This is incredible...

[Mark Gunter]

Man, I enjoyed hearing Chris play, as always. Loved the Sierra Hull video as well. Thanks to you guys for sharing.

Re: the negativity, well, it's best ignored. Everybody has an opinion. And yeah, the "That's not Bluegrass" gets overused a bit, it's even more tiring to me than the mislabeling by MC's and concert promoters. In all the cheesy chatter that begins the video, the MC makes a remark about "Bluegrass fans" being rowdy. But that's not the only faux pas or cheesy joke he tries to make there, and when he asks Chris to play he makes it clear that he doesn't expect Bluegrass music. He mentions Bach, and "anything goes", etc. So the sour grapes here don't really fit the situation. Also, you don't have to be a prodigy or musical genius to appreciate Chris Thile - if that were the case, he'd have a lot less fans. Even the numbers of vocal naysayers in the cafe here are a pretty insignificant number compared to his fans.

So, if you enjoy Thile, good for you, listen to him and buy his records, post his videos, etc. OTOH if you enjoy bashing his music and defending the purity of Bluegrass music, keep voicing it in these threads, fun, fun, fun for everyone Sour grapes can make some pretty good mash I suppose.

[keithb]

...mandolin (mandola?)...

It's a mandolin, it just looks huge because Sierra Hull isn't a very large person!

[Demetrius]

Ahhh Almeria strings... Don't forget the thread with 61,638 views... Wow that was a blast!
http://www.mandolincafe.com/forum/sh...ntinues/page37

[Demetrius]

What's a postage stamp?

[almeriastrings]

It was one of those crazy things they used years ago. Before email. Before faxes, even. You can still see faxes in museums and such.

[multidon]

Talking about "postage stamps" and "records". Are we showing our age or what? Next thing ya know, you guys are going to start looking at your wristwatches for the time of day, and looking up stuff in your Encyclopedia Brittanica instead of the Interweb, or the World Wide Net, or whatever the dadgum thing's called!

[MediumMando5722]

You can still see faxes in museums and such.

Higher ups in my company still request faces on occasion. I usually ask if they'd rather I take a pic with my phone and send it to them in 10 seconds.

[JH Murray]

How's this for 'showing our age'? My son just graduated from law school and is articling. He hasn't worn a wristwatch ever since he got his first cellphone. But last week he asked to borrow my watch because it isn't professional to be looking at your phone in meetings even if you only want to discretely check the time. I think my boy just grew up. (sorry for the tangent)

[Mandoplumb]

Similar things have been speculated about Hendrix, had he lived. That he was "so good" that he would have only been playing some form of avant-garde Jazz for the last 40 years, that few would be able to understand -- since Rock'n'Roll would have held no challenge for him. Again, who can say?

On my opinion a person gets better and better doing the music he loves. He doesn't get " so good" he has to move to avant-grade jazz unless that's where his heart is. If a musician must "advance" to this to be "so good" I hope too many many doesn't get that "so good". Just my opinion.

[midwinterspring]

My biggest complaint with Thile, at least as far as his Punch Brothers "mode" goes, is just that the music feels formless and rather meandering to me.

As an otherwise huge fan of Thile, I'm going to chime in here and say I agree with you, Petrus. The man is a genius and a master with the mandolin, but I find his most of his Punch Brothers compositions quite bland. I can listen to his Bach Sonatas and Partitas album for days on end, but there are only a few Punch Brothers songs that can keep my attention for the whole piece.

On a tangential note, is anyone familiar with the two-piece track he laid down on the Flecktones' "Little Worlds"? "Off the Top", I think it was called. That's a thing of beauty, right there.

[Gypsy]

Agreed !

[Demetrius]

I just took and drive and played this program again. Naturally I could only listen to the audio but I have to say, He did an incredible job... It is not easy to sing with the same intensity while supporting yourself with just a mandolin as it is when singing with an entire band. He doesn't lose any confidence at all... Thile is Thile, with or without anybody else. Try just listening to the program, and you'll see what I mean.

[Jeff Mando]

[QUOTE=)...In my opinion I find that the younger folks will listen to just about any kind of music and don`t seem to care about lyrics as long as there is a loud beat going on........[/QUOTE]

There's nothing wrong with young people that 40 or 50 years worth of experience won't fix!.........that is, IMHO.

[Ivan Kelsall]

It seems that very often (more times than not), it's fine to rave or go overboard regarding a recording / player / band etc.,but if you happen to be honest & open enough to post a negative point,we get put down for it (sometimes).

If i like something i will say so,if i don't like something,i will say so as well. I don't pour buckets full of scathing wrath on anything,i make a simple statement - i don't like it. Chris Thile may be the finest mandolin player on the planet (in some folk's opinion),but his current flavour of music is simply not to my taste,& he's not the only one who's (current) music i dislike,
Ivan

[Demetrius]

A different angle of incredible!

[michaelcj]

If my music appreciation was based, to any degree, on a single genre or what I was capable of technically playing….. Life would really Suck!

[Demetrius]

There! Maybe this will make everyone else happy. The guy really can do it all...

[JH Murray]

Now you have really thrown the cat amongst the pigeons! Both of these guys are truly bluegrass and yet have both completely transcended the genre!

[Stevo75]

That ain't bluegrass!

[Demetrius]

That there is bluegrass

[Ivan Kelsall]

From multidon - "...you guys are going to start looking at your wristwatches for the time of day, ....". You don't wear a watch ?.
From Demetrius - "That there is bluegrass" It certainly is,however it's a shame that they couldn't play it 'straight' first off & then do their own thing,more of a ''contrast between the old & the new'',
Ivan

[Malin]

Well, I think that's really just the way art works. New guy shows up, creates something new and gets famous for it, old school people tell him that's not the way it's done. Than his fans grow older, and eventually THEY bekome the old school people. .. I imagine myself as a granny sitting in a wheelchair, mumbling something about Chris Thile and telling my grandchildren that what THEY are listening to is rubbish .
Though I really think that Thile (together with his mates) is a genius and will be appreciated by generations to come of course....

[Hendrik Ahrend]

old school people tell him that's not the way it's done. ..

I may have missed some, but was that the point? There were just some folks not particularly fond of what Chris is doing. Is that the same as claiming something should be done differently?

[Jeff Mando]

.. I imagine myself as a granny sitting in a wheelchair, mumbling something about Chris Thile and telling my grandchildren that what THEY are listening to is rubbish .

Memories of my parents criticizing the Beatles as "a bunch of screaming!"

[Jim Hilburn]

I wouldn't want to be confused with someone who thinks its not good if not traditional bluegrass, I'm very far from that and have always loved newgrass, innovation and virtuosity.
I just listened to Sean Watkins album Let It Fall and that's what I call good music. Some based more in tradition and others more modern but always musical and inviting. Some will relate when I say "it has a good beat and you can dance to it".
Chris seems like he's been there and done that and needs to find some new musical genre regardless of whether it is something others might enjoy.