Photo: Stevo Rood [Billy Strings]/ Sam Wiseman [Sierra Hull]

Tonight, April 4, Austin City Limits Celebrates 50 Years, a two-hour music-fueled special, will premiere on PBS at 9 p.m. E.T. As a precursor to the full-length program, a video of bluegrass torchbearers Billy Strings and Sierra Hull covering Bill Monroe’s associated classic, “Midnight on the Stormy Deep” has arrived. Watch below.

Strings and Hulls’ performance is part of the forthcoming PBS special, the longest-running televised music series with a distinct live performance history. Beyond the pair’s contribution, the program also includes a range of offerings from other musical participants, archival clips, interviews, and a tribute to the Iron Butterfly, Dolly Parton. 

Prior to Strings’ involvement with Austin City Limits Celebrates 50 Years, he covered Monroe’s associated classic, the traditional “Midnight on the Stormy Deep,” with maven of the craft, Del McCoury, releasing the track as a single in 2021. [Watch.] 

In the latest move to delineate Monroe’s influence and pay homage to a great, Strings and Hull give a riveting performance of the number: a harmonic push of raw talent, complimentary strums, and unabashed vocal prowess that harkens back to another time entirely by assimilating a retro feel. Hull’s mandolin solo stirs the crowd before returning to a shared format and later passing the solo to Strings in a complimentary fashion of bluegrass back-and-forth. 

Read Sierra Hull’s new Relix interview regarding her latest LP, A Tip Toe High Wire.

View the Austin City Limits Celebrates 50 Years broadcast setlist below. 

Chris Stapleton: “Angel Flying Too Close to the Ground”

The Mavericks: “All You Ever Do Is Bring Me Down”

Leon Bridges: “Beyond”

Songwriters Circle:

Indigo Girls: “Share the Moon”

Brandy Clark: “Dear Insecurity”

Cam: “Burning House”

Indigo Girls w/Brandy Clark & Cam: “Closer to Fine”

Ángela Aguilar: “Piensa En Mi”

Ángela Aguilar with Trio Los Panchos: “Todo Una Vida”

Shawn Colvin with Lyle Lovett: “The Facts About Jimmy”

Lyle Lovett: “12th of June”

Billy Strings with Sierra Hull: “Soldier’s Joy” (instrumental)

Billy Strings with Sierra Hull: “Midnight on the Stormy Deep”

Rufus Wainwright: “Going to a Town”

Rufus Wainwright: “Hallelujah”

Gary Clark Jr. with Eve Monsees: “Dirty Pool”

Gary Clark Jr. with Eve Monsees: “Pride and Joy”