Leading Off cover

Leading Off

Chris Thile

Album · 1994 · Sugar Hill SH-CD 3828

Leading Off (Sugar Hill SH-CD 3828) is Chris Thile’s first solo album, released in 1994 when he was thirteen. He had played mandolin since he was five, fiddle since eight and guitar since nine. Pete Wernick, the banjo player of Hot Rize, produced the record and plays banjo on several tracks.

Eight of the thirteen tracks are Thile originals or co-writes, among them “Shadow Ridge,” “Slime Rock” and “Trail’s End.” The rest are the traditional “Panhandle Rag” and “Salt Creek,” a medley of old favorites, Bill Monroe’s “Old Dangerfield” and the hymn “How Great Thou Art.” Thile plays mandolin throughout, with fiddle and guitar on “Holdin’ Down the Fort.” The guests include Stuart Duncan and Byron Berline on fiddle, Scott Nygaard on guitar, Dennis Caplinger on banjo, John Moore on guitar and harmony mandolin, Scott Thile on bass, and Sean Watkins, who plays mandolin on the duet “For All It’s Worth,” which he wrote with Thile.

Thile was a member of Nickel Creek from 1989 to 2007, formed Punch Brothers in 2006, and received a MacArthur Fellowship in 2012.

Tracklist

  1. 1 Shadow Ridge 2:45
  2. 2 Slime Rock 4:54
  3. 3 Holdin' Down The Fort 3:01
  4. 4 Faith River 3:25
  5. 5 Panhandle Rag Source Recording Leon McAuliffe · key D · 102 bpm 3:18
  6. 6 For All It's Worth 2:04
  7. 7 Shipwrecked 2:36
  8. 8 Trail's End 3:38
  9. 9 Salt Creek alt version 3:48
  10. 10 Old Dangerfield Source Recording Bill Monroe · key A · 128 bpm 3:41
  11. 11 Old Favorite's Medley 4:21
  12. 12 Chris Cross 3:34
  13. 13 How Great Thou Art alt version 3:12

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