Virtuosic guitar picker and mandolin master perform “I Am a Pilgrim,” “Wild Bill Jones,” and “I’ve Been All Around This World” on CBS Saturday Morning
Fresh off Billy Strings and Chris Thile’s first collaborative concert, the Grammy-winning bluegrass artists reconvened once again for a television audience as part of CBS Saturday Morning’s Saturday Sessions.
For the performance, the virtuosic guitar picker and the mandolin master delivered three traditional bluegrass classics: the oft-covered “I Am a Pilgrim,” “Wild Bill Jones,” and “I’ve Been All Around This World,” the latter popularized by the Grateful Dead.
Both Strings and Thile are up for Grammys at Sunday’s ceremony, albeit in separate categories: Strings is up for three awards, Best Bluegrass Album (Me/And/Dad), Best Americana Roots Song (“California Sober” with Willie Nelson), and Best Country Duo/Group Performance (for Dierks Bentley’s “High Note”), while Thile, as a member of Nickel Creek, is up for Best Folk Album for Celebrants.
Strings and Thile staged their first concert together earlier this week at New York’s Geffen Hall, with the pair playing a set that included a heavy helping of bluegrass classics alongside covers of the Beatles’ “Yesterday” and Del McCoury’s “Queen Anne’s Lace.”
The Grammys nods capped an especially trophy-filled year for Strings, as the guitarist raked up at both the International Bluegrass Music Association awards as well as the 2023 Americana Awards, where Strings took home Artist of the Year; at that same award show, Thile’s Nickel Creek won the Trailblazer Award.