Andy Hall

A leading exponent of resonator guitar technique, Andy Hall built a thriving career both as a core member of progressive bluegrass specialists the Infamous Stringdusters and through a series of well-regarded solo projects. Equally at home as a singer and songwriter, he issued his first solo recording in 2004 before co-founding the ensemble that has become one of the genre’s most celebrated string bands, earning multiple Grammy nominations and securing a win for the 2017 release Laws of Gravity. While maintaining an international touring schedule and a steady output with the Stringdusters, Hall has sustained his own creative work, issuing the experimental A Universe Within in 2021 and the virtuosic Squareneck Soul in 2023.

After completing studies at Berklee College of Music, Hall became the earliest of his eventual bandmates to relocate to Nashville, where he independently issued his debut solo album, Redwing, in 2004. He soon established himself locally through session playing and membership in Ronnie Bowman’s band. The Infamous Stringdusters coalesced the following year and delivered their first album, Fork in the Road, in 2007; the record captured four International Bluegrass Music Association awards and propelled the group to national prominence among contemporary string ensembles. Hall received his own IBMA honor in 2008 for the solo follow-up The Sound of the Slide Guitar.

Even as the Stringdusters gained wider recognition and circled the globe, Hall maintained an active schedule as a session musician, appearing on recordings by Dolly Parton, Justin Hayward, and numerous others. In 2017—the same year the Stringdusters released their Grammy-winning Laws of Gravity LP—Hall joined forces with pedal steel player Roosevelt Collier for the duet project Let the Steel Play. He returned to tradition with 2020’s 12 Bluegrass Classics for Resophonic Guitar before venturing into new territory on the atmospheric, cross-genre 2021 set A Universe Within, all while continuing to teach and overseeing the Stringdusters’ yearly releases. In 2023 he collaborated with guitarist Billy Strings on the solo album Squareneck Soul.