How to Grow a Woman From the Ground
What goes around, comes around. As the resident rock star in Nickel Creek (contrasting with the trio's more reserved Watkins siblings), mandolinist Chris Thile has sent his music soaring in surprising directions from its bluegrass base.  Though this solo release finds him dipping into the songbooks of the White Stripes ("Dead Leaves and the Dirty Ground") and the Strokes ("Heart in a Cage"), much of the music sticks closer to tradition than Thile has in recent years. Among the highlights are an uptempo romp through Gillian Welch's "Wayside (Back in Time)," a pretty fair yodel on Jimmie Rodgers's "Brakeman's Blues," the close harmonies of the bluesy "If the Sea Was Whiskey," and Thile's original "You're an Angel and I'm Gonna Cry," classic country weeper. Five of the fourteen cuts are instrumental, with the opening "Watch 'at Breakdown" combining bluegrass instrumentation and jazzy sophistication, and "The Beekeeper" giving Thile's fingers a chance to fly.--Don McLeese