all ashore

Oh, Chris Thile. Where do I even begin to talk about you? I suppose the first thing is to set everyone straight about how to pronounce your last name. 

You see, when I was introduced to you back in 2008 the person mispronounced your name. They said you were Chris Tee-Lee, and in reality it's Th-ee-lee. So now that that's out of the way I can go on to talk about you.

You are entirely too good at what you do, Chris Thile. You play one of the tiniest instruments, the mandolin, and you make it look effortless. I know that comes from decades of practice, but dear god won't you just let those of us with hands too big and fingers too round give that instrument a try? Don't just relegate me to the mandicello. 

You're even on the radio, Chris Thile. Every week on NPR you come trotting out all happy and perky and spend two hours playing music and telling stories on Live From Here. Of course I was sad when Prairie Home went away, but what you've created is something a bit more modern without losing it's upper Midwest sensibilities. And you're a kid from California!

Oh but we can't stop there, Chris Thile. You've played in bands since you were in elementary school (he formed Nickel Creek in 1989), and the list of people you've toured with is long and any lesser person would brag about it. When I worked with you you were on the road with Edgar Meyer (a great bass player in his own right), but you've recorded with cellist Yo Yo Ma, jazz pianist Brad Mehldau, fellow mandolin virtuoso Mike Marshall, and enough symphony orchestras to make your head spin. 

You're an accomplished man, Chris Thile. I tip my cap to you, sir. I especially tip my cap to your longstanding band Punch Brothers, and your recent release All Ashore.

Punch Brothers are the quintet of mandolinist Chris Thile, guitarist Chris Eldridge, bassist Paul Kowert, banjoist Noam Pikelny and violinist Gabe Witcher. All damn fine musicians in their own right, they came together in 2006 after a few too many bottles of wine and their collective broken hearts. Of course they started a bluegrass band - becoming an emo band would have just been too damn easy.

Yet so very little of what Punch Brothers do is so easy on this record. This isn't your hillbilly friend's bluegrass, this is thinking person's bluegrass. This is bluegrass with complexity. Take for instance "The Angel of Doubt." It's lush, with great spatial production that really serves to make you feel like you're in the room, all the while Mr. Thile is singing about getting older in his band "family" and hearing those little voices that creep into your head right as you fall asleep that can poison everything good. But don't think that this is all nerd-grass - what makes Punch Brothers so good is that they understand the balance between blues/jazzy influenced tracks and straight up throw downs like old times. 

This might not want to be your first introduction to bluegrass, but if you're at all familiar with the genre, you can't do much better than Punch Brothers on All Ashore.

And honestly, I really dig Chris Thile. Maybe I'm just a little bit jealous, even. He's good people.

Recommended tracks: "The Angel of Doubt," "The Gardener," "It's All Part of the Plan," "Jungle Bird," "Just Look At This Mess"