This morning on #SaturdaySessions, a first-time pairing of Grammy winners and bluegrass giants Billy Strings and Chris Thile. For the first time ever as a duo, here’s @billystrings and @christhile with “I’ve Been All Around This World.”
As of today, my two beloved Gibson F5s are 100 YEARS OLD. They were born at the Gibson factory in Kalamazoo, MI, and signed by Lloyd Loar on February 18th, 1924. As far as I’ve gathered, #75316 (2nd and 4th pics) was purchased new by an 18 year old kid in Kansas who played it in his mandolin orchestra for a year, then married his high school sweetheart, who found it under their wedding bed the year after he died, 60 years later. #75318 (1st and 3rd pics) on the other hand was played throughout its life by a fellow in the Bronx. They were both in original condition when I bought them (#75316 looked straight-up unplayed!). A collector’s dream, a player’s nightm—OBSTACLE, let’s say. I’ve never encountered an unmodified Loar-era F5 that played well, or even in tune. Infinite thanks to master luthiers, Steve Gilchrist, Lynn Dudenbostel, and Tom Crandall, for helping me get them into fighting shape. |: SOUND > COLLECTIBILITY 😐 Ahem. HAPPY CENTENNIAL, YOU TWO!!! The beauty you’re capable of never ceases to amaze/tantalize me, and I’m deeply honored to be your current guardian.
As of today, my two beloved Gibson F5s are 100 YEARS OLD. They were born at the Gibson factory in Kalamazoo, MI, and signed by Lloyd Loar on February 18th, 1924. As far as I’ve gathered, #75316 (2nd and 4th pics) was purchased new by an 18 year old kid in Kansas who played it in his mandolin orchestra for a year, then married his high school sweetheart, who found it under their wedding bed the year after he died, 60 years later. #75318 (1st and 3rd pics) on the other hand was played throughout its life by a fellow in the Bronx. They were both in original condition when I bought them (#75316 looked straight-up unplayed!). A collector’s dream, a player’s nightm—OBSTACLE, let’s say. I’ve never encountered an unmodified Loar-era F5 that played well, or even in tune. Infinite thanks to master luthiers, Steve Gilchrist, Lynn Dudenbostel, and Tom Crandall, for helping me get them into fighting shape. |: SOUND > COLLECTIBILITY 😐 Ahem. HAPPY CENTENNIAL, YOU TWO!!! The beauty you’re capable of never ceases to amaze/tantalize me, and I’m deeply honored to be your current guardian.
Summer Rain! Filmed/recorded in London last summer with @jacobcollier and @madicunningham, both of whom I love to distraction (🤫🤫🤫🤫). You can check out the whole thing on YouTube…unless you just like hearing parts of things? No judgement.
Posting this to make sure it was real. Thank you forever, @billystrings and @coryhenry, for an impossibly jubilant trust fall down the rabbit hole last night! I enjoyed every freaking note. ALSO, to everyone at the @nyphilharmonic: making the 65th St. Session with you has been an utter delight. Here’s to more by and by! 📸: Jesse Faatz
Posting this to make sure it was real. Thank you forever, @billystrings and @coryhenry, for an impossibly jubilant trust fall down the rabbit hole last night! I enjoyed every freaking note. ALSO, to everyone at the @nyphilharmonic: making the 65th St. Session with you has been an utter delight. Here’s to more by and by! 📸: Jesse Faatz
Posting this to make sure it was real. Thank you forever, @billystrings and @coryhenry, for an impossibly jubilant trust fall down the rabbit hole last night! I enjoyed every freaking note. ALSO, to everyone at the @nyphilharmonic: making the 65th St. Session with you has been an utter delight. Here’s to more by and by! 📸: Jesse Faatz
Posting this to make sure it was real. Thank you forever, @billystrings and @coryhenry, for an impossibly jubilant trust fall down the rabbit hole last night! I enjoyed every freaking note. ALSO, to everyone at the @nyphilharmonic: making the 65th St. Session with you has been an utter delight. Here’s to more by and by! 📸: Jesse Faatz
Posting this to make sure it was real. Thank you forever, @billystrings and @coryhenry, for an impossibly jubilant trust fall down the rabbit hole last night! I enjoyed every freaking note. ALSO, to everyone at the @nyphilharmonic: making the 65th St. Session with you has been an utter delight. Here’s to more by and by! 📸: Jesse Faatz
Posting this to make sure it was real. Thank you forever, @billystrings and @coryhenry, for an impossibly jubilant trust fall down the rabbit hole last night! I enjoyed every freaking note. ALSO, to everyone at the @nyphilharmonic: making the 65th St. Session with you has been an utter delight. Here’s to more by and by! 📸: Jesse Faatz
We’ll see you in Telluride for the opening set @planet.bluegrass! Hope to see y’all there.
