Chris Thile - 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 Amazon.com

The gap needs to be bridged

This album is another success from one of the world's greatest mandolin players. He has chosen an eclectic array of songs to create an album that hits at almost every emotion. The musicianship is inarguably topnotch, which only compliments the song writing and various covers.

As long as I have listened to Nickel Creek I have found only one constant in the musical stylings of Chris Thile... there is no constant. He has dipped into seemingly every genre of music. If it is unwavering clean traditional bluegrass you are looking for, you will likely need to start looking other places than Chris Thile.

To be honest what is most concerning to me is how much controversy one swear word brought to the album. Many who would have given the album 4 or even 5 stars ended up giving it 1 or 2. Somehow it brought up the question of the tightrope musicians are forced to walk between pleasing fans and doing what they wish to do. Musicians know, better than anyone, that they will never please everyone. That aside, I am simply dumbfounded that it caused such an issue. There are 13 other tracks without a swear word, even logistically it is absurd. He wasn't promoting a religious or political ideal. He wasn't spewing hate or anger. He simply covered a Strokes song that says `f***ing'.

If it really is that big of an issue, you must be locked in a cabin, because this country has drastically bigger issues. Focus on what the music does for you. Let it be an escape from the routine and try to be more accepting. There are amazing songs written in almost every style of music, Thile understands this. I think he also understands that swear words are not necessarily malicious. Thile has the ability to bridge the gap between those who love traditional bluegrass, and those who seek more.

One review said "I'll probably never buy another Thile or Nickel Creek CD because of this. Hopefully, using this word was worth it for him". I personally wouldn't even want fans that boycotted me after a single word. Trust me, for every one person that was offended by the word, 50 were not. March 3, 2008

Hey Thile, why the F-bomb?

I wasted my money. I was enjoying this until Thile found it necessary to drop an "F-bomb". One word ruined the entire album for me.
A big fan greatly dissapointed!!!
If clean lyrics are what you're looking for, look elsewhere. February 12, 2008

I really wanted to give it fewer stars

Even with the offensive F-bomb, and a couple songs that are ever so slightly boring... even at the risk of giving a bigger head to a "lost himself in stardom" young star; I simply cannot give this album anything less than 5 stars. I've been listening to quite a few greats like Grisman and Marshall and though they certainly deserve heaps of props, I sincerely believe that Chris is simply the best mandolin player ever. Not only that, he has uncanny prowess for composition and improvisation, the likes of which are virtually unequalled.

Listening to his music, one can tell that Chris grew bored of traditional music boundaries fairly early in his career. His yearning to keep himself interested, combined with the usual follies of youth are clearly manifest in his most recent albums. It is difficult to participate as somebody fumbles around trying to find themselves; and Chris has had no qualms about sharing this tumultuous emotional journey with his listeners. The lyrics of "How to Grow a Woman..." are perhaps more innocuous than those of Deceiver, but still portray a tormented Thile. It is for this reason that I prefer his instrumental tracks. Lyrics aside, however, I must also confess to liking his well architected vocal harmonies.

If you are a top 40s music listener, you may not fully appreciate this music. It is rich and layered, and requires some conditioning; similar to what is necessary to appreciate Jazz or Classical. On the other hand, if you already like Bluegrass, Newgrass, Dawg, Folk, or acoustic music, you will probably like, no, let's say love this album.

If you don't have any Chris Thile albums, I would recommend starting with Not All Who Wander Are Lost. If you like more traditional stuff, head toward his younger albums, which are absolutely amazing coming from a musician at any age.

In the end, the world needs more music of this quality, so how could I possibly discount stars? Chris, kudos; now find yourself and keep the good stuff flowing! October 26, 2007

A Mix of Quality and Mediocrity

To be blunt, I haven't particularly cared for Thile's recent, not-quite-successful synthesis of jazz, bluegrass, folk and alt/indie rock. I was excited to hear that Chris was trying to get back to his roots with this album, but am slightly disappointed with the net results. The reintroduction of the banjo, fiddle and upright bass, as well as the integration of more traditional tempos and melodies establishes that unmistakable bluegrass sound. However, this album lacks the grace and charm of Chris' work previous to the release of "Deciever". In my opinion, the drop in quality since "All Who Wander Are Not Lost" (NAWWAL) is due solely to Chris' new-found penchant for edgy, supposed-to-be deep lyricism. While the musicianship on this album is as good as it gets, and the song-craft is solid, I find that I find myself quickly annoyed with the psuedo-intellectual, self-involved tendencies embodied by the poetry. For whatever reason Chris has become enamored with the trendy "l'esprit" of the alt/indie rock scene, perhaps because it embodies all of the things he wanted to be, but never was, while growing up (i.e. cool, urban, hip, sarcastic, cutting edge, ansgty, controversial, ironic, etc). Personally, I think Chris' genius is confined to instrumentalism and song-craft. I enjoyed his forrays into jazz and classical musicianship on NAWWAL and believe that this is where he shines (by the way, The Beekeeper is my favorite song on this album). Vocally he has evolved a brash and confrontational style which comes off as grating to my sensabilities, and as a lyricist he has consistently disappointed me with an immaturity of content (though, apparently he has not disappointed others). To be fair, this work is five steps in the right direction since the release of "Deciever". While I am not overly impressed with this effort, I do recognize that many other people (including Chris) seem find it suitable enough. Like I said, its not really my cup of tea, but it will be interesting to see what Chris has in store for the future. September 13, 2007

Chris Thile and HOW TO LOSE A CROWD

Chris Thile and HOW TO LOSE A CROWD!!! Oh my....somehow, one of the best mandolin players to walk this earth puts everyone to sleep again and again. I've seen him 3 times with this band. The crowd starts gathering their chairs and leaving. People are yelling to speed it up and heignores. Why is always the closing band...I have no idea.
I'm bored thinking about it..... June 11, 2007

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