The double bass, also known as the upright bass, the acoustic bass, or simply the bass, is the largest and lowest-pitched chordophone in the modern symphony orchestra. Similar in structure to the cello, it has four or five strings.
A mandolin is a stringed musical instrument in the lute family and is generally plucked with a pick. It most commonly has four courses of doubled strings tuned in unison, thus giving a total of eight strings. A variety of string types are used, with steel strings being the most common and usually the least expensive. The courses are typically tuned in an interval of perfect fifths, with the same tuning as a violin. Also, like the violin, it is the soprano member of a family that includes the mandola, octave mandolin, mandocello and mandobass.
Bluegrass music is a genre of American roots music that developed in the 1940s in the Appalachian region of the United States. The genre derives its name from the band Bill Monroe and the Blue Grass Boys. Like mainstream country music, it largely developed out of old-time string music, though in contrast, it is traditionally played exclusively on acoustic instruments and also has roots in traditional English, Scottish and Irish ballads and dance tunes, as well as in blues and jazz. It was further developed by musicians who played with Monroe, including 5-string banjo player Earl Scruggs and guitarist Lester Flatt. Monroe characterized the genre as "Scottish bagpipes and ole-time fiddlin'. It's a part of Methodist, Holiness and Baptist traditions. It's blues and jazz, and it has a high lonesome sound."
Béla Anton Leoš Fleck is an American banjo player. An acclaimed virtuoso, he is an innovative and technically proficient pioneer and ambassador of the banjo, playing music from bluegrass, jazz, classical, rock and various world music genres. He is best known for his work with the bands New Grass Revival and Béla Fleck and the Flecktones. Fleck has won 17 Grammy Awards and been nominated 39 times.
Patrick Bruce Metheny is an American jazz guitarist and composer.
Edgar Meyer is an American bassist and composer. His styles include classical, bluegrass, newgrass, and jazz. He has won seven Grammy Awards and been nominated ten times.
David Anthony Rice was an American bluegrass guitarist. He was an influential acoustic guitar player in bluegrass, progressive bluegrass, newgrass and acoustic jazz. He was inducted into the International Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame in 2013.
Christopher Scott Thile is an American mandolinist, singer, songwriter, composer, and radio personality, best known for his work in the progressive acoustic trio Nickel Creek and the acoustic folk and progressive bluegrass quintet Punch Brothers. He is a 2012 MacArthur Fellow. From 2016 to its cancellation in 2020, he hosted the radio variety show Live from Here.
Sara Ullrika Watkins is an American singer-songwriter and fiddler. Watkins debuted in 1989 as the fiddler of Nickel Creek, the progressive bluegrass group she formed with her brother Sean and mandolinist Chris Thile. In addition to singing and fiddling, Watkins also plays the ukulele and the guitar, and also played percussion while touring with the Decemberists. In 2012, she and her brother played with Jackson Browne during his "I'll Do Anything" acoustic tour.
Punch Brothers is an American band consisting of Chris Thile (mandolin), Brittany Haas (fiddle/violin), Noam Pikelny (banjo), Chris Eldridge (guitar), and Paul Kowert (bass). Their style has been described as "bluegrass instrumentation and spontaneity in the strictures of modern classical" as well as "American country-classical chamber music".
Noam David Pikelny is an American banjoist. He is a member of the groups Punch Brothers, Mighty Poplar and was previously in Leftover Salmon as well as the John Cowan Band. Pikelny is a nine-time Grammy Award nominee, winning once in 2019 for Best Folk Album.
Natalie Haas is an American cellist, originally from Menlo Park, California. A graduate of the Juilliard School, she has toured and recorded extensively with Scottish fiddler Alasdair Fraser. She has also toured and recorded with Mark O'Connor and his Appalachia Waltz Trio, and with Natalie MacMaster. She has appeared on more than 100 albums.
Brittany Caroline Haas is an American fiddle player, who also sings and plays the banjo. She is a member of the Boston-based alternative bluegrass band Crooked Still, which is currently on hiatus. She is a regular performer on Live From Here. She tours with the Haas Marshall Walsh and Haas Kowert Tice trios, and participates in many international fiddlecamps, including the Ossipee Valley Music Festival. As of 2018, she is a member of Hawktail, which includes Kowert and Tice, as well as mandolinist Dominick Leslie. In June 2023 she was announced as the new fiddle player for Americana band Punch Brothers, replacing founding member Gabe Witcher. Her sister Natalie Haas plays cello with a similarly diverse group of musicians.
Antifogmatic is the second album by Punch Brothers. The album was released June 15, 2010.
How To Grow A Band is a 2011 music documentary film about the early days of American progressive bluegrass band Punch Brothers. The film stars Chris Thile, Gabe Witcher, Noam Pikelny, Chris Eldridge, Paul Kowert and Greg Garrison and features interviews with a number of notable musicians including Yo-Yo Ma, John Paul Jones of Led Zeppelin, Jerry Douglas, bassist Edgar Meyer and Sara Watkins. The film's structure tracks mandolinist Chris Thile's ambitious four movement suite, "The Blind Leaving the Blind" as it follows the band on their first tour as Punch Brothers in the United Kingdom and United States in early 2008 leading up to a triumphant performance at Jazz at Lincoln Center's Allen Room in New York.
Live from Here, formerly known as A Prairie Home Companion with Chris Thile, is an American variety radio show known for its musical guests, tongue-in-cheek radio drama, and relaxed humor. Hosted by Chris Thile, it aired live on Saturday evenings from 2016-2020. The show's initial home was the Fitzgerald Theater in St. Paul, Minnesota, moving later to The Town Hall in New York City, where it remained until its cancellation the next year.
Seymour Reads the Constitution! is an album by pianist Brad Mehldau. The trio recording, with Larry Grenadier on bass and Jeff Ballard on drums, was released by Nonesuch Records in 2018. The pianist reported that the melody and name of the title track came from a dream, during which actor Philip Seymour Hoffman read to him. The album received two Grammy nominations at the end of 2018.
All Ashore is the fifth studio album by the American group Punch Brothers, released on July 20, 2018. The band announced the release of the album's first singles "It's All Part of the Plan" and the instrumental "Three Dots and a Dash" on June 14, 2018. The album was self-produced by the band and was released on the Nonesuch Records label. The nine songs were written and recorded in the sequence of the tracklist at the United Sound studio in Los Angeles, California. The album received generally favorable reviews from critics.
Jordan Andrew Tice is an American guitarist and vocalist based in Nashville, Tennessee. He is known for his solo work in the progressive bluegrass and Americana genres, and through collaborative projects such as Hawktail, which features Brittany Haas, Paul Kowert, and Dominick Leslie.
Hell on Church Street is the sixth studio album by the American group Punch Brothers, released on January 14, 2022. The band announced the release of the album's first single "Church Street Blues" on September 28, 2021. The album was self-produced by the band and was released on the Nonesuch Records label.
