my 19 month old plays air guitar every time I play this
From the uk half 5 in morning working in my kitchen blasting this in my earphones ❤️ I’ll sing along with the birds
That’s not so hard to play!
THANK YOU !!
Stirs the ol’ SOUL ….
peace
so Wonderful.
His hair is too long, can he be saved?
You think he got time for a haircut playing those licks….
Chris D’Elia so talented
Banjo is unbelievable