Watch Billy Pilgrim Perform Their “Obscure” Song that Became an A Cappella Hit

When I was months away from turning 20 without as much as one fake ID to my name, my two best friends told me about this incredible duo they’d just seen at Eddie’s Attic, the already legendary listening room (and 21+ venue) in Decatur. A few months later I got to go see Kristian & Andrew for myself, a year before they would change their name to Billy Pilgrim and release their self-titled, major-label debut with Atlantic Records. Though it wasn’t a single, the album featured “Insomniac,” a live staple we already knew by heart.

This morning, I learned that that “obscure song became an a cappella sensation” courtesy of a fun investigative story from the New York Times. Apparently it’s been a go-to selection among college singers for decades, as evidenced by this 2010 rendition from a group called Straight No Chaser.

The song’s writer, Kristian Bush, went on to the very opposite of an obscure career, winning multiple Grammys, CMAs, CMTs, AMAs and other acronymic awards as half of the platinum-selling country act Sugarland. I mean, he was on Sesame Street. But he and his former Billy Pilgrim bandmate Andrew Hyra reunited in the Paste Studio during the heart of the pandemic in 2020. It was, in fact, the last performance we hosted in the Atlanta Paste Studio, and it was a joy to once again hear the song I loved—which I had no idea had become a hit on the a capella circuit (I mean, it wasn’t even featured in any of the Pitch Perfect movies, was it?).

Anyway, here’s Billy Pilgrim performing “Insomniac” in 2020 at the Paste Studio in Atlanta, with instruments and everything.