Chris Thile

A virtuoso mandolin player, singer, composer, bandleader, and radio personality, Chris Thile is one of the leading lights of progressive bluegrass. A founding member of Nickel Creek and Punch Brothers, he's been at the forefront of bluegrass, creative folk, and roots music since debuting in the late 1980s. He has also issued an array of acclaimed solo albums, including 2004's Deceiver and 2006's How to Grow a Woman from the Ground. Thile took home Grammy Awards for his work with Nickel Creek (2002's This Side), his genre-bending collaboration with cellist Yo-Yo Ma, bassist Edgar Meyer, and violinist Stuart Duncan (2011's Goat Rodeo Sessions), his duo album with Meyer (2014's Bass & Mandolin), and with Punch Brothers (2018's All Ashore). Between 2016 and 2020, Thile hosted NPR's A Prairie Home Companion (later titled Live from Here), and in 2021, he released his first entirely solo album, Laysongs.