Punch Brothers

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Punch Brothers
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Biography (Excerpt)

Punch Brothers' album Hell on Church Street is the band's reimaigining of, and homage to, the late bluegrass great Tony Rice’s landmark solo album Church Street Blues, featuring an inspired collection of songs by Bob Dylan, Gordon Lightfoot, Bill Monroe, and others. Recorded in November 2020, Hell on Church Street had been intended as both its own work of art and a gift to Rice, who died later that year. "After we got over the shock of losing our hero and friend," Noam Pikelny says, "we realized what Tony had left with us was his music, his spirit, and his legacy."

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https://www.facebook.com/PunchBrothers
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https://twitter.com/PunchBrothers
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https://instagram.com/punchbrothers
Youtube URL
https://youtube.com/punchbrothers

Hell on Church Street, Punch Brothers’ newest album, released January 14, 2022, on Nonesuch Records, is the band’s reimagining of, and homage to, the late bluegrass great Tony Rice’s landmark solo album Church Street Blues. The record features a collection of songs by Bob Dylan, Gordon Lightfoot, Bill Monroe, and others. 

Recorded at Nashville’s Blackbird Studio in November 2020, during a time of great uncertainty, Hell on Church Street was intended as both its own work of art and a gift to Rice, who died that Christmas. Punch Brothers said of Tony Rice and Church Street Blues: “No record (or musician) has had a greater impact on us, and we felt compelled to cover it in its entirety, with the objective of interacting with it in the same spirit of respect-fueled adventure that Tony brought to each of its pre-existing songs.”

Hell on Church Street follows Punch Brothers’ critically acclaimed and Grammy Award-winning 2018 album All Ashore, which featured nine original songs written by the band. The Boston Globe said of All Ashore, “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.”

Punch Brothers—guitarist Chris Eldridge, bassist Paul Kowert, banjoist Noam Pikelny, mandolinist/singer Chris Thile, and fiddler Gabe Witcher—formed in 2006 and released its first Nonesuch record, Punch, in 2008. In 2009, the band began a residency at NYC’s intimate Lower East Side club The Living Room, trying out new songs and ultimately spawning  Antifogmatic (2010). Those albums were followed by the critically praised Who’s Feeling Young Now? (also recorded at Blackbird Studio) in 2012 and 2015’s T Bone Burnett-produced The Phosphorescent Blues.

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Latest Release

  • January 14, 2022

    Punch Brothers' album Hell on Church Street is the band's reimagining of, and homage to, the late bluegrass great Tony Rice’s landmark solo album Church Street Blues, featuring an inspired collection of songs by Bob Dylan, Gordon Lightfoot, Bill Monroe, and others. Recorded in November 2020, Hell on Church Street had been intended as both its own work of art and a gift to Rice, who died later that year. "After we got over the shock of losing our hero and friend," Noam Pikelny says, "we realized what Tony had left with us was his music, his spirit, and his legacy." "We spent a lot of time contemplating what happened when Church Street Blues hit our ears as a band," Chris Thile says: "we held it out, we conversed with it, and now we’re handing it to you." Grammy Nominee for Best Folk Album.

Releases

News

  • March 16, 2023

    Chris Thile has announced his inaugural Acousticamp to take place July 30–August 3 at Glen Cove Mansion in Glen Cove, New York. For the four-day event, he and his fellow instructor/collaborators—including several Punch Brothers and Nickel Creek band mates—will explore the width and breadth of acoustic music practice, performance, and composition, anchored by but not limited to string band instruments and vernacular singing, buoyed by coffee and cocktails, all bookended by intimate concerts from Nickel Creek and Punch Brothers.

  • December 20, 2022

    Punch Brothers recently concluded a US tour with Béla Fleck’s My Bluegrass Heart featuring Sierra Hull. You can now watch a holiday medley from their December 15 Indianapolis show—including “The Chipmunk Song,” “Sleigh Ride,” and letters to Santa—here. Punch Brothers' latest album, Hell on Church Street, a reimagining of, and homage to, the late bluegrass great Tony Rice’s landmark solo album Church Street Blues, has been nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Folk Album.

Tour

Mon, Jun 17
Salina, KS
The Stiefel Theatre
Mon, Jun 17
Salina, KS
The Stiefel Theatre
Tue, Jun 18
Kansas City, MO
Kauffman Center
Tue, Jun 18
Kansas City, MO
Kauffman Center
Thu, Jun 20
Telluride, CO
Thu, Jun 20
Telluride, CO
Thu, Aug 22
Pacific Grove, CA
Asilomar Hotel
Thu, Aug 22
Pacific Grove, CA
Asilomar Hotel

Photos

About Punch Brothers

  • Hell on Church Street, Punch Brothers’ newest album, released January 14, 2022, on Nonesuch Records, is the band’s reimagining of, and homage to, the late bluegrass great Tony Rice’s landmark solo album Church Street Blues. The record features a collection of songs by Bob Dylan, Gordon Lightfoot, Bill Monroe, and others. 

    Recorded at Nashville’s Blackbird Studio in November 2020, during a time of great uncertainty, Hell on Church Street was intended as both its own work of art and a gift to Rice, who died that Christmas. Punch Brothers said of Tony Rice and Church Street Blues: “No record (or musician) has had a greater impact on us, and we felt compelled to cover it in its entirety, with the objective of interacting with it in the same spirit of respect-fueled adventure that Tony brought to each of its pre-existing songs.”

    Hell on Church Street follows Punch Brothers’ critically acclaimed and Grammy Award-winning 2018 album All Ashore, which featured nine original songs written by the band. The Boston Globe said of All Ashore, “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.”

    Punch Brothers—guitarist Chris Eldridge, bassist Paul Kowert, banjoist Noam Pikelny, mandolinist/singer Chris Thile, and fiddler Gabe Witcher—formed in 2006 and released its first Nonesuch record, Punch, in 2008. In 2009, the band began a residency at NYC’s intimate Lower East Side club The Living Room, trying out new songs and ultimately spawning  Antifogmatic (2010). Those albums were followed by the critically praised Who’s Feeling Young Now? (also recorded at Blackbird Studio) in 2012 and 2015’s T Bone Burnett-produced The Phosphorescent Blues.