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Edgar Meyer & Chris Thile
: :This collaboration between Chris Thile, leader of Nonesuch quintet the Punch Brothers and former Nickel Creek vocalist-mandolin player, and double bassist Edgar Meyer is a meeting of two prodigious, Grammy Award-winning talents in, quite literally, the most down home of settings. Co-writing a dozen compositions, the pair recorded their work at Meyer's house in Nashville. No frills, no words and no other musicians were needed, keeping the focus on thed quick-thinking repartee between these two players. Their wide-ranging musical dialogue incorporates bluegrass, folk, country, and classical elements.
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Edgar Meyer & Chris Thile (W/Dvd) (Dlx)
: :Deluxe Edition CD+DVD. DVD features performances and interviews.
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How to Grow a Woman from the Ground
: :What goes around, comes around. As the resident rock star in Nickel Creek (contrasting with the trio's more reserved Watkins siblings), mandolinist Chris Thile has sent his music soaring in surprising directions from its bluegrass base. Though this solo release finds him dipping into the songbooks of the White Stripes ('Dead Leaves and the Dirty Ground') and the Strokes ('Heart in a Cage'), much of the music sticks closer to tradition than Thile has in recent years. Among the highlights are an uptempo romp through Gillian Welch's 'Wayside (Back in Time),' ...
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Not All Who Wander Are Lost
: :Set free from the bluegrass and folk conventions of Nickel Creek, Generation X's most prodigious mandolinist doesn't so much stretch out as explode. Yes, the barely legal Thile is surrounded by the most dominant players in acoustic music--Stuart Duncan, Béla Fleck, Edgar Meyer, Jerry Douglas, and Bryan Sutton--but this 12-song suite of 'newgrass,' Celtic, and old-timey instrumentals has Thile's searing stamp all over it. His lyrical, almost liquid style, even on the hottest seven-minute jams, accents melodic continuity over attack, intricate counterpoint over frenetic collision. And his compositions, as open-ended as ...
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Live: Duets
: :When Bill Monroe pushed the mandolin forward as a lead instrument, he opened a Pandora's box of musical possibilities, but even he couldn't have imagined a recording like this. Neither classical nor jazz nor bluegrass, the sound owes much to David Grisman--whom Marshall studied under and Thile worshipped--who just called it 'dawg music.' Call these live instrumentals 'cat music': slinky, cool, effete, at times sphinx-like, at times blissed out on improvisational 'nip. Culled from a range of small-theater concerts in the winter of 2003, the set emphasizes original compositions--some written collaboratively--and ...
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Deceiver
: :When Bill Monroe pushed the mandolin forward as a lead instrument, he opened a Pandora's box of musical possibilities, but even he couldn't have imagined a recording like this. Neither classical nor jazz nor bluegrass, the sound owes much to David Grisman--whom Marshall studied under and Thile worshipped--who just called it 'dawg music.' Call these live instrumentals 'cat music': slinky, cool, effete, at times sphinx-like, at times blissed out on improvisational 'nip. Culled from a range of small-theater concerts in the winter of 2003, the set emphasizes original compositions--some written collaboratively--and ...
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Stealing Second
: :When Bill Monroe pushed the mandolin forward as a lead instrument, he opened a Pandora's box of musical possibilities, but even he couldn't have imagined a recording like this. Neither classical nor jazz nor bluegrass, the sound owes much to David Grisman--whom Marshall studied under and Thile worshipped--who just called it 'dawg music.' Call these live instrumentals 'cat music': slinky, cool, effete, at times sphinx-like, at times blissed out on improvisational 'nip. Culled from a range of small-theater concerts in the winter of 2003, the set emphasizes original compositions--some written collaboratively--and ...
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Mutual Admiration Society
: :This collaboration between former Toad the Wet Sprocket front man Glen Phillips and Nickel Creek's Sean and Sara Watkins and Chris Thile was rehearsed and recorded in six days in 2000 and is the result of a true mutual admiration between the parties. Some of the eight originals bear a connection with Phillips's erstwhile band, especially a song like 'Somewhere Out There' with its lilting rhythms and dreamily atmospheric chordal structure. What's most telling is the breadth that this new context allows him as a songwriter. The rootsy Americana, subtle voicings, ...
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Into the Cauldron
: :Listening to Into the Cauldron, a collection of mandolin duets by Mike Marshall and Chris Thile, can be a frustrating experience--in the best possible way. It's definitely not the playing. Marshall, a veteran of such seminal acoustic bands as the David Grisman Quintet, and Thile, the mandolin wunderkind of Nickel Creek, sound better than ever. No, the problem is in the variety of styles on display. After hearing Marshall and Thile dance across the strings on 'Fisher's Hornpipe,' you'll wish this CD was a collection of fiddle tunes. When they trade ...
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Not All Who Wander Are Lost (Stereo)
: :Listening to Into the Cauldron, a collection of mandolin duets by Mike Marshall and Chris Thile, can be a frustrating experience--in the best possible way. It's definitely not the playing. Marshall, a veteran of such seminal acoustic bands as the David Grisman Quintet, and Thile, the mandolin wunderkind of Nickel Creek, sound better than ever. No, the problem is in the variety of styles on display. After hearing Marshall and Thile dance across the strings on 'Fisher's Hornpipe,' you'll wish this CD was a collection of fiddle tunes. When they trade ...
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