The Goat Rodeo Sessions

Last updated
The Goat Rodeo Sessions
The goat rodeo sessions.jpg
Studio album by
ReleasedOctober 24, 2011
RecordedJune 12–15, August 8–12, 2011 The Barn
Genre Bluegrass, classical
Length57:18
Label Sony Masterworks
Yo-Yo Ma, Stuart Duncan, Edgar Meyer, Chris Thile chronology
The Goat Rodeo Sessions
(2011)
Not Our First Goat Rodeo
(2020)
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
Allmusic Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar half.svgStar empty.svg [1]

The Goat Rodeo Sessions is a 2011 collaborative album by Stuart Duncan, Yo-Yo Ma, Edgar Meyer and Chris Thile, featuring Aoife O'Donovan. The album won the 2013 Grammy Award for Best Folk Album and the Grammy for Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical.

Contents

Background

Meyer previously collaborated with Ma on Appalachia Waltz and Appalachian Journey, and with Thile on Edgar Meyer and Chris Thile. In 2008, Meyer and Thile played on Ma's Songs of Joy and Peace and the three discussed a future collaboration. Along with Duncan, they held their first rehearsal at Ma's house. [2] The compositions are credited to Meyer, Thile, and Duncan—with "Here and Heaven" co-written with Aoife O'Donovan. [3]

The term goat rodeo refers to a chaotic event where many things must go right for the situation to work, a reference to the unusual and challenging aspects of blending classical and bluegrass music. Yo-Yo Ma described a goat rodeo, saying: "If there were forks in the road and each time there was a fork, the right decision was made, then you get to a goat rodeo." [4]

On January 31, 2012, Ma, Meyer, Thile, Duncan, and O'Donovan played their first public concert at the House of Blues in Boston, presented by the Celebrity Series of Boston. The show was streamed in real time to movie theaters in the United States. In addition to songs from the album, they played Johann Sebastian Bach's Gamba Sonata Number 1 Movement 4,Fiddle Medley, and All Through The Night . They released part of the concert as an EP, The Goat Rodeo Sessions Live from the House of Blues, on February 7, 2012. A DVD of the concert, The Goat Rodeo Sessions Live, was released on May 29, 2012.

According to Stuart Duncan, the piece "13:8" isn't a reference to time signature, but rather to the Bible verse Hebrews 13:8. At a concert at Tanglewood on August 15, 2013, Duncan told a story about an airline pilot who, every time he was given his dinner by the flight attendant, said, "Hebrews 13:8". He finally looked it up and learned that the Bible verse read: "Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow." He said that that was the basis for the title, and that music students are wasting their time looking for that time signature within the piece.

Two bonus tracks, Mostly Six Eight and Parallax, were released as a single, More from the Goat Rodeo Sessions, on February 29, 2012.

The album debuted at number one on the Billboard Classical, Classical Crossover, and Bluegrass charts [5] [6] and reached number eighteen on the Billboard 200. [7] It has sold 160,000 copies in the United States.[ needs update ] [8]

On February 10, 2013, the album won the Grammy Award for Best Folk Album and the Grammy Award for Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical. [9]

In August 2019, Meyer shared photographs on social media of the group, including O'Donovan, in studio recording new material. [10] On June 19, 2020, the group released a second album, entitled Not Our First Goat Rodeo . [11]

Track listing

All tracks are written by Stuart Duncan, Edgar Meyer, and Chris Thile except where noted

No.TitleWriter(s)Length
1."Attaboy" 5:42
2."Quarter Chicken Dark" 4:47
3."Helping Hand" 4:32
4."Where's My Bow?" 5:29
5."Here and Heaven"Stuart Duncan, Edgar Meyer, Aoife O'Donovan, Chris Thile3:53
6."Franz and the Eagle" 6:53
7."Less Is Moi" 7:27
8."Hill Justice" 4:29
9."No One But You" 3:54
10."13:8" 5:54
11."Goat Rodeo" 4:18

Personnel

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Yo-Yo Ma</span> American cellist (born 1955)

Yo-Yo Ma is an American cellist. Born and partially raised in Paris to Chinese parents and educated in New York City, he was a child prodigy, performing from the age of four and a half. He graduated from the Juilliard School and Harvard University, attended Columbia University, and has performed as a soloist with orchestras around the world. He has recorded more than 90 albums and received 19 Grammy Awards.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Edgar Meyer</span> American bassist and composer (born 1960)

Edgar Meyer is an American bassist and composer. His styles include classical, bluegrass, newgrass, and jazz. He has won five Grammy Awards and been nominated seven times.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nickel Creek</span> American bluegrass band

Nickel Creek is an American bluegrass band consisting of Chris Thile (mandolin), and siblings Sara Watkins (fiddle) and Sean Watkins (guitar). Formed in 1989 in Southern California, they released six albums between 1993 and 2006. The band broke out in 2000 with a platinum-selling self-titled album produced by Alison Krauss, earning a number of Grammy and CMA nominations.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mark O'Connor</span> American violinist and composer

Mark O'Connor is an American fiddle player and composer whose music combines bluegrass, country, jazz and classical. A three-time Grammy Award winner, he has won six Country Music Association Musician Of The Year awards and, was a member of three influential musical ensembles; the David Grisman Quintet, The Dregs, and Strength in Numbers.

