Punch Brothers go for Baroque
Continuing in their quest to prove that the familiar bluegrass ensemble (banjo, bass, fiddle, guitar, mandolin) is primarily a group of musical instruments – as opposed to bluegrass instruments – Punch Brothers are hard at work on a transcription of the 3rd Brandenburg Concerto from Johann Sebastian Bach.
This piece, officially titled Brandenburg Concerto No. 3 in G major, BWV 1048, was composed in 1721 for three violins, three violas, three cellos, bass and harpsichord. It was arranged for Punch Brothers by violinist Rob Moose, who performs the 3rd movement with the guys in this hand held video posted on YouTube.
Banjoist Noam Pikelny implys that it isn’t a simple thing to take the banjo out of bluegrass..
“It was my first time playing any Bach in front of people, and I successfully resisted the primal urge to end the movement with a behind the bridge backwards rake a la Flop Eared Mule.”
Punch Brothers consists of Chris Thile on mandolin, Pikelny on banjo, Gabe Wichter on fiddle, Chris Eldridge on guitar and Paul Cowert on bass.
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Punch Brothers are continuing to use their semi-regular Thursday show at The Living Room in New York City to try out some of their more adventurous undertakings.
We posted a video of them performing Bach's Brandenburg Concerto No. 3 in G major a month ago, and now there is video of them tackling...
Video from a Punch Brothers Concert for Folk Alley has been posted online. The show was recorded on April 2 in Kent, OH and both sets of music can be viewed at FolkAlley.com
The concert contains a complete performance of The Blind Leaving The Blind, split between the two sets. This is Chris Thile's...
A new batch of tour dates has been posted for Punch Brothers, Chris Thile's recently renamed band of musical brothers. They'll do a UK tour in January '08, after which they will be doing concert and club shows all over the US, with new stops being added regularly.
The band consists of Thile on mandolin...
Well... the vote is in and Punch Brothers were defeated in the ESPN Baseball Tonight band competition by country singer Gretchen Wilson.
The contest was in honor of the 100th anniversary of the venerable Take Me Out To The Ballgame, written by Jack Norworth and Albert Von Tilze in 1908. Several popular...
Punch Brothers fans can check out three live cuts from the guys posted at Daytrotter.com.
There are live versions of Punch Bowl and the first movement of The Blind Leaving The Blind, both tracks from the band's current CD, Punch. They also cut a version of Wilco's Poor Places which they have been...
Punch Brothers have brought on young bass monster Paul Kowert to take the spot of departing founding member Greg Garrison. The band otherwise remains the same (Chris Thile on mandolin, Noam Pikelny on banjo, Chris Eldridge on guitar and Gabe Witcher on fiddle).
Kowert, 22 years old, had been touring...
We posted last week that Punch Brothers would be appearing on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno on 2/29.
The video from that program will be available online for a few more days. The Tonight Show keeps each full show up for web viewing for a week after it airs, so until Saturday, you can catch this one...
That's the title of a clever and revealing post published yesterday on the Punch Brothers blog.
The concept is a "fun facts" sort of thing, providing both musical and personal insights that relate to their recent CD, Punch, and its centerpiece, the lengthy, four movement Chris Thile composition,...
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Fantastic!
This is a mile post.
You must