Chris Thile
Chris Thile (English pronunciation: /ˈθiːlɪ/) (born February 20, 1981) is an American musician, best known as a member of acoustic band Nickel Creek. He has made six albums as a solo artist and with his band, Punch Brothers. His first, Leading Off, was released in 1994 when Thile was 13. Thile has also played and recorded with artists like Mike Marshall, Béla Fleck, Glen Phillips, and Edgar Meyer.
Chris Thile | |
|---|---|
 Thile hosting A Prairie Home Companion in 2016 | |
| Background information | |
| Birth name | Christopher Scott Thile [1] |
| Born | February 20, 1981 Oceanside, California[2] |
| Genres | Bluegrass, Progressive bluegrass, Folk, Country, Classical, Jazz |
| Occupation(s) | Musician, Songwriter, Singer-songwriter |
| Instruments | Mandolin, Bouzouki, Mandola, Banjo, Guitar, Tenor Guitar, drums |
| Years active | 1994–Present |
| Labels | Sugar Hill Records (1994–2007) Nonesuch Records (2007–) |
| Website | christhile.com |
Thile's third album, Not All Who Wander Are Lost, was released in 2001. His fourth, Deceiver had all songs written and performed by Thile alone. His most recent solo work was 2006's How to Grow a Woman from the Ground, and Thile released Punch in 2008 with the band Punch Brothers.
History
change1981–1999: Early life and career
changeThile was born in Oceanside, California in 1981. When he was two, his family started going to That Pizza Place, where he listened to John Moore's band Bluegrass Etc. When Thile was four, his family moved to Idyllwild, California.
He started playing mandolin at the age of five. He took lessons from John Moore. When Thile was eight, Nickel Creek was formed. After playing many music festivals with Nickel Creek, he won the national mandolin contest at the Walnut Valley Festival in Winfield, Kansas at age twelve.
In 1993, Thile was signed to the bluegrass record label Sugar Hill. The next year, he released his first album, Leading Off, and most of the songs were written by Thile. In 1997, Thile released Stealing Second and Nickel Creek released Here to There.
2000–2005: Wander and Deceiver
changeAfter Nickel Creek sold 500,000 copies, Thile released Not All Who Wander Are Lost in 2001. The name of the album comes from a quote in J. R. R. Tolkien's book The Lord of the Rings. The album had guest appearances from his Nickel Creek bandmates as well as Stuart Duncan, Béla Fleck, Edgar Meyer, Jerry Douglas, and Bryan Sutton.
In 2003, Thile and mandolinist Mike Marshall made a duet album called Into the Cauldron, which had covers by artists from Charlie Parker to Bach. The next year, Thile released Deceiver, a pop album on which he played and wrote every song himself. He mainly played his mandolin on the album, but also played electric guitar, piano, drums, violin, viola, cello, and bass.
2006–present: Punch Brothers
changeIn August 2006, Nickel Creek announced in Billboard and on their official website that they would take an indefinite hiatus, which means a break for an unknown amount of time.
Just before this, Thile formed the How to Grow a Band. He made How to Grow a Woman from the Ground, with them. This was Thile's fifth album. In an interview with the Nashville City Paper, Thile talked about the band's start:
| “ | "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."[3] | ” |
The band's members are Thile (mandolin), Gabe Witcher (fiddle), Chris Eldridge (guitar), Greg Garrison (bass), and Noam Pikelny (banjo). Bryan Sutton also played guitar for the band when Chris Eldridge could not. In 2007, the band changed its name twice: first to "The Tensions Mountain Boys" and then "Punch Brothers."
Punch Brothers released their first album, Punch, on the Nonesuch Records on February 26, 2008. The album has Thile's four piece song "The Blind Leaving the Blind", along with other original songs.