<i>Appalachian Journey</i> 2000 studio album by Yo-Yo Ma, Edgar Meyer and Mark OConnor

Appalachian Journey is the second album from the string trio of bassist and composer Edgar Meyer, fiddler and composer Mark O'Connor, and cellist Yo-Yo Ma. James Taylor and Alison Krauss join the trio individually on two Stephen Foster songs arranged for the trio. Sony Classical released the disc in 2000. The album joined a number of other recordings released since Appalachia Waltz that continue a new kind of classical music tinged with and influenced by the sounds and structures of America's own musical traditions. It is possible that the titles of these albums imply a continuity of the American classical tradition begun by Aaron Copland in Appalachian Spring. Unlike their first album, the three virtuosos spent several months on the compositions and arrangements, from July 19 to September 10, 1999.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chris Thile</span> American mandolinist and singer-songwriter (born 1981)

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.

Discography for the cellist Yo-Yo Ma.

<i>Not All Who Wander Are Lost</i> (album) 2001 studio album by Chris Thile

Not All Who Wander Are Lost is the third solo album by American virtuoso mandolinist Chris Thile. It was released on Sugar Hill in 2001.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Aoife O'Donovan</span> Musical artist

Aoife O'Donovan is an American singer and Grammy award-winning songwriter. She is best known as the lead singer for the string band Crooked Still and she also co-founded the Grammy Award-winning female folk trio I'm with Her. She has released three critically acclaimed studio albums: Fossils (2013), In the Magic Hour (2016), and Age of Apathy, as well as multiple noteworthy live recordings and EPs, including Blue Light (2010), Peachstone (2012), Man in a Neon Coat: Live From Cambridge (2016), In the Magic Hour: Solo Sessions (2019), and Bull Frog's Croon (2020). She also spent a decade contributing to the radio variety shows Live from Here and A Prairie Home Companion. Her first professional engagement was singing lead for the folk group The Wayfaring Strangers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Punch Brothers</span> American band

Punch Brothers is an American band consisting 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 strictures of modern classical" as well as "American country-classical chamber music".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stuart Duncan</span> American bluegrass musician

Stuart Ian Duncan is an American bluegrass musician who plays the fiddle, mandolin, guitar, and banjo.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gabe Witcher</span> American musician

Gabriel Witcher is a Grammy award-winning American multi-instrumentalist, producer, composer, and arranger, best known as a fiddle player and singer. He is a founding member of the string ensemble Punch Brothers. Witcher and his fellow Punch Brothers won the 2019 Grammy for Best Folk Album and were named Affiliate Scholars of Oberlin Conservatory in 2014.

<i>Songs of Joy & Peace</i> 2008 studio album by Yo-Yo Ma & Friends

Songs of Joy and Peace is a Christmas music album by cellist Yo-Yo Ma, released on October 14, 2008. The album won the 2010 Grammy Award for Best Classical Crossover Album. It features collaborations with many other artists, including vocalists Diana Krall & Alison Krauss, bassist John Clayton, pianist Dave Brubeck, cellist Matt Brubeck, clarinetist Paquito D'Rivera, trumpeter Chris Botti, pianist Billy Childs, bassist Robert Hurst, drummer Billy Kilson, and guitarist Romero Lubambo, bassist Edgar Meyer, bassist Nilson Matta, mandolinist Chris Thile, vocalist Renée Fleming, Celtic fiddler Natalie MacMaster, harpist Marta Cook, saxophonist Joshua Redman, piper Cristina Pato, vocalist James Taylor, the Assad Family, ukulele virtuoso Jake Shimabukuro, and Wu Tong & the Silk Road Ensemble.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sarah Jarosz</span> American musician

Sarah Ellen Jarosz is an American singer-songwriter from Wimberley, Texas. Her debut studio album, Song Up in Her Head, was released in 2009 and the song "Mansinneedof" was nominated for a Grammy Award in the category of Best Country Instrumental Performance. Her second studio album, Follow Me Down, released in 2011, received a Song of the Year nomination from the Americana Music Association's 2012 Honors and Awards. Her third studio album, Build Me Up from Bones, was released on September 24, 2013 through Sugar Hill Records. Build Me Up from Bones was nominated for Best Folk Album at the 56th Annual Grammy Awards, and its title track was nominated for Best American Roots Song. In 2016, Jarosz released her fourth studio album, Undercurrent. The album won two Grammy Awards.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">55th Annual Grammy Awards</span> Event held on February 10, 2013

The 55th Annual Grammy Awards were held on February 10, 2013, at the Staples Center in Los Angeles honoring the best in music for the recording year beginning October 1, 2011 through September 30, 2012. The show was broadcast on CBS at 8 p.m. ET/PT and was hosted for the second time by LL Cool J. The "Pre-Telecast Ceremony" was streamed live from LA's Nokia Theater at the official Grammy website. Nominations were announced on December 5, 2012, on prime-time television as part of "The GRAMMY Nominations Concert Live! – Countdown to Music's Biggest Night", a one-hour special co-hosted by LL Cool J & Taylor Swift and broadcast live on CBS from the Bridgestone Arena in Nashville, Tennessee. Fun, Frank Ocean, Mumford & Sons, Jay-Z, Kanye West and Dan Auerbach received the most nominations with six each.

