Billy Strings Putting A Bluegrass Spin On Pearl Jam’s “Elderly Woman Behind The Counter In A Small Town” Just Makes Sense

I’m here for Billy Strings bluegrass-ifying any and every song.

You won’t find a lot of modern country artists playing bluegrass music, and that’s honestly okay, because Billy Strings has it pretty much covered. Tyler Childers and Sturgill Simpson sometimes dip into the realm of bluegrass, but there’s no one that specializes in it more than William Lee Apostol, A.K.A. Billy Strings.

Billy Strings didn’t just magically turn into a master bluegrass player overnight. He dedicated himself to playing guitar and learning music at a young age, even studying the likes of bluegrass legends like Doc Watson and trying to emulate the greats. And his parents helped introduce him to a variety of different music, which ultimately shaped him as the impressive artist that he is today.

Now, at 32-years-old, there’s not really a song or style that’s off limits for Billy Strings. He can take any track, make it malleable, and most importantly, inject his signature bluegrass stylings into it. That’s exactly what he did with this stellar cover of Pearl Jam’s 1993 smash hit “Elderly Woman Behind The Counter In A Small Town.”

Though this cover has existed out on the internet for almost two months now, I find myself revisiting it again and again. As to why, I’d guess its either the fact that the bluegrass infliction gives it a slightly different sound (thus almost making the old song feel new again), or that Billy Strings was so impressive in the performance that it genuinely feels like it’s a song of his own.

Obviously Eddie Vedder and Pearl Jam would like a word, but even they’d likely admit that its one hell of a cover.

Strings seems to accidentally or intentionally settle into Vedder-style vocals, like most of us try to do when we cue up a Pearl Jam song in the car… only Billy Strings sounds really good doing it. And that’s probably because the track has made it into his live shows plenty of times. Practice makes perfect, and boy oh boy does Billy Strings and his band deliver a close-to-perfect cover of “Elderly Woman Behind The Counter In A Small Town” in this video below.

Check it out:

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