Fresh Air Weekend: Bluegrass Star Billy Strings / Laufey

Date: December 27, 2025
Podcast: Fresh Air from WHYY (NPR)
Host(s): Sam Briger, Terry Gross

Episode Overview

This episode features two of the year’s standout interviews. The first half is an intimate conversation with bluegrass sensation Billy Strings, whose music bridges traditional bluegrass with improvisational jams and honest, soul-baring lyrics. He discusses personal struggles, artistic influences, and performs live. The second half features Laufey, the Grammy-winning Icelandic-Chinese singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist who blends classical, jazz, and pop. She shares her multicultural upbringing, approach to music, and performs several songs.

Segment 1: Billy Strings — Bridging Tradition and Personal Story

Interview by: Sam Briger
Segment Begins: 00:50

Key Themes & Discussion Points

• Bluegrass Roots and Doc Watson’s Influence
  Strings recounts learning Doc Watson tunes as a child and how Watson remains foundational:

  “He’s like the ground upon which I stand ... I was learning how to speak and talk and walk, and I was learning all these Doc Watson tunes at the same time, and it was just like a religion in my house.” (05:33)

• Expressive Storytelling & Vocals
  On Doc Watson's and other legendary artists' story-driven singing:

  “It was always the information of the song came through ... People like Dolly Parton, Willie Nelson— you press mute, it just looks like she’s talking to you. She’s telling the story.” (06:34)

• Performance Anxiety and Self-Evaluation
  Strings reflects on mental health, personal struggles, and the challenge of staying grounded amidst success:

  “I’m high strung. I got a lot of anxiety and stress, and I’m moving around a lot ... It’s a daily kind of struggle to just stay on the ground.” (07:54)

• The Guitar as Refuge and Joy
  Performing live is cathartic compared to practice:

  “If I’m on stage, that’s where the joy is...that’s where the fun is.” (08:48)

• Family, Loss, and Catharsis Through Songwriting
  Strings discusses the death of his mother, her struggles with addiction, and music as healing:

  “Sometimes it’s hard ... that’s how I felt when I sang on stage the night my mom died. It was cathartic.” (13:40)
  “Really, I’m the one that needs to hear it. And I wrote that for myself so that I could heal.” (14:08)

• Exploring Trauma and Addiction
  Candidly discusses childhood neglect, family addiction, and abuse:

  “I was around the corner being molested, you know, before I was 10 years old ... It’s really hard because there’s such beautiful people and they taught me so much about music. But yeah, their addiction has been really hard on me for my whole life and it still is.” (18:49)

• Using Struggle for Good
  Strings feels a duty to use his experiences to help others—possibly, someday, through rehabilitation work:

  “Maybe I’ll be able to help kids that are in the situation that I was in ... or open a rehab or something like that.” (21:37)

• Fatherhood and Continuing the Tradition
  He’s teaching his son guitar, just as his father taught him, and treasures singing lullabies to him:

  “Probably the best moment of my entire life—besides maybe just the moment he was born.” (29:09)

Notable Live Performances & Timestamps

• Nashville Blues (“Live at the Legion”): (04:24)
• Browns Ferry Blues (classic Doc Watson/Delmore Brothers number): (09:22)
• I Believe in You (on loss, grief, and recovery): (14:49)
• Beaumont Rag (demonstration of his earliest rhythm playing): (22:47)
• Nothing To It (reflecting returning to bluegrass roots): (27:27)
• Personal Lullaby for His Son: (29:45)
• Cold, Cold World (Blaze Foley cover, closing the conversation): (31:00)

Memorable Quotes

• “You know, that's one big thing that one of my vocal coaches...was just give me the information. I get on stage and I sing and I’m so worried about the pitch... It's like taking the kids to the park and you're scared to let them go down the slide because you don’t want them to get hurt. It’s like, geez, let them play, you know?” (06:34)
• “The only reason [my mom] died is so she could, you know, space travel and be there...She was at all the shows...She was really living her best life in this last little bit.” (16:38)
• "I gotta talk about it, because it’s like my whole life I’ve had to keep a secret in order to try to not make them look bad." (19:54)
• "So I think my duty here is to continue doing what I’m doing...use all that beautiful energy that I get from her, that crazy wild streak." (21:37)
• “I remember moving back to Iceland when I was 8 or 9...it felt like the world fell dark for a little bit because there was so much brightness in Washington.” (45:20)

