Banjo player Noam Pikelny is a mighty busy guy this fall. It seems like any time you investigate what is happening in the world of progressive bluegrass and acoustic music, his name pops up.

Until recently, Noam was a member of The John Cowan Band, a position he held for a little over two years, and left just this past weekend. Tony Wray is taking that gig.

Noam is prominently featured on the new Chris Thile CD, How To Grow A Woman From The Ground, and is currently touring with Thile and the other players on that recording. They are being billed now as How To Grow A Band, but will shortly fold that into The Tension Mountain Boys, as Chris reported in his recent GrassCast interview. (Chris’ MySpace page indicates that the new band will be introduced in a Carnegie Hall concert on March 17, 2007.)

Look for Noam to also sub for Greg Liszt on two tours with Crooked Still – on the west coast in early October, and on the east in early November. Greg had done shows with Bruce Springsteen earlier this year, and will be out with him again in the fall.

You can sample Noam’s music on his web site, or his MySpace page.