New ‘Hunger Games’ Soundtrack Boasts Billy Strings, Molly Tuttle, Sierra Ferrell and More

Photos by Marc Millman [L] and Jesse Faatz [R]

As music lovers around the country enjoy a bluegrass revival, it seems the warm hums of the genre will accompany another great American export: the silver screen. Some of the finest talents in bluegrass are set to be prominently featured in the upcoming soundtrack for The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes, with the 17-song tracklist boasting rising the likes Billy Strings, Molly Tuttle, Sierra Ferrell, and emerging country singer-songwriter Charles Wesley Godwin.

Set for release on Nov. 17, the new Hunger Games film showcases a strong folk and Americana influence, complemented by an attention-grabbing track from pop sensation Olivia Rodrigo’s “Can’t Catch Me Now.” The soundtrack also features several songs performed by the film’s star, Rachel Zegler.

The new film is set 64 years before the original Hunger Games trilogy and follows the journey of a young Coriolanus Snow, who is portrayed in the new film by Tom Hardy. The new movie will follow Snow, the antagonist of the first films, rising to power while he is tasked with mentoring District 12’s tribute, Lucy Gray Baird, played by Zegler.

The film’s description suggests that “uniting their instincts for showmanship and newfound political savvy, Snow and Lucy Gray’s race against time to survive will ultimately reveal who is a songbird and who is a snake.”

Given the significant role of music in the film’s narrative, it’s no surprise that the producers enlisted some of today’s most promising young roots songwriters. The soundtrack includes Strings’ “Cabin Song,” which he has performed live 14 times since its debut in March and has yet to see an official release.

Strings took to social media to share his excitement, writing, “…I wrote this little thing called Cabin Song that will be featured on the soundtrack for @TheHungerGames: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, out November 17th! We’ve been playing it live a little bit but this is the first time you can hear the studio version! You can preorder and presave the soundtrack right now.. if ya want to.. I think this is the first time one of my tunes has ever made it into a movie.. I’m stoked!!” Strings then closed his message by telling all his fans and friends, “Much love.”

Ferrell also contributes an unreleased original titled “The Garden,” a song that has appeared in her live sets since 2022. Tuttle offers her rendition of the traditional folk song “Bury Me Beneath the Willow” for the soundtrack popularized by The Carter Family.

See the complete tracklist for The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes below.

1. Olivia Rodrigo – “Can’t Catch Me Now”
2. Rachel Zegler – “The Hanging Tree”
3. Flatland Cavalry – “Wool”
4. Rachel Zegler – “Nothing You Can Take From Me”
5. Sierra Ferrell – “The Garden”
6. Rachel Zegler – “The Ballad of Lucy Gray Baird”
7. Molly Tuttle – “Bury Me Beneath the Willow”
8. Rachel Zegler, James Newton Howard – “The Old Therebefore / Singing at Snakes”
9. Bella White – “Burn Me Once”
10. The Covey Band – “District 12 Stomp”
11. Rachel Zegler, The Covey Band – “Nothing You Can Take From Me (Boot-Stompin’ Version)”
12. Billy Strings – “Cabin Song”
13. Rachel Zegler – “Lucy Gray (part 1)”
14. Rachel Zegler, The Covey Band – “Pure As The Driven Snow”
15. Charles Wesley Godwin – “Winter’s Come And Gone”
16. Josie Hope Hall, The Covey Band – “Keep On The Sunny Side”
17. Rachel Zegler – “Lucy Gray (part 2)”