Chris Thile

Chris Thile: Punching Through Adversity
Mandolin virtuoso joins the WYSO at Interlochen concert

By Kristi Kates 7/13/09

Former Nickel Creek mandolin player Chris Thile has come a long way since departing that band and recovering from a difficult marital breakup. Now, both an in-demand solo performer and a founder/member of Punch Brothers, Thile’s mandolin playing has been called “sophisticated” and “impressive.” He’ll bring those talents to the Interlochen stage for a solo-with-orchestra show this week.

FROM SOLO TO BAND
Many listeners’ introduction to Thile was probably via his 2006 solo album, which featured covers of songs by the likes of the White Stripes, The Strokes, and Gillian Welch. Recorded acoustically live in a recording studio, the album was Thile’s first time collaborating as a whole with the musicians who would form his band - Noam Pikelny on banjo, Chris Eldridge on guitar, Gabe Witcher on fiddle, and Paul Kowert on bass (Thile, of course, plays mandolin.)
Punch Brothers’ (the name was taken from the Mark Twain short story, Punch, Brothers, Punch!) debut disc is what really outlines the tale of how Thile got to where he is now. Titled simply Punch, the set - which includes a 40-minute-long, four-movement suite - stylizes an image of the heartbroken man that Thile became in real life when his marriage dissolved, an occurrence that he speaks about frequently in regards to the inspiration for the album.
“I trusted people and I thought people would always look out for me as long as I didn’t go around screwing things up,” Thile explains, “to run into a relationship that wasn’t honest led to disillusionment with my upbringing as well as my marriage; I just wasn’t prepared for the fact that the world doesn’t always have your best interests at heart. But ultimately, the album isn’t really about how betrayed I felt, but the effect that that betrayal had on my worldview.”
The new band and the album served as not only a musical outlet, but also as a kind of support group for Thile, whose music took on a new, cathartic sound, and continues to blend pop, country, bluegrass, folk, and jazz in his own unique fashion.

STRONG AND SOLO AGAIN
His bandmates’ musical resumes are equally impressive; between them, they’ve worked and/or studied with the likes of The Infamous Stringdusters, Edgar Meyer, Tony Trischka, John Cowan, Randy Newman, and Beck, among others, and have contributed music to several films, including Toy Story.
Thile’s own work anchoring the Punch Brothers’ album is an interesting mix of structure and improvisation, and has already garnered critical acclaim and fans that span many genres of music. Recorded at Legacy Studios in New York, Thile and the band utilized a scoring studio with a 35-foot-high ceiling, and placed three mics in the rafters to allow the sound to interact with the room and be captured in performance; the songs vary from instrumental pieces to Thile’s lyrical dissections of his breakup and its aftermath.
Perhaps it was the success of this album that gave Thile the strength and capacity to tackle what would be his next project: his show date at Interlochen.
Not many details are being divulged about the new performance piece as of yet, but given Thile’s innovative work so far, and the depth that he puts into his music, attendees at Interlochen are sure to be impressed with this preview performance, as well as its unusual content.
And the content? Thile has written a special mandolin concerto that was co-commissioned by the Interlochen Center for the Arts and that will see the World Youth Sympony Orchestra performing on stage with Thile. Now that’s a great way to bounce back from adversity.

Chris Thile will be performing his newly-composed mandolin concerto at the Interlochen show on Sunday, July 19 at 8 p.m. in Kresge Auditorium; for more info, visit www.interlochen.org.
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