Chris Thile closed the book on The 65th Street Sessions concert series on Thursday with help from guitarist Billy Strings and keyboardist Cory Henry. The show at the Wu Tsai Theater at David Geffen Hall, situated in Lincoln Center just off 65th Street, marked the final installment of the Nickel Creek composer, singer, and mandolin genius‘ collaborative performance series.
One of the hallmarks of The 65th Street Sessions is the program’s emphasis on cooperation and experimentation from outside an artist’s normal purview. Previous sessions have paired up funk guitarist Cory Wong, Late Show bandleader Louis Cato, and singer-songwriter/rapper/bassist Meshell Ndegeocello, and another with wunderkind Jacob Collier, singer-songwriter Madison Cunningham, and members of the New York Philharmonic, all with Thile at the helm. This last installment of the series epitomized that commitment to cross-pollination by pairing bluegrass torchbearers Thile and Strings with jazz organist Cory Henry.
The evening was broken up with regular stage changeovers, beginning with a few solo songs by Thile. Henry then followed with a 30-minute performance of his own, with Thile eventually joining. The pinnacle of the evening came when Billy and Thile paired up for an hour-plus exploration of bluegrass classics from the likes of Bill Monroe, Doc Watson, and The Stanley Brothers. The show then ended after Thile, Strings, and Henry came together as a trio for a final half-hour of music that gave new life to age-honored string music classics and beyond.
Related: Billy Strings & Chris Thile To Perform On ‘CBS Saturday Morning’ Saturday Sessions Series
In a similar vein to how banjo master Béla Fleck shows the versatility of his instrument in styles from throughout popular culture and around the world, Thile adapts his mandolin to any given situation. Of course, Thursday’s show was heavily rooted in bluegrass, but he also used his strings to somehow add even more soul to Henry’s rendition of Marvin Gaye‘s “Inner City Blues”.
Then there was his interplay with Strings—the heavyweight matchup of the evening—which pushed the lauded guitarist past places his rock-infused live playing can seldom reach. Thile’s bold improvisational experiments at times had far more to do with Dizzy Galespie than Doc Watson. Plus, they were all out there having fun together. At one point in the performance, Henry took off a shoe so he could work his pedal, so in the interest of band unity Thile and Strings each removed a shoe and hopped around in a sock for the tail end of the show—sock-hopping through the finale of “I’ll Fly Away”, made famous in O Brother, Where Art Thou?
Though The 65th Street Sessions are gone now, the program’s spirit of collaboration lives on through these players, anyone who ever graced its stage, and those who witnessed these once-in-a-lifetime musical combinations. Check out a selection of fan-shot videos from Chris Thile, Billy Strings, and Cory Henry below courtesy of Matt Frazier, with a full trove available on his YouTube channel. Thile and Strings will continue their collaborative relationship on Saturday with an appearance on CBS Saturday Morning‘s Saturday Session series. Find out more here.
Chris Thile – “God Is Alive, Magic Is Afoot” (Buffy Sainte-Marie/Leonard Cohen) – 2/1/24
The post Billy Strings, Chris Thile, Cory Henry Send Off ‘The 65th Street Sessions’ With Bluegrass & Beyond [Videos] appeared first on L4LM.
