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
Support for NPR Music comes from Moises. A platform created by musicians, for musicians and used by 70 million artists worldwide – to learn, create, and collaborate. Available for download.
