By: Joe Lang
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| Chris Thile - Photo by Courtney Parcell, taken from the Nickel Creek website |
For those of you who aren’t familiar, in actuality, there are two Chris Thiles (pronounced THEE-LEE). On one hand, we have the newgrass virtuoso who is more than happy to throw down in the company of heavyweights like Béla Fleck, Stuart Duncan, Jerry Douglas and Edgar Meyer, as evidenced on his third album, 2001’s Not All Who Wander Are Lost. The other is the falsetto-singing, Grammy award-winning co-leader of the pop/bluegrass darlings, Nickel Creek. So when I heard Thile would be playing the Cedar I was wondering, which Thile would be taking the stage: the smoking mandolin player who some might say is the next to carry the torch for heavyweights like David Grisman and Sam Bush, or the crooner and pop songster? There was evidence of both, but in the end, I don’t think there was a question; the latter was who came to play.
The over two hour set was a mix of tunes from Thile’s instrumental 2001 album, his pop-laden 2004 release, Deceiver, and last year’s How to Grow a Woman from the Ground, with the latter two weighing in substantially more. To be sure, Thile’s band had the muscle. Along with special guest and Nashville session darling Bryan Sutton, How to Grow a Band featured the dexterous banjo picking of Noam Pickelny, Greg Garrison’s bottom end (bass), and fiddle by Gabe Witcher.
The band took on The White Stripes’ “Dead Leaves and the Dirty Ground” early on in the set with a quick bluegrass vibe, Thile’s falsetto voice taking the place of Jack White’s droning melancholy mixed with screams. Afterwards, Thile remarked, “That was a piece written by Jack White, the husband/brother of Meg. That’s how you know it was meant to be a bluegrass song.” Other vocals consisted of Thile originals “Stay Away,” “You’re and Angel and I’m Gonna Cry,” “I’m Nowhere and You’re Everything,” and covers of Gillian Welch’s “Wayside (Back in Time),” Willie Dixon’s “If the Sea was Whiskey,” sung a capella, the Strokes’ “Heart in a Cage,” and Radiohead’s “Morning Bell.”
The solos were usually strong, with Thile headbanging and dancing along to his sometimes syncopated, lighting fast stop-on-a-dime staccato solos with a style that raised the question: Could have placed in last evening’s air guitar championships? And although Thile’s solos were often fiery and impassioned, Sutton’s quick Martin bursts were not forgettable, and Noam “Pickles” Pickelny’s arpeggiated lines were often what held the compositions together. And even though I wasn’t particularly interested in the vocals, it was obvious that Thile and the band had their harmonies down pat; I never heard anything that didn’t sound like harmonic perfection when members approached the microphone.
Overall, the instrumentals prompted some of the loudest responses from the audience, which was probably one of the youngest ever at the Cedar. I was happy to hear versions of “Wolfcreek Pass” (affectionately retitled Timberwolfcreek Pass for the Minneapolis crowd), and “Song for a Young Queen,” from Not All Who Wander Are Lost, as well as instrumental cuts from last year’s album including “The Eleventh Reel,” and “The Beekeeper.”
Before “The Beekeeper,” Witcher mentioned an article which called Thile a “Shepherd” bringing a new generation into bluegrass. Thile apparently was bummed out by this comment and joked he thought of himself much more as a beekeeper. Well, I think that’s fair, because what Thile is bringing these youngin’s to ain’t bluegrass. And as much as I really like his instrumental stuff, I’m not sure even that can be categorized as bluegrass. But what was on display at the Cedar was assuredly pop music, with a thin veneer of bluegrass. If you are comfortable with that, then How to Grow a Band might be right up your alley. But if you want to hear much similarity to Bill Monroe’s mandolin and bluegrass stylings, you’d be advised to look elsewhere.
Location Info:
Cedar Cultural Center
Artist Info: Chris Thile and How to Grow a Band
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