Punch Brothers

About

Also known as: The How to Grow a Band, The Tensions Mountain Boys

Punch Brothers blend bluegrass instrumentation with the structures of modern classical music in a way that really shouldn't work as well as it does. Fronted by mandolinist Chris Thile, the New York based quintet also features Brittany Haas on fiddle, Noam Pikelny on banjo, Chris Eldridge on guitar, and Paul Kowert on bass. Their debut at Carnegie Hall in 2007 set the tone: a forty minute suite called "The Blind Leaving the Blind", composed by Thile. That kind of ambition has stayed with them ever since. Their 2018 album All Ashore, described by Thile as a nine movement meditation on committed relationships in a turbulent political moment, won the Grammy Award for Best Folk Album. In 2022 they released Hell on Church Street, a full reimagining of Tony Rice's 1983 folk record Church Street Blues, a project that clearly meant a lot to the band personally given guitarist Chris Eldridge studied under Rice.