Jeremy David Kittel is an American musician and composer. His primary instruments are the violin / fiddle and viola and his styles include Celtic, Jazz, Classical, Bluegrass, Folk music, and more.

<i>Song Up in Her Head</i> 2009 studio album by Sarah Jarosz

Song Up in Her Head is the first studio album by American folk and bluegrass singer-songwriter Sarah Jarosz, released on June 19, 2009 on Sugar Hill Records. It was recorded and mixed at Minutia Studios and The Mastering Lab, respectively, in Nashville, TN, by Gary Paczosa with additional engineering by Brandon Bell, John Netti, Keith Gary, Mike Judeh and Chris Dye. The song "Mansinneedof" was nominated for Best Country Instrumental Performance at the 52nd Annual Grammy Awards.

Attaboy or Atta Boy can refer to:

<i>Not Our First Goat Rodeo</i> 2020 studio album by Yo-Yo Ma, Stuart Duncan, Edgar Meyer, Chris Thile

Not Our First Goat Rodeo is a 2020 collaborative album by Stuart Duncan, Yo-Yo Ma, Edgar Meyer, and Chris Thile, featuring Aoife O'Donovan. It was released on June 19, 2020.

<i>My Bluegrass Heart</i> 2021 studio album by Béla Fleck

My Bluegrass Heart is a studio album by American banjo player Béla Fleck, the third of a trilogy that includes the 1988 album Drive and the 1999 album The Bluegrass Sessions: Tales from the Acoustic Planet, Vol. 2. My Bluegrass Heart features guest appearances from Sam Bush, Jerry Douglas, Stuart Duncan, Edgar Meyer, Bryan Sutton, Billy Strings, Chris Thile, Noam Pikelny, Sierra Hull, Molly Tuttle, Tony Trischka, Michael Cleveland and David Grisman.

References

  1. Ruhlmann, William. The Goat Rodeo Sessions at AllMusic. Retrieved November 25, 2012.
  2. Graff, Gary (October 27, 2011). "Yo-Yo Ma Trades Bach for Bluegrass in 'Goat Rodeo Sessions'". Billboard.
  3. McCall, Michael (October 24, 2011). "Review: 'Goat Sessions' a genre-blending good time". SFGate.
  4. "Live on Soundcheck: The Goat Rodeo Sessions". November 11, 2011.
  5. "Review: String quartet with Yo-Yo Ma wows again on 2nd album". WTOP. 2020-06-18. Retrieved 2020-09-01.
  6. "Not His First Goat Rodeo: Chris Thile on Supergroup's Reunion & New Album". Atwood Magazine. 2020-08-24. Retrieved 2020-09-01.
  7. "Chris Thile". Billboard. Retrieved 2020-09-03.
  8. "Goat Rodeo Sessions / Yo-Yo Ma, Stuart Duncan, Edgar Meyer, Chris Thile". Arkiv Music.
  9. "WINNERS: 55th Annual GRAMMY Awards (2012)". The Recording Academy. Retrieved 2 April 2013.
  10. https://www.facebook.com/EdgarMeyerBass/posts/2445089522242146?__xts__[0]=68.ARBCs99rx8W2PkE4YOIYXyPOUYt4P9cYCpAGFL6fu--SQ_xnWfL1h2rvaEQAA4XNQ9trh7XdMbgxB93oWXpOXSQfrFzPaIv5mNHqq5b5GhG-cjwgcc0CkxMjdeEO8X8Wk42vUolvlIPVI7KQiZM-Pby6S5d6fV_JnUDVDmTx_nw8pc38wO4WUlEycdCKhLtfgnfidpZ2MLmumOnDvWcOZ-vCopcZZUjRmVqfJZDHrUNcLlN_tfAw2Gt6QUoHdf2epvU44S5zS3naqM0NVpkhkfPkcC5jQvh_zyly4_m7q_Xf7AkEWasC2OXxzgclPqwScWB5duUBEFE_Q8s85b6OHXXgTA&__tn__=-R [ user-generated source ]
  11. Sony Music Masterworks (Jun 19, 2020). "Yo-Yo Ma, Stuart Duncan, Edgar Meyer & Chris Thile Reunite Grammy Award-Winning Group For Not Our First Goat Rodeo Album Available Now". www.prnewswire.com. Retrieved 2020-07-03.