Awards and nominations
change- 1996 – Nominated for Grammy Award for Best Country Instrumental Performance for "Scotland" from True Life Blues: The Songs of Bill Monroe
- 1997 – IBMA award for Album of the Year for True Life Blues: The Songs of Bill Monroe
- 2001 – IBMA award for Mandolinist of the Year
- 2002 – Won Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Folk Album for This Side (with Nickel Creek)
- 2005 – Nominated for Grammy Award for Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical for Deceiver
- 2006 – Nominated for Grammy Award for Best Country Instrumental Performance for "The Eleventh Reel"
- 2007 – BBC's Folk Musician of the Year
- 2007 – Nominated for IBMA Mandolinist of the Year
- 2008 – Nominated for Americana Music Association Instrumentalist of the Year
- 2012 – Nominated for Grammy Award for Best Bluegrass Album for Sleep with One Eye Open (with Michael Daves)
- 2012 – MacArthur Fellowship ($500,000 'Genius Grant')
- 2013 – Won Grammy Award for Best Folk Album for The Goat Rodeo Sessions (with Yo-Yo Ma, Stuart Duncan, and Edgar Meyer)
- 2014 – Won Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Instrumental Album for Bass & Mandolin (with Edgar Meyer)[4]
- 2015 – Awarded Honorary Doctorate from The New School.[5]
- 2019 – Won Grammy Award for Best Folk Album for All Ashore (with Punch Brothers)[6]
Discography
changeSolo
change| Title | Album details | Peak chart positions | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| US | US Grass | US Country | US Indie | US Heat | US Classic | ||
| Leading Off |
|
— | — | — | — | — | — |
| Stealing Second |
|
— | — | — | — | — | — |
| Not All Who Wander Are Lost |
|
— | 13 | — | — | — | — |
| Deceiver |
|
— | 3 | — | — | — | — |
| How to Grow a Woman from the Ground |
|
— | 2 | 46 | 27 | 28 | — |
| Bach: Sonatas and Partitas, Vol. 1[7] |
|
72 | — | — | — | — | 1 |
| Thanks for Listening |
|
— | — | — | — | — | — |
| Laysongs |
|
— | — | — | — | — | — |
| "—" denotes releases that did not chart. | |||||||
Collaborations
change| Title | Album details | Peak chart positions | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| US | US Grass | US Country | US Heat | US Classic | US Classic Crossover | ||
| Into the Cauldron (with Mike Marshall) |
|
— | 6 | 71 | — | — | — |
| Live: Duets (with Mike Marshall) |
|
— | 6 | — | — | — | 6 |
| Edgar Meyer and Chris Thile (with Edgar Meyer) |
|
— | 3 | — | — | — | 3 |
| Sleep with One Eye Open[8] (with Michael Daves) |
|
— | 3 | 34 | 3 | — | — |
| The Goat Rodeo Sessions[9] (with Yo-Yo Ma, Edgar Meyer and Stuart Duncan) |
|
18 | 1 | — | — | 1 | 1 |
| The Goat Rodeo Sessions: Live EP |
|
— | 4 | — | — | 8 | 6 |
| Bass & Mandolin (with Edgar Meyer) |
|
— | 2 | — | — | 2 | 2 |
| Chris Thile & Brad Mehldau (with Brad Mehldau)[10][11] |
|
— | 1 | — | — | — | — |
| Not Our First Goat Rodeo (with Yo-Yo Ma, Edgar Meyer and Stuart Duncan) |
|
— | 1 | — | — | 1 | 1 |
| "—" denotes releases that did not chart. | |||||||
Nickel Creek
changeStudio albums
change1990s
change| Title | Album details |
|---|---|
| Little Cowpoke | |
| Here to There |
|
2000s
change| Title | Album details | Peak chart positions | Certifications (sales thresholds) | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| US Country [12] |
US [13] |
US Indie [14] |
US Bluegrass [15] | ||||||
| Nickel Creek |
|
13 | 125 | 2 | — | ||||
| This Side |
|
2 | 18 | 1 | 1 |
| |||
| Why Should the Fire Die? |
|
— | 17 | 1 | 1 | ||||
| "—" denotes releases that did not chart | |||||||||
2010s-2020s
change| Title | Album details | Peak chart positions | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| US [13] |
US Grass [15] |
US Folk [18] | ||
| A Dotted Line |
|
7 | 1 | 1 |
| Celebrants |
|
196 [19] |
1 | 7 |
Punch Brothers
change- 2008: Punch
- 2010: Antifogmatic
- 2012: Who's Feeling Young Now?
