New York, NY (Top40 Charts) Punch Brothers present Live from Blackbird, a pair of livestreamed performances from Blackbird Studio in Nashville, TN, where they made their 2012 album Who's
Feeling Young Now? and where they are currently at work on their next record. The shows begin at 8pm ET the next two Sundays: November 15 and November 22, 2020. The band members - Chris Eldridge (guitar), Paul Kowert (bass), Noam Pikelny (banjo), Chris Thile (mandolin, vocals), and Gabe Witcher (fiddle) - reunited this week for the first time since before the pandemic began. Each Live from Blackbird concert will be unique, with no repeated songs. A VIP option is also available and includes a Q&A with the band at the end of the livestream, accompanied by cocktails; VIP ticket buyers will be sent a cocktail guide with recommended recipes. Tickets and more details are available here.
Punch Brothers formed in 2006. Its first Nonesuch record, Punch, was released in 2008 and combined elements of the band's many musical interests. In 2009, they began a residency at NYC's intimate club The Living Room, trying out new songs and ultimately spawning Antifogmatic. In 2012, the band released Who's
Feeling Young Now?, of which Rolling Stone said, "The acoustic framework dazzles—wild virtuosity used for more than just virtuosity." Its follow-up, The Phosphorescent Blues, was called "a typical genre-busting melange of avant-roots music that fuses jazz instrumental chops and acoustic earthiness,
Beach Boys harmonies and Debussy string dances, slinky acoustic rock songs and blues laments" by the
Chicago Tribune.
The quintet's most recent album, 2018's All Ashore, won a Grammy Award for Best Folk Album and also received critical praise; the UK's Independent called it "an album of rich instrumentation and understated beauty that reveals deeper nuances on each and every listen … Both forward-thinking and imbued with an appreciation of the traditional sounds of America," and the
Boston Globe said, "In these strange times, hope for the future isn't necessarily the easiest thing to come by—but that might be why All Ashore is an album people could use right now. Punch Brothers have crafted a deeply meaningful and downright gorgeous record that takes the world for what it is, but doesn't use that as an excuse to give up."
