| Punch Brothers | |
|---|---|
| Background information | |
| Origin | United States of America |
| Genres | Progressive bluegrass, classical music, acoustic music |
| Years active | 2006–present |
| Labels | Nonesuch Sugar Hill |
| Website | www.punchbrothers.com |
| Members | |
| Chris Thile Gabe Witcher Noam Pikelny Chris Eldridge Paul Kowert |
|
| Past members | |
| Bryan Sutton Greg Garrison |
|
Punch Brothers are a progressive bluegrass band. The band consists of Chris Thile (mandolin), Gabe Witcher (fiddle/violin), Noam Pikelny (banjo), Chris Eldridge (guitar), and Paul Kowert (bass). Their style has been described as "bluegrass instrumentation and spontaneity in the structures of modern classical."[1]
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Thile formed the band in 2006 to record the album How to Grow a Woman from the Ground. In an interview with the Nashville City Paper, Thile described the formation of the band:
| “ | "We got together one night just to drop a ton of money, drink too much wine, eat steaks, and commiserate about our failed relationships. We had gotten to play together a few days before and we had said that we needed to do something musical together. With our hearts smashed to pieces, it became more urgent — our lives had gone the same way for so long. I knew I wanted to have a band with Gabe [Witcher], but I didn’t know if it would be a rock ensemble, an ambitious acoustic classical thing or a bluegrass group. We played, and there was a serious, instantaneous connection. Then I knew I wanted to put together a bluegrass band — one with a lot of range, but aesthetically a bluegrass band." [2] | ” |
Initially the band was known as "The How to Grow a Band." In 2007, the band officially changed its name first to "The Tensions Mountain Boys" and then settled on "Punch Brothers." The band names comes from the critical line of a virus-like jingle that is the centerpiece of Mark Twain's short story A Literary Nightmare (later re-published as Punch, Brother, Punch).[3]
On March 17, 2007, this group debuted Chris Thile's most ambitious work to date at Carnegie Hall: "The Blind Leaving the Blind", a forty minute suite in four movements. Thile says the piece was written in part to deal with his divorce of 2003.
On February 13, 2008, the band set off on their first countrywide tour as Punch Brothers.
On February 26, 2008, Punch Brothers released the album, Punch, on Nonesuch Records. The album features Thile's suite "The Blind Leaving the Blind", as well as other original songs.[4]
In March 2008, when Chris Thile was asked in an interview if there would be another album by Punch Brothers, Thile said that "there will definitely be another album."[5]
On November 8, 2008, the band announced on their website that they parted ways with bass player Greg Garrison. Paul Kowert, who studied under Edgar Meyer at the Curtis Institute of Music, takes Garrison's place on the bass.[6]
Antifogmatic, the second album by Punch Brothers, was released on June 15, 2010 and features both traditional bluegrass and newgrass styles on the ten-track listing. Though bassist Kowert has toured extensively with the band in support of Punch over the last two years, Antifogmatic is the first Punch Brothers album on which he appears.
The band is also the focus of the documentary "How to Grow A Band" directed by Mark Meatto. It was filmed over a two year period and, according to the website, "explores the tensions between individual talents and group identity, art and commerce, youth and wisdom." The film premiered at the 42nd Nashville Film Festival in Nashville, Tennessee on April 15, 2011. The film is also screening as part of the 38th Annual Telluride Bluegrass Festival in June 2011.
| Title | Album details | Peak chart positions | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| US Grass | US | US Heat | US Rock | ||
| Punch |
|
1 | — | 10 | — |
| Antifogmatic |
|
2 | 128 | 1 | 39 |
| Who's Feeling Young Now? |
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| "—" denotes releases that did not chart | |||||
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