How To Grow A Band is the title of a new film, currently in production, that chronicles the life and times of Punch Brothers. It follows Chris Thile and his merry band (Chris Eldridge on guitar, Noam Pikelny on band, Gabe Witcher on fiddle, and Greg Garrison and Paul Kowert on bass) during their first [...]
Longtime readers of Bluegrass Today will have noted my fondness for The Bluegrass Intelligencer, a news parody site - a la The Onion - that focuses on personalities in the bluegrass and acoustic string world. I find the site to be clever and uproariously funny, though you might want to be wary if you are [...]
Punch Brothers are continuing to use their semi-regular Thursday show at The Living Room in New York City to try out some of their more adventurous undertakings. We posted a video of them performing Bach's Brandenburg Concerto No. 3 in G major a month ago, and now there is video of them tackling Mozart's Spring [...]
There is a wealth of Punch Brothers media recently posted online, showcasing them both as exquisite musicians and fun guys. First off, video from their 2/9 appearance on The Woodsongs Old Time Radio Hour has been made available online. This program was wholly dedicated to Chris Thile's ambitious composition, The Blind Leaving The Blind, which [...]
Continuing in their quest to prove that the familiar bluegrass ensemble (banjo, bass, fiddle, guitar, mandolin) is primarily a group of musical instruments - as opposed to bluegrass instruments - Punch Brothers are hard at work on a transcription of the 3rd Brandenburg Concerto from Johann Sebastian Bach. This piece, officially titled Brandenburg Concerto No. [...]
Chris Thile is the subject of a multimedia interview in the January edition of WebMusicBox, the online publication of the American Music Center. It is a conversation with Frank Oteri, founding editor of the webzine, presented both in text and video snippets online. Thile talks about his impressions of various musical styles while growing up [...]
As is always the case, the close of each year heralds a slew of "Best Of" lists of every imaginable description. They are a staple in all sorts of news and entertainment media (see our Favorite Bluegrass Recording of 2008 poll), and in addition to filling space in print and online, provide helpful tips for [...]
Punch, the debut CD from Chris Thile's Punch Brothers, is among the nominees in the Best CDs of 2008 listener poll at NPR.com. The band is encouraging their many fans and friends to register at the NPR Community site, and cast a vote for them in the poll. Punch is certainly high on my list [...]
Punch Brothers have brought on young bass monster Paul Kowert to take the spot of departing founding member Greg Garrison. The band otherwise remains the same (Chris Thile on mandolin, Noam Pikelny on banjo, Chris Eldridge on guitar and Gabe Witcher on fiddle). Kowert, 22 years old, had been touring this fall with mandolinist Mike [...]
Punch Brothers fans can check out three live cuts from the guys posted at Daytrotter.com. There are live versions of Punch Bowl and the first movement of The Blind Leaving The Blind, both tracks from the band's current CD, Punch. They also cut a version of Wilco's Poor Places which they have been doing in [...]