Segment 2: Laufey — Crossing Genres, Blurring Boundaries

Interview by: Terry Gross
Segment Begins: 34:02

Key Themes & Discussion Points

• Genre-defying Artistic Identity
  Laufey’s music, embracing classical, jazz, and pop, echoes her multicultural background:

  “I’ve never viewed myself as anything other than a modern artist, but I’ve always, of course, loved classical music and jazz music and had a love for all things a bit older.” (37:09)

• Upbringing in an Exceptionally Musical Family
  Her mother, a violinist, instilled discipline and passion:

  “My mom has been in the orchestra for almost 30 years and she still practices every single day for every single concert. It’s not something you shelve after you grow up.” (38:26)

• Daily Discipline and Musical Training
  Laufey describes practicing with her twin, overseen by their mother:

  “I would practice piano while my sister was practicing violin. Then we would swap...My mom spent the entire afternoon just drifting back and forth...It was very disciplined. But I’m so thankful for that.” (39:55)

• Jazz Influences and Discovery
  Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holiday, and the greats taught her about vocal style:

  “Ella Fitzgerald was the very first singer that I really felt that I vocally resonated with. I think she just sounded like a cello. So I immediately was like, oh, I want to sound like her.” (40:38)

• Multicultural Childhood (Iceland, DC, China)
  Discusses feeling “other” in Iceland, and broadened perspective in Washington, DC:

  “It was very hard as a kid to comprehend why I didn’t look like everyone else or how my interests were different...I was ready to do anything to get my voice to be heard.” (46:35)
  “Even within just my neighborhood school [in DC], I think 90% of my class was international kids. And I was such a naturally multicultural kid.” (44:50)

• Social Media and COVID-Era Breakthrough
  Laufey’s first viral jazz cover posted from home at the pandemic’s start:

  “It started with a lot of jazz standards, and I was playing the jazz standards on cello and singing along...They kind of definitely were the first things that I think people were like, what? Why is this girl, this young woman, playing cello and singing?” (41:51)

• Songwriting on Friendship, Heartbreak, and Love
  “Castle in Hollywood” inspired by a friendship breakup:

  “I found that there are not many songs about breaking up with a friend, but it’s a pain that can sometimes be more painful than breaking up with a romantic lover.” (47:31)

Notable Live Performances & Timestamps

• Clockwork (upbeat, jazz-inflected love song): (35:44)
• It Could Happen To You (jazz standard, live for Fresh Air): (41:46)
• Castle in Hollywood (about friendship loss): (48:03)
• Valentine (original, sweet and swingy): (50:29)
• Excerpt of Bet You Think You’re So Poetic: (51:54)

Memorable Quotes

• “It was like having a teacher every single day...and my mom still tells me if I’m playing out of tune. I think it’s one of the reasons I’m the musician I am today.” (39:55)
• “Ella’s range, though more and bigger than mine, still, her singing style, I seem to fall most naturally into that kind of style.” (40:38)
• “It was definitely a little scary. It was very dark, but my bedroom was circular. It was inside a turret, and I had a tiny little window with bars on it, like a proper Rapunzel window. And yeah, it was a really, really weird apartment, but so charming and exactly what my storybook heart craved when I first moved to LA.” (49:34)
• On writing about friendship breakups: “It’s kind of like, I’ll love you forever but just not—don’t be around me.” (47:31)

Timestamps for Major Segments

• Billy Strings Interview: 00:50 – 33:56
  • Early musical history and Doc Watson: 05:33
  • Dealing with anxiety and trauma: 07:54 – 19:54
  • Reflections on his mother’s life and death: 16:38 – 19:50
  • Guitar demo ("Beaumont Rag") and family influences: 22:36 – 23:14
  • Return to bluegrass roots ("Rank Stranger" moment): 26:29
  • Lullaby for his son: 29:45
• Laufey Interview: 34:02 – 51:49
  • Discussing Lollapalooza and musical identity: 37:09
  • Family musical discipline & upbringing: 38:26 – 39:55
  • Jazz inspiration: 40:38
  • Multicultural childhood: 44:50
  • “Castle in Hollywood” and friendship: 47:31
  • “Valentine” and young adult love: 50:29

Takeaways

• Billy Strings offers an unflinching look at how hardship and trauma fuel creativity, poignantly blending personal loss and musical tradition.
• Laufey embodies the possibility of drawing from multiple worlds—geographically, culturally, and musically—to create something vibrant and new, connecting young audiences to the timelessness of jazz and classical forms.
• Both artists display deft musicianship, emotional candor, and a reverence for the past that shapes their boundary-crossing work.