Chris Thile Talks 'Laysongs' With WNYC's 'All Of It With Alison Stewart'

New York, NY (Top40 Charts) Chris Thile was a guest on WNYC's All of It with Alison Stewart on Friday, the release day for his new solo album, Laysongs. He shared some songs from the album and the stories behind them for an All of It Listening Party. You can hear their conversation below.

Laysongs is Thile's first truly solo album: just Thile, his voice, and his mandolin, on new recordings of six original songs and three covers, all of which contextualize and banter with his ideas about spirituality. Recorded in a converted upstate New York church during the pandemic, Laysongs features the three-part "Salt (in the Wounds) of the Earth," which was inspired by C.S. Lewis's The Screwtape Letters; a song Thile wrote about Dionysus; a selection from Béla Bartók's Sonata for Solo Violin; "God Is Alive, Magic Is Afoot" based on Buffy Sainte-Marie's adaptation of a Leonard Cohen poem; and a Hazel Dickens cover.