Billy Pilgrim (early) at Eddie's Attic

From the venue:

Billy Pilgrim live at Eddie's Attic!

Folk-rock duo Billy Pilgrim, comprised of Andrew Hyra and Kristian Bush, recently celebrated its 35th anniversary with a renewed dedication to soulful storytelling, artful harmonies, and the understanding that the duo — like its members — has always been creatively deeper and more diverse than contemporary labels.

“There were so many things that were interesting about Kristian and me as musical compatriots,” Hyra said. “Both of us are strong, individualist writers, but we have a unique harmony. You can have a unique voice and the other guy can have a unique voice, but when you sing together, that’s a transcendent thing.”

The men met in 1990 at a songwriters’ night in Knoxville, Tennessee, and recorded five albums by 2001 — including two on Atlantic Records featuring songs such as “Sweet Louisiana Sound” and “Insomniac,” a cultural phenomenon recently profiled in The New York Times nearly three decades after its release. Named for a character in Slaughterhouse-Five, Billy Pilgrim became the first band for Bush and Hyra, who later found additional success outside the duo.

Hyra co-founded the Smokin’ Novas with Atlanta guitarist Brian Bristow and producer-engineer Don McCollister. Bush went on to form the multi-platinum, Grammy-winning duo Sugarland, launch a solo career, write musicals, and produce chart-topping country singer Megan Moroney.

Billy Pilgrim went on hiatus for more than a decade before reuniting at the 2015 30A Songwriters Festival, when Hyra surprised Bush during a solo set by walking onstage to finish a song with him.

Since then, the duo released In the Time Machine, an album once believed lost in a 2000 studio fire. Though the master recordings were destroyed, Bush discovered a surviving copy while cleaning out closets during the coronavirus quarantine. A year later, Billy Pilgrim released Billy Pilgrim Is Your Friend (Live from the Studio).

“Musical stuff for me is about chemistry,” Bush said. “Creative chemistry is how I bounce up against Andrew and he bounces up against me — and it’s a complete mystery. Except when it happens, it’s completely absorbing.”

More than three decades after forming, Bush and Hyra continue refining the harmony that first connected them, reintroducing Billy Pilgrim’s nimble blend of folk, Americana, and East Tennessee roots to audiences coast to coast.