The award-winning musician returned to Grand Rapids’ St. Cecilia Music Center on Thursday for a special evening that combined the somber with the upbeat. The review and photos at Local Spins.
Odes to the ‘Best Season’ and the Greatest Composer: Chris Thile on stage Thursday. (Photo/Jeffrey Wilkinson)
Chris Thile made Thursday night’s crowd at Grand Rapids’ St. Cecilia’s Music Center believe that “we can do beautiful things,” despite all the pain and discord in our world.
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The Grammy Award-winning mandolin player, singer and songwriter (part of the bluegrass trio Nickel Creek and quintet Punch Brothers) enchanted the Royce Auditorium crowd during a 90-minute set with his sense of humor, snappy showmanship and exquisite mandolin playing.
Going for a strong autumnal vibe, he blended Bach (obviously his favorite composer, and “the greatest musician of all time,” according to Thile), and songs about fall, “the indisputable best season.”
“Calvin and the Ghosties” told a tale of “bats swooping over the neighborhood, our jackets zipped up …” It was an homage to his great childhood, the son of fundamentalists and the grandson of a “metaphysical therapist.”
Grandma Barb the therapist, meanwhile, got her nod in the evocative song “Two Ghost Stories.” Audience members were invited to join Thile after the song in a moment of silence to remember those loved and lost.
Frolicsome, somber, medieval and modern, Thile’s musical moods had folks tapping their toes, leaning forward to listen intently, and basking in the feeling that somehow, via stringed reverie and lyrical poetry, we had been transported to a time and place “once upon softer times,” as the Nickel Creek words go.
And that was a magical place to be.
PHOTO GALLERY: Chris Thile at St. Cecilia Music Center
Photos by Jeffrey Wilkinson
