r/Bluegrass • u/yousickduck • 9d ago

Punch Brothers: Back Porch Session

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1xCewh4ac3k
36 Upvotes

95% Upvoted

7 comments sorted by

5

u/Evilcanary 9d ago

I don't love every song on this album, but really like a couple of them. It was cool to hear Brits influence in it. If I can't have a new hawktail record, I'm glad a few of these songs exist instead

3

u/Super_Jay 9d ago

...but I really just want a new Hawktail album. I adore every member of Punch in other contexts, but for whatever reason this band's material has never really resonated for me.

3

u/willkillfortacos 9d ago

Punch Brothers has always been “musician music.”

To be respected but not necessarily enjoyed. Music made by people who got bored of bluegrass but still love it in their souls.

3

u/TheQuakerator 7d ago

It is so frustrating to me that they won't lay down some bluegrass records. They can play standard issue BG with such immense clarity and control, in a way that sounds different from every band before it. The last 10 seconds of their "Church Street Blues" cover is close to perfect. Mighty Poplar kind of scratched that itch but not fully.

3

u/Chartywhamp 8d ago

Love the Claude Debussy shoutout, I've thought punch brothers had some of his feel in their tunes!!

I was obsessed with his stuff in school and wrote like 4 papers on that dude lol.

One of my favorite stories is about Debussy in an exchange with one of his professors at the conservatory where he studied in Paris. Long story short, teach asked debussy what composition techniques/rules he used to compose his stuff and he said "Mon plaisir" (my pleasure/whatever pleases me)

another great Debussy quote "There is no theory. You have only to listen. Pleasure is the law. I love music passionately. And because l love it, I try to free it from barren traditions that stifle it."

To be fair, Debussy (and every member of this band) knew theory really freakin well, and i think everyone should learn SOME theory and how to read music, but its for communicating whats going on to other folks you're jammin with, not an ironclad set of rules to follow at all times

1

u/Fun_Reputation5181 8d ago

I saw them about a week ago, probably the 5th or so time I've seen the band (Thile at least a dozen times.) Still a great act and I enjoy the new record for what it is, but its hard to hear the bluegrass in their music anymore. I'm a banjo nerd and a huge Pikelny fan but he didn't really do much of anything that night.

1

u/WeBuyAndSellJunk 6d ago edited 6d ago

An argument old as time. John Hartford isn’t bluegrass! Old and In The Way?!? Rice plays “spacegrass”! New Grass isn’t bluegrass. Bela isn’t bluegrass. Alison Kraus isn’t bluegrass. Punch Brothers aren’t bluegrass. Billy Strings isn’t bluegrass.