Chris Thile and the Punch Brothers

[Teo9969]

So here's the deal:

The Music of JS Bach was relatively popular during his era, but perhaps no more so than other famous composers, and then it was promptly forgotten when the Classical period came about. Then Felix Mendelssohn came along and "rediscovered" Bach…by that I mean he reintroduced him to the average listener. But Bach had always been revered by composers that came after him. He is one of a handful of composers considered in academically trained circles as the greatest of all time. The dude has been dead for 265 years and no one since has even come close to his mastery of counterpoint. It's one of the most transcendent things in the history of the world.

I bring all this up because what Chris Thile is doing in the music world right now will be among the very most important imprints in Western musical history. While Thile is no Bach (because nobody is Bach) he's and uncanny mix of Chopin/Liszt (in his mastery to play his own instrument and write music), Schumann/Brahms (in his ability to craft a song), and Beethoven/Debussy (in his ability to define his voice). He is a virtuoso Mandolin player, an incredible director (he's been the lead man behind so many musically successful projects its unreal), and an absolutely incredible composers/arranger.

He is involved in a ton of projects (Nickel Creek, Goad Rodeo Sessions, got a MacArthur Fellowship, Other Duos/Trios) but his largest scale project has been his run with the group "Punch Brothers".

They've released albums in 2008, 2010, 2012, 2012 and their most recent was released in January of this year, entitled "Phosphorescent Blues". The project was originally a bit more high-brow and academic/intellectual. Each album has gotten increasingly accessible to the average listener and yet instead of feeling like the music is being dumbed down, it seems Thile has found that rare ability to concentrate complexity, nuance and character into a refined package that is far easier for the layman to receive and enjoy.

This just simply doesn't happen in today's music world. It's among the most transcendent music of the modern era. I cannot, with words, truly describe what is being created. It's the definition of ineffable. So rather than continue this diatribe, I will share a couple youtube videos. Please, please, listen to this music. It's art that is important and worthy of your time.

[kelroy55]

They are pretty good. I've never heard of them and they remind me of somebody but I just can't put my finger of who it is.

[TaoMaas]

Hey, I love Chris Thile and first saw him when he was 14 yrs old and was with Nickle Creek...and they didn't even have CD's to sell...only cassette tapes (which I bought). But even I think you're a bit over the top with your praise. lol There's no doubt Chris is a landmark instrumentalist in the acoustic field and has LOTS of great music left in him, though. I think of him as being very much like Mark O'Connor. Someone who is so far ahead of the rest of the field that the only one who can still challenge him...is him.

[Teo9969]

Hey, I love Chris Thile and first saw him when he was 14 yrs old and was with Nickle Creek...and they didn't even have CD's to sell...only cassette tapes (which I bought). But even I think you're a bit over the top with your praise. lol There's no doubt Chris is a landmark instrumentalist in the acoustic field and has LOTS of great music left in him, though. I think of him as being very much like Mark O'Connor. Someone who is so far ahead of the rest of the field that the only one who can still challenge him...is him.

Like I said, he's no Bach. He's not even among the great composers, at least not yet anyway. He has a ways to go yet to even catch contemporary composers like John Corigliano, Penderecki, Pärt, etc. And while I wouldn't say he's necessarily better than a lot of other composers in his demographic (35 - 50), he's doing things that have a chance to make a profound impact on the development of Western music.

The problem is that there is a major schism between the academic/"classical" world and anything that makes its way to radio. In the history of Western music, "Classical" *was* the popular music. Mozart was the 1700s Blink-182, Handel a Nickleback, Liszt a Beyonce, Wagner a Tool (pun intended), Stravinsky a Justin Timberlake, Poulenc a Radiohead.

But not one of those bands/artists is even remotely comparable to any of those historical figures…quite frankly none of them are worthy of much more than a historical footnote, even though some of them stand for some of today's most popular or even highest quality music that is mainstream. And sure there are other acts that are of a high quality: I think of people like Frank Zappa who had some really cool stuff in the day but failed to really reach a broader audience. Then you have Jazz which is its own genre entirely and aside from Art music, the only music that's innovating and moving history forward.

Thile, particularly through Punch Brothers, is actually fusing so many genres together it's unreal: Classical, Bluegrass, Rock, Pop, Jazz. It's becoming more and more refined each album without losing its soul in each of those areas.

And the thing is, every single credentialed musician I talk to about these guys in particular have a nerdy freak-out the same way I do. We're all pretty stoked about what he's doing and there is this bizarre tension I feel when talking about these guys like we're all just hoping the world gets it because we know it could open up a whole new world of music for us…a world we would all love to live in, where good music can sell. Where collaboration is the new market. Where artistry is valued at least as much as entertainment value. And where we can converse with history about the future.