- 2012: Ahoy! [EP]
- 2015: The Phosphorescent Blues
- 2015: The Wireless [EP]
- 2018: All Ashore
- 2022: Hell on Church Street
Mutual Admiration Society
change- 2004 Mutual Admiration Society (Nickel Creek and Glen Phillips)
References
change- ↑ "Chris Thile - Biography, Albums, Streaming Links". AllMusic.
- ↑ "Chris Thile: Covering the Bases". iBluegrass.com. May 20, 1999. Archived from the original on 2008-01-05. Retrieved 2007-08-30.
- ↑ "Nickel Creek's Thile 'grows' a new band". Nashville City Paper. August 23, 2006. Archived from the original on 2006-08-26. Retrieved 2007-10-13.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link) - ↑ "Grammys 2015: Complete list of winners and nominees". Los Angeles Times.
- ↑ "ZADIE SMITH ADDRESSES NEW SCHOOL GRADUATES". 2014-05-23.
- ↑ "2019 Grammy Awards: The Full List Of Winners". NPR. 2019-02-10. Retrieved 2019-03-15.
- ↑ "Chris Thile's "Bach: Sonatas and Partitas, Vol. 1" Out Now; Watch Thile Feature on PBS "NewsHour"". Nonesuch Records Official Website. August 6, 2013. Retrieved February 13, 2015.
- ↑ "Mandolinist Chris Thile Teams Up with Bluegrass Guitarist Michael Daves for Nonesuch Release "Sleep with One Eye Open" May 10". Nonesuch Records Official Website. March 2, 2011. Retrieved February 13, 2015.
- ↑ "Amazon.com: Yo-Yo Ma, Stuart Duncan, Edgar Meyer, Chris Thile: The Goat Rodeo Sessions: Music". Amazon. Retrieved February 13, 2015.
- ↑ "Nonesuch Releases Duo Album from Mandolinist/Singer Chris Thile and Pianist Brad Mehldau, January 27". Aussieosbourne.com. Retrieved July 17, 2021.
- ↑ "Brad Mehldau – Chart History". Billboard. Retrieved March 17, 2018.
- ↑ "Nickel Creek Album & Song Chart History: Country Albums". Billboard. Retrieved August 27, 2010.
- ↑ 13.0 13.1 "Nickel Creek Album & Song Chart History: Billboard 200". Billboard. Retrieved August 27, 2010.
- ↑ "Nickel Creek Album & Song Chart History: Independent Albums". Billboard. Retrieved August 27, 2010.
- ↑ 15.0 15.1 "Nickel Creek Album & Song Chart History: Bluegrass Albums". Billboard. Retrieved August 27, 2010.
- ↑ "American album certifications – Nickel Creek – Nickel Creek". Recording Industry Association of America.
- ↑ "American album certifications – Nickel Creek – This Side". Recording Industry Association of America.
- ↑ "Nickel Creek Album & Song Chart History: Folk Albums". Billboard. Retrieved April 10, 2014.
- ↑ @billboardcharts (April 3, 2023). "Debuts on this week's #Billboard200..." (Tweet). Retrieved April 4, 2023 – via Twitter.
Other websites
change- www.christhile.com
- Nickel Creek's website
- Punch Brothers Unofficial Fansite Archived 2008-04-17 at the Wayback Machine
- How to Grow A Woman from the Ground Review on JamBase.com
- Chris Thile Interview and Feature Article Archived 2007-09-27 at the Wayback Machine
- 10 Questions For Chris Thile Interview