Chris Thile

Chris Thile () (born February 20, 1981) is an American musician, best known as a member of acoustic band Nickel Creek. He has made six albums as a solo artist and with his band, Punch Brothers. His first, Leading Off, was released in 1994 when Thile was 13. Thile has also played and recorded with artists like Mike Marshall, Béla Fleck, Glen Phillips, and Edgar Meyer.

Thile's third album, Not All Who Wander Are Lost, was released in 2001. His fourth, Deceiver had all songs written and performed by Thile alone. His most recent solo work was 2006's How to Grow a Woman from the Ground, and Thile released Punch in 2008 with the band Punch Brothers.

History
1981–1999: Early life and career
Thile was born in Oceanside, California in 1981. When he was two, his family started going to That Pizza Place, where he listened to John Moore's band Bluegrass Etc.. When Thile was four, his family moved to Idyllwild, California.

He started playing mandolin at the age of five. He took lessons from John Moore. When Thile was eight, Nickel Creek was formed. After playing many music festivals with Nickel Creek, he won the national mandolin contest at the Walnut Valley Festival in Winfield, Kansas at age twelve.

In 1993, Thile was signed to the bluegrass record label Sugar Hill. The next year, he released his first album, Leading Off, and most of the songs were written by Thile. In 1997, Thile released Stealing Second and Nickel Creek released Here to There.

2000–2005: Wander and Deceiver
After Nickel Creek sold 500,000 copies, Thile released Not All Who Wander Are Lost in 2001. The name of the album comes from a quote in J. R. R. Tolkien's book The Lord of the Rings. The album had guest appearances from his Nickel Creek bandmates as well as Stuart Duncan, Béla Fleck, Edgar Meyer, Jerry Douglas, and Bryan Sutton.

In 2003, Thile and mandolinist Mike Marshall made a duet album called Into the Cauldron, which had covers by artists from Charlie Parker to Bach. The next year, Thile released Deceiver, a pop album on which he played and wrote every song himself. He mainly played his mandolin on the album, but also played electric guitar, piano, drums, violin, viola, cello, and bass.

2006–present: Punch Brothers
In August 2006, Nickel Creek announced in Billboard and on their official website that they would take an indefinite hiatus, which means a break for an unknown amount of time.

Just before this, Thile formed the How to Grow a Band. He made How to Grow a Woman from the Ground, with them. This was Thile's fifth album. In an interview with the Nashville City Paper, Thile talked about the band's start: 

The band's members are Thile (mandolin), Gabe Witcher (fiddle), Chris Eldridge (guitar), Greg Garrison (bass), and Noam Pikelny (banjo). Bryan Sutton also played guitar for the band when Chris Eldridge could not. In 2007, the band changed its name twice: first to "The Tensions Mountain Boys" and then "Punch Brothers."

Punch Brothers released their first album, Punch, on the Nonesuch Records on February 26, 2008. The album has Thile's four piece song "The Blind Leaving the Blind", along with other original songs.

Awards and nominations
 1996 – Nominated for Grammy Award for Best Country Instrumental Performance for "Scotland" from True Life Blues: The Songs of Bill Monroe
 1997 – IBMA award for Album of the Year for True Life Blues: The Songs of Bill Monroe
 2001 – IBMA award for Mandolinist of the Year
 2002 – Won Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Folk Album for This Side (with Nickel Creek)
 2005 – Nominated for Grammy Award for Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical for Deceiver
 2006 – Nominated for Grammy Award for Best Country Instrumental Performance for "The Eleventh Reel"
 2007 – BBC's Folk Musician of the Year
 2007 – Nominated for IBMA Mandolinist of the Year
 2008 – Nominated for Americana Music Association Instrumentalist of the Year
 2012 – Nominated for Grammy Award for Best Bluegrass Album for Sleep with One Eye Open (with Michael Daves)
 2012 – MacArthur Fellowship ($500,000 'Genius Grant')
 2013 – Won Grammy Award for Best Folk Album for The Goat Rodeo Sessions (with Yo-Yo Ma, Stuart Duncan, and Edgar Meyer)
 2014 – Won Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Instrumental Album for Bass & Mandolin (with Edgar Meyer)"Grammys 2015: Complete list of winners and nominees". Los Angeles Times.
 2015 – Awarded Honorary Doctorate from The New School.
 2019 – Won Grammy Award for Best Folk Album for All Ashore (with Punch Brothers)