We’ll see you in Telluride for the opening set @planet.bluegrass! Hope to see y’all there.
Unveiling @punchbrothers version 3.0, round two of the @billystrings and Chris show, @sambushband’s 50th…Telluride Bluegrass is an eternal wonder, but this year’s edition was particularly special for me. So much love and gratitude to all the extraordinary folks @planet.bluegrass and miraculously open-eared festivarians who make it possible. Can’t wait for next year!
Unveiling @punchbrothers version 3.0, round two of the @billystrings and Chris show, @sambushband’s 50th…Telluride Bluegrass is an eternal wonder, but this year’s edition was particularly special for me. So much love and gratitude to all the extraordinary folks @planet.bluegrass and miraculously open-eared festivarians who make it possible. Can’t wait for next year!
Unveiling @punchbrothers version 3.0, round two of the @billystrings and Chris show, @sambushband’s 50th…Telluride Bluegrass is an eternal wonder, but this year’s edition was particularly special for me. So much love and gratitude to all the extraordinary folks @planet.bluegrass and miraculously open-eared festivarians who make it possible. Can’t wait for next year!
I still can’t believe I got to be a wee part of @jacobcollier’s extraordinary new collection of sounds alongside the luminous @madicunningham (I miss BOTH Y’ALL like summer rain, 🤫🤫🤫🤫!!!). Go stream/spin it/put your hand out the window to see what clothes you’re gonna need to play outside…. 📷: @bree.ohagan
Kaleidoscopic mothering greatness, now, then, and ALWAYS, featuring @clairecoffee and @kathile2. First 📸: Chief Hooligan, Calvin. Second and fourth: Assistant Chief Hooligan, me. Third: Unknown, but PROBABLY one of my grandmothers (I have four: Celia, Barbra, Sal, and Linda. SO MUCH KALEIDOSCOPIC GREATNESS)
Kaleidoscopic mothering greatness, now, then, and ALWAYS, featuring @clairecoffee and @kathile2. First 📸: Chief Hooligan, Calvin. Second and fourth: Assistant Chief Hooligan, me. Third: Unknown, but PROBABLY one of my grandmothers (I have four: Celia, Barbra, Sal, and Linda. SO MUCH KALEIDOSCOPIC GREATNESS)
Kaleidoscopic mothering greatness, now, then, and ALWAYS, featuring @clairecoffee and @kathile2. First 📸: Chief Hooligan, Calvin. Second and fourth: Assistant Chief Hooligan, me. Third: Unknown, but PROBABLY one of my grandmothers (I have four: Celia, Barbra, Sal, and Linda. SO MUCH KALEIDOSCOPIC GREATNESS)
ICYMI! Acousticamp is back for a second year — 4 celebratory days & nights of acoustic music exploration, coffee and m/cocktails. This year Acousticamp moves west to the Asilomar Hotel in Pacific Grove, CA. Details and registration at the link in bio. -CT HQ
Come hang out this weekend! @vasymphony @vaartsfest @vso_musicians @ejacobsenmusic @christhile
Juuuune 2024444 🏔️🍷🐕🎻✈️☀️
ACOUSTICAMP IS BACK! We’re headed west this year, to beautiful Pacific Grove, CA, from August 22nd to the 26th at the Asilomar Hotel and Conference Center. Your days will be filled with instruction that meets you where you are, discussions and Q&A’s to help you determine where you want to be, performances by our faculty AND some very special guests to fuel you on your way, all topped off with late night jam sessions between you and your fellow Acousticampers. This year’s faculty includes @crittereldridge, @brittfiddle, @arkansausage, @noampikelny, @reallouiscato, @sierradawnhull, @jlage, Ashley Hoyer, @michael.daves, and more to be announced! For those who prefer to listen and talk rather than sing and play at the end of the day, I’ll be hosting nightly listening parties where I’ll share music that inspires me, invite other faculty to do the same and we can all have a cocktail (or mocktail) or two about it! Last year’s Acousticamp was a euphoria-inducing fusion of education, practice, and joy, and I have a feeling this year’s will be even better. LET’S DO THIS!!! Register at the link in bio.
NEW MUSIC(-AL MEMOIR) ALERT!!! I’m freaking THRILLED to be premiering a new thing (solo narrative song cycle? One mandolinist musical?) that I’m making with @clairecoffee at the crazy beautiful outdoor amphitheater on @littleislandnyc this summer. It’s called “The Manhattan Variations,” and no spoilers, but there’ll be some seriously overdue growing up going down at a little cocktail bar on the Lower East Side. It’s gonna be FUN, and potentially even tasty, so you should come! The show will run Wednesday-Friday Aug 14-16, with an additional performance on Sunday, Aug 18. Tickets are on sale now at christhile.com. Literal Manhattan variations sold separately (I HOPE).
