Chris Thile is coming back to Murray, Kentucky. The former Murray State student will be performing in Lovett Auditorium at the University on Oct. 29. For those of you who don't know, this is kind of a really big deal. To get a better understanding, let me give you a little background on Chris Thile and his journey in music up to this point:
Christopher Scott Thile was born on Feb. 20, 1981 in Oceanside, Calif. Thile is a mandolinist, singer, and songwriter and is best known for his work with the acoustic trio Nickel Creek and the progressive folk and bluegrass quintet Punch Brothers. Chris Thile is much more well rounded, however. He's a master in multiple styles outside of folk and bluegrass, including both jazz and classical music. Thile also plays a wide variety of instruments to accommodate his various styles of musicianship such as: banjo, guitar, drums, sitar, piano, every instrument in a string quarter, and bouzouki, for those of you who even know what that is.
Thile began playing the mandolin at the age of five, taking occasional lessons here and there. When the musician was eight years old, he formed the group Nickel Creek. The band performed at many bluegrass festivals throughout California, which ultimately resulted in the need for Chris to be home-schooled. At age 12, Thile traveled across the country to Winfield, Kansas, and competed in the national mandolin championship...and won! In that same year (1993), Chris Thile landed a deal with the record label Sugar Hill. The rest was history.
The Thile family moved all the way from California to Murray, Kentucky in 1995 when Chris's father, Scott Thile, landed a job at Murray State University as a musical instrument technician (Scott Thile still works at the University, and is an awesome guy— so go say hi to the man!) Thile produced a few more records throughout the course of the next decade, and in 2006, the band Nickel Creek said they were going to take a break from recording music. This didn't stop Thile, however. In the fall of 2007, the new group, Punch Brothers, surfaced and proved to be one of the leading bluegrass groups in the world.
Luckily for music fans across the globe, Punch Brothers are still in full force and the comeback of Nickel Creek is upon us. This past summer, I had the pleasure of standing first row for Punch Brothers' performance at the Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival. I can say first hand that Thile's concert in October is one you will not want to miss.
Tickets for the concert are on sale now, so pick yours up while you still can! There's no telling all the genres Chris Thile may pull out of his repertoire, so now that you have a brief understanding of the history behind his music, I encourage you to do yourself a favor and check him out. This multiple Grammy Award winner is coming back to give back to one of the places that developed him into the musician he is today, and I cannot wait to be a part of it.