PineCone returns to Carolina Theatre this December for a special collaboration to present the Punch Brothers with Anais Mitchell!
The Punch Brothers continue to defy classification. The genre-bending, virtuosic quintet is on tour in support of their latest full length release, The Phosphorescent Blues, which finds the band blending bluegrass, pop, jazz, and classical music to incredible effect. Plus, on Nov. 20, they will release a new EP, The Wireless, which features five songs that they recorded during the sessions for The Phosphorescent Blues with renowned producer T-Bone Burnett. This concert is part of their Single Microphone Tour, which means that the concert “will be amplified exclusively by one heroic Neumann U-89 (with a little sidekick-style help from a mic clipped on to the bass), because frankly, in nice halls like the ones we’re lucky enough to be visiting this December, the less electricity the better.”
“The genius of Chris Thile and bandmates Paul Kowert, Noam Pikelny, Chris Eldridge and Gabe Witcher is the artistry with which they mix bluegrass, roots, rock, pop, jazz and classical to create a unique, contemporary sound,” says Rolling Stone. Most audiences just say wow, bowled over by the five musicians’ virtuosity (on mandolin, bass, banjo, guitar, and violin respectively) and also by their ability to move seamlessly from one musical idiom to the next. The Phosphorescent Blues addresses the power and the pitfalls of our super-connected era with straight-up poignancy and subversive humor. Digitally fueled isolation may be a theme, but this virtuosic acoustic quintet offers its warmest, most emotive and elegantly melodic work to date. Punch Brothers were also featured on the acclaimed soundtracks for The Hunger Games and Inside Llewyn Davis.
Opening the evening’s show will be Anaïs Mitchell, who is first and foremost a storyteller. As a Vermont-based singer-songwriter, Mitchell recorded for Ani Difranco’s Righteous Babe Records for several years before starting her own Wilderland label in 2012. Among her recorded works are five fulllength albums, including 2010’s sensationally reviewed Hadestown — a folk opera based on the Orpheus myth — and 2012’s Young Man in America, which was described by the UK’s Independent as “an epic tale of American becoming” and for which she received a BBC Radio Two Folk Award nomination for Best Original Song. Mitchell has headlined worldwide as well as supporting tours for Bon Iver, Ani Difranco, The Low Anthem (all of whom appear as guest singers on Hadestown), Richard Thompson, Josh Ritter, and Punch Brothers. Her most recent release, Child Ballads, a collaboration with Jefferson Hamer, is a collection of traditional Celtic and British Isles ballads, and it is nominated for two BBC Radio Two Folk Awards, including Best Album.
