Press Play is the place where The New York Times debuts noteworthy new music. Every week, we present tracks from an upcoming new album. Listen to them here exclusively.
Nothing beats listening to a real, physical newspaper, but here’s The New York Times stream of the new Punch Brothers album.
I’m truly honored. This record was a labor of love for me, and at best I was hoping to not get struck by lightning as retribution for putting my name in the same album title as Kenny Baker’s and Bill Monroe’s. While I’ve spent most of my career on the far fringes of this music, bluegrass music and its community mean the world to me, so the warm embrace from the IBMA this year is very special. To me, Noam Pikelny Plays Kenny Baker Plays Bill Monroe is truly a band record, so the album of the year award is shared equally between Stuart Duncan, Bryan Sutton, Ronnie McCoury, Mike Bub, and our producer Gabe Witcher. It goes without saying that many a glass was raised after the show Thursday night to Kenny Baker.
Howdy Folks!
Noam, here, with some news that will surely change your life.
Greetings from Raleigh, NC where tonight I’ll be attending the 2014 IBMA Awards show. You can imagine my surprise when I first heard the news that I received two nominations this year. Firstly, I had no idea that an International Bridal Manufacturers Association even existed, and secondly, I never dreamt that my reclaimed banjo pick foot jewelry would ever be anything more than a hobby!
Management informed me soon after that it was rather the International Bluegrass Music Association awards, and the nominations weren’t for footwear but for Album of the Year and Banjo Player of the Year. Congrats to fellow Punch Brother, Gabe Witcher, who produced the NP Plays Kenny Baker Plays Bill Monroe album, and to the album band: Stuart Duncan, Bryan Sutton, Ronnie McCoury and Mike Bub. In fact, the exact album band will be assembling for the first time outside of the studio for a live performance tonight on the awards show, which you can stream online at ibma.org starting at 7:30pm ET. My pre-taped concession speech from the lobby of the Raleigh Red Roof will be posted immediately after at Noam.net, if it hasn’t leaked already.
On Saturday in Raleigh, Stuart Duncan and I will fire up the fiddle & banjo machine to kick off our October Tour. It’s been an absolute thrill getting to play duo shows with Stu-Bob this year, and the response has been not only positive, but unanimous: The Noam Pikelny & Stuart Duncan show is the next best thing to a Stuart Duncan solo show. I couldn’t agree more. This Sunday we’ll be in Asheville, NC and then we’ll continue up the Mid-Atlantic over the course of a couple weeks. I’m especially excited for the debut of the Stuart duo at my old stomping grounds, the Rockwood Music Hall, for a two night run in NYC.
I’m so thrilled to be finally be joining up again with a character from my distant past, the Original American Songbird, Aoife O’Donovan! You may recognize Aoife from high profile projects such as Noam Pikelny & Friends and or the indie darlings, The Goat Rodeo Sessions. We’ll be touring a new project this November with Barry Bales on bass and Shad Cobb on fiddle. More on this tour soon, but tickets for all the shows are now on sale.
Thanks for reading, hope you can make some, if not all of the upcoming shows!
Noam
After confirming that I’d never be asked to join The Aoife O'Donovan Band, we decided to start a new one and tour in November. Visit the tour page for details and tickets.
Howdy Folks!
Noam, here, with some news that will surely change your life.
Greetings from Nashville, TN, “The Athens of The South.” I’m in town rehearsing with Stuart Duncan, “The Plato of the Fiddle.” I’m thrilled to announce that we’re launching our new duo project this weekend, visiting the Southeast and Midwest.
I’ve been lucky enough to get Stuart to play on my last two solo records and with that I could die a happy man. He has so masterfully assimilated all of the great fiddle traditions into his own singular style. Stuart has arrived at an utterly breathtaking intersection of finesse and soul. He’s a bonafide acoustic superhero - the fact that he goes on stage not wearing a cape is a little misleading. But it’s time to forgive him for that.
If trios and larger ensembles are just too cluttered for your musical tastes, then this show is for you, as long as you like the fiddle and banjo. Because there is going to be a whole lot of that. But this show won’t be purely instrumental - ticket prices would be much higher if that was the case. There will be quite a bit of singing. Stuart is a great singer and I’ll be singing as well to provide some harmony vocals and shock value.
If you’re on the fence about this whole fiddle & banjo thing, I’d suggest watching this short infomercial we made during the first round of rehearsal. And for those of you who can’t make it to any of the upcoming shows due to unfortunate geographical circumstances, we’ve just posted full rehearsal videos of “Tallahassee” and “Sad and Lonesome Day.“ Those planning to attend may watch as well.
Thanks for reading. Hope to see some of y’all soon.
Best,
Noam
Management - Red Light Management
Booking - Wasserman Music
Publicity - Rounder Records
PunchBrothers.com