Discography

Solo
 Title Album details Peak chart positions US US Grass US Country US Indie US Heat US Classic Leading Off 
 Release date: September 25, 1994
 Label: Sugar Hill Records — — — — — — Stealing Second 
 Release date: March 18, 1997
 Label: Sugar Hill Records — — — — — — Not All Who Wander Are Lost 
 Release date: October 9, 2001
 Label: Sugar Hill Records — 13 — — — — Deceiver 
 Release date: October 12, 2004
 Label: Sugar Hill Records — 3 — — — — How to Grow a Woman from the Ground 
 Release date: September 12, 2006
 Label: Sugar Hill Records — 2 46 27 28 — Bach: Sonatas and Partitas, Vol. 1 
 Release date: August 6, 2013
 Label: Nonesuch Records 72 — — — — 1 Thanks for Listening Release date: December 8, 2017
 Label: Nonesuch Records — — — — — — Laysongs Release date: June 4, 2021
 Label: Nonesuch Records — — — — — — "—" denotes releases that did not chart.

Collaborations
 Title Album details Peak chart positions US US Grass US Country US Heat US Classic US Classic Crossover Into the Cauldron(with Mike Marshall) 
 Release date: May 13, 2003
 Label: Sugar Hill Records — 6 71 — —— Live: Duets(with Mike Marshall) 
 Release date: January 24, 2006
 Label: Sugar Hill Records — 6 — — —6 Edgar Meyer and Chris Thile(with Edgar Meyer) 
 Release date: September 23, 2008
 Label: Nonesuch Records — 3 — — —3 Sleep with One Eye Open(with Michael Daves) 
 Release date: May 10, 2011
 Label: Nonesuch Records — 3  34 3 —— The Goat Rodeo Sessions(with Yo-Yo Ma, Edgar Meyer and Stuart Duncan) 
 Release date: October 24, 2011
 Label: Sony Masterworks 18 1 — — 11 The Goat Rodeo Sessions: Live EP 
 Release date: February 7, 2012
 Label: Sony Masterworks — 4 — — 86 Bass & Mandolin(with Edgar Meyer) 
 Release date: September 9, 2014
 Label: Nonesuch Records — 2 — — 22 Chris Thile & Brad Mehldau(with Brad Mehldau) Release date: January 27, 2017
 Label: Nonesuch Records — 1 — — —— Not Our First Goat Rodeo(with Yo-Yo Ma, Edgar Meyer and Stuart Duncan) Release date: June 19, 2020
 Label: Sony Masterworks—1——11 "—" denotes releases that did not chart.

Nickel Creek
Studio albums
1990s
 Title Album details Little Cowpoke 
 Release date: December 31, 1993
 Label: Choo Choo Records
 Formats: CD, cassette Here to There 
 Release date: May 19, 1997
 Label: self-released
 Formats: CD, cassette

2000s
 Title Album details Peak chart positions Certifications(sales thresholds) US Country US USIndie USBluegrass Nickel Creek 
 Release date: March 21, 2000
 Label: Sugar Hill Records
 Formats: CD, cassette 13 125 2 — 
 US: Platinum This Side 
 Release date: August 13, 2002
 Label: Sugar Hill Records
 Formats: CD 2 18 1 1 
 US: Gold Why Should the Fire Die? 
 Release date: August 9, 2005
 Label: Sugar Hill Records
 Formats: CD, music download — 17 1 1 "—" denotes releases that did not chart

2010s-2020s
 Title Album details Peak chart positions US USGrass USFolk A Dotted Line 
 Release date: April 1, 2014
 Label: Nonesuch
 Formats: CD, music download 7 1 1 Celebrants Release date: March 24, 2023
 Label: Thirty Tigers 196 1 7

Punch Brothers
 2008: Punch
 2010: Antifogmatic
 2012: Who's Feeling Young Now?
 2012: Ahoy! [EP]
 2015: The Phosphorescent Blues
 2015: The Wireless [EP]
 2018: All Ashore
 2022: Hell on Church Street

Mutual Admiration Society
 2004 Mutual Admiration Society (Nickel Creek and Glen Phillips)

References

Other websites
 www.christhile.com
 Nickel Creek's website
 Punch Brothers Unofficial Fansite 
 How to Grow A Woman from the Ground Review on JamBase.com
 Chris Thile Interview and Feature Article 
 10 Questions For Chris Thile Interview

Category:1981 births
Category:Living people
Category:Musicians from California
Category:Singers from California
Category:People from Oceanside, California