I'm by no means trying to paint a picture of Thile as God, because he's not…indeed "deification" of musicians is part of why we are in the musical hell-hole we've been in for the last 75 years. But he can certainly be a bridge that brings a variety of musical communities together to open up the door for major change in the industry. And he's doing it by finding a way to maintain quality, yet break into that marketable barrier (Hell, the dude made Starbuck's Christmas album a few years ago with one of my favorite renditions of "O Come O Come Emmanuel" I've ever heard)

[TaoMaas]

I don't think he'll ever get there, my friend. Not through any fault of Chris, but because he's not mainstream enough. I love jazz and that's actually how I came to learn about Chris Thile and Nickle Creek. This will tell you how old I am, but I saw Joe Venuti on the Dick Cavett Show one night and that started me searching for albums by him. Venuti led me to Stephane Grapelli...who led me to the David Grisman Quintet...which led me to Nickle Creek. I think there's a ton of similarities between old-style acoustic jazz and the "new-grass" that's being played by Thile and Grisman. Heck, just yesterday I was watching YouTube videos of Jethro Burns (of Homer and Jethro) playing jazz standards with Venuti and others. But...to enjoy this type of music, you have to be able to see what they're doing. Otherwise, it's just "too many notes" to most folks. :-(

[Teo9969]

I don't think he'll ever get there, my friend. Not through any fault of Chris, but because he's not mainstream enough. I love jazz and that's actually how I came to learn about Chris Thile and Nickle Creek. This will tell you how old I am, but I saw Joe Venuti on the Dick Cavett Show one night and that started me searching for albums by him. Venuti led me to Stephane Grapelli...who led me to the David Grisman Quintet...which led me to Nickle Creek. I think there's a ton of similarities between old-style acoustic jazz and the "new-grass" that's being played by Thile and Grisman. Heck, just yesterday I was watching YouTube videos of Jethro Burns (of Homer and Jethro) playing jazz standards with Venuti and others. But...to enjoy this type of music, you have to be able to see what they're doing. Otherwise, it's just "too many notes" to most folks. :-(

That's just the thing though. This is precisely what I think Thile is grabbing at, and he gets closer and closer with every project, finding a way to connect the "too many notes" to a less educated audience. He's capable of being inaccessible to all but the academics, instead he's choosing to be a door to something more in music. He's not the only one, by any means, he's just one of the higher quality musicians I'm seeing do it.

Remember, we used to live in world where 30 minute string quartets were every day listening music. We used to live in a world where artistry like Frank Sinatra was revered by the masses and where the complexity of Jazz was appealing to wider swaths of people than it is today. No doubt today is different, but so is tomorrow...

[RadicalModerate]

I was amazed by Nickel Creek when they first came on the scene and snapped up their first CD. It is a classic. I almost never go to concerts but made an exception for that trio. Not long ago, Chris filled in as host for Garrison Keillor on A Prairie Home Companion and did an excellent job. Thanks for sharing the info about his more recent projects.

[Dubya61]

I wonder if our expectations for music in the modern era will preclude another Bach or

The problem is that there is a major schism between the academic/"classical" world and anything that makes its way to radio. In the history of Western music, "Classical" *was* the popular music. Mozart was the 1700s Blink-182, Handel a Nickleback, Liszt a Beyonce, Wagner a Tool (pun intended), Stravinsky a Justin Timberlake, Poulenc a Radiohead.

I think that modern radio has assumed we have an attention span of 3.5 minutes (and some stations are trying to shorten/compress THAT). Remember when albums were themed and you listened to the whole album? and some of the best songs didn't fit the A-B-A-B-C-A mold? I saw a facebook post the other day that compared Beyonce lyrics for a song about how women ruled the world to Queen's lyrics for Bohemian Rhapsody. I still listen to "The Wall" and old (obviously) Kansas and Styx albums. Hell, even Barbara Streisand had themed albums that were interesting in their sum.

Thanks for the thread. I'll be sure to investigate this artist.

BTW, I wonder if GFHandel would reject your comparison to Nickelback just on the face of it

[Teo9969]

BTW, I wonder if GFHandel would reject your comparison to Nickelback just on the face of it

It was a very deliberate comparison

In reality, "the radio" is going away and very soon those who hold the power to determine what music is most marketable will find their power is greatly diminished. It's easier and cheaper to produce music than it ever has been and there are going to be a massive amount of people that start to do their own production, or outsource their production to more trusted/intimate sources.

The actual end-product is going to be far more important than it has for the last 35 years. The question is how quickly can it change from the banal to the sublime. If enough groups/musicians do it like the Punch Brothers, it could change rather quickly.