The Hillbilly Thomists are a band of friars of the Order of Preachers. Throughout the year they serve the Church in different ministries (as college chaplains, parish priests, theology professors…), but for a few weeks every summer they meet to make music together. In 2017, they published their first album, The Hillbilly Thomists, which peaked at #3 on the Billboard Bluegrass chart. Since then they have alternated summers recording albums and touring, playing in a wide spectrum of venues from church halls to The Grand Ole Opry. Born from the bluegrass tradition, their songwriting often blends the southern gothic imagery of Flannery O’Connor with the theological principles St. Thomas Aquinas (the band’s two namesakes). Including their debut, eponymous record, they have published six studio albums: Living for the Other Side (2021), Holy Ghost Power (2022), Marigold (2024), Carols (2025), and Strange Land (2026), many of which charted on Billboard Bluegrass Top 10. The Friars’ music flows from their common fraternal life as vowed religious, and is a way in which they live out the Dominican Order’s mission to contemplate and to pass on the fruits of contemplation.