#laysongs

[nonesuchrecords]

Chris Thile was on BBC Radio 4's Front Row to perform some Bach and music from his 2021 solo album, Laysongs, and to talk with presenter Luke Jones about the album and more. You can hear the episode here.

Thile kicks off a tour of the UK and Ireland with Sam Amidon in Bristol tonight, followed by shows in Coventry, London, Manchester, Glasgow, and Dublin. Details/tickets here.

[inlovewitheasefuldeath]

chris thile promoting laysongs as his “first truly solo album”:

deceiver stans:

[dustedmagazine]

Chris Thile — Laysongs (Nonesuch)

Photo by Josh Goleman

Chris Thile first came to prominence on mandolin, breaking out (musically) as a kid in bluegrass and Americana both with Nickel Creek and on his own. Though he was a prodigy in that field, he's never been stuck in one genre for long. His interest in classical music has driven some of his work, and his collaboration with Yo-Yo Ma, Stuart Duncan, and Edgar Meyer for The Goat Rodeo Sessions revealed a joy in cross-genre weirdness. Now he releases his first album that's simply him — just mandolin and vocals — and he throws in a thematic challenge by tackling big spiritual topics. Laysongs blends secular and sacred, bluegrass and classical, scripture and Greek ecstasy for an album that's as much a question as a statement.

The album grew out of Thile's “Salt (in the Wounds) of the Earth” sequence, inspired by C.S. Lewis' The Screwtape Letters, a literary take on a demon mentoring a novice. The devil in Thile's trilogy gets meaner as he goes, offering some hot (so to speak) takes along the way, like, “And they've become the church / Rubbing salt in the wounds of the earth / In the name of a savior / Who only seems to save their sense of worth.” The mandolin sounds uneasy throughout the three tracks, turning mostly into background for the furious and dramatic finale. 

That third of the album takes on an anti-religious voice in character, but it does so as part of a broader questioning. Thile works through agnostic meditations by raising questions and exploring ideas unusual in the Christian milieu he navigates. The instrumental “Ecclesiastes” provides a sincere and uplifting take on Ecclesiastes 2:24: “A person can do nothing better than to eat and drink and find satisfaction in their own toil. This too, I see, is from the hand of God.” That bit of wisdom proves to be inspiring, guiding Thile through a melodic piece. 

Finding a track titled “Dionysus” comes as a surprise, then, its bacchanal offering a different approach to the value of eating, drinking and satisfying. Buffy Sainte-Marie’s “God Is Alive Magic Is Afoot” likewise winds through its spiritual musings with complicated language and an energetic performance. Thile keeps his listeners off balance. For every nod to bluegrass, there's a nod to classical music, all intermingled with shifting spiritual ideas. Where Thile previously demonstrated his love for Bach, he now tests himself with Bartók, a move that has as much religious implication as it does musical.

After all that, he ends with Hazel Dickens' “Won't You Come and Sing for Me,” a church-y, end-of-life bluegrass number. Closing the album with such a number suggest Thile (or at least the Thile of the album) continues to search without devaluing his roots. Picking a Dickens number further hints that there's a physical grounding to all this work. Tying this cut with “Ecclesiastes” takes the spiritual search out of the ethereal and grounds it in an embodied present. It's a finish as smart as it is enjoyable, one more twist from Thile on an album with plenty of musical and lyrical bends. 

Justin Cober-Lake

[nonesuchrecords]

The Endless Curiosity of Chris Thile

The 40-year-old mandolinist has found inspiration in groups, and as the host of “Live From Here.” “Laysongs” is his most directly personal w

"'I would say it’s centered around communion, and a yearning for it, and a mistrust of it,'" Chris Thile tells the New York Times of his upcoming solo album, Laysongs. "The album is an attempt 'to push back against that element of exclusion that comes with building community' ... and against how 'we then isolate ourselves with those people that we love.'"

[nonesuchrecords]

Chris Thile, who is currently touring the US with Punch Brothers, has announced a tour of Europe and the UK this autumn. The month-long tour begins in Estonia on October 20, making stops in Hungary, Austria, Czech Republic, France, Luxembourg, Germany, Denmark, Belgium, Norway, and the UK, culminating at the National Concert Hall in Dublin on November 15. Details/tickets here.

[betweentimeand42]

Chris Thile takes Alaska! Photo taken in Fairbanks while touring for Laysongs, and shared by Thile HQ on his social media.

[nonesuchrecords]

Chris Thile kicks off his US tour, featuring songs from his new solo album, Laysongs, on Sunday. Details/tickets here.

[betweentimeand42]

It’s been over two months since Laysongs came out but I only just now read the lyrics to “The Salt in the Wounds of the Earth” and I just