The picker and band recorded their own version of the Refreshments’ “Yahoos and Triangles” for the end credits of Hulu’s revival
Even change-averse Hank Hill would approve of this update: Billy Strings and his band have put their own spin on the King of the Hill theme song for the show’s Hulu revival. The new 10-episode season — its 14th — is streaming now on Hulu and catches up with the Hill family in a vastly different America.
Strings’ bluegrass makeover of the song, originally recorded by the Refreshments and titled “Yahoos and Triangles,” plays over the show’s closing credits. Strings gets an assist from his band, along with some additional musicians. Bassist Royal Masat, fiddle player Alex Hargreaves, mandolinist Jarrod Walker, and banjo player Billy Failing, who back Strings on tour and in the studio, join Jamie Dick on drums, Russ Carons on banjo, and Billy Contreras on fiddle. Together, they create a rollicking take on a beloved TV theme.
Strings is no stranger to left-field cover songs. He’s reimagined everything from “Circles” by his buddy Post Malone to hyper-local business jingles: At shows in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, he’s regularly covered the Van Scoy Diamond Mine ditty to the delight of that region’s fans.
The Refreshments’ rendition of “Yahoos and Triangles” was written specifically for King of the Hill, which originally premiered on FOX in 1997. The Refreshments, fronted by Roger Clyne, split up the following year, with Clyne forming his band the Peacemakers in 1999.
King of the Hill’s new season brings Hank Hill, his wife Peggy, and their irreverent son Bobby — “That boy ain’t right” — into a climate that is culturally and politically different from the one the family inhabited during the show’s initial run from 1997 to 2009. But the focus, showrunner Saladin K. Patterson told Rolling Stone, is still on universal stories of family. “It’s the small, relatable family stories,” Patterson says. “Focus on Hank representing that sensible middle with cultural commentary, not political commentary. That was very important to the original run of the show.”
