Chris Thile and Michael Daves
Band · Active 2005–present
Progressive Bluegrass
Folk / Americana
Chris Thile and Michael Daves are a mandolin-and-guitar duet collaboration that produced one of the most electrifying bluegrass albums of the 2010s — two virtuosos playing hard-driving traditional material with the kind of speed, precision, and trust that only emerge from years of after-hours picking in the Brooklyn and Manhattan bluegrass scene.
- Chris Thile (b. 1981) was by 2010 a former MacArthur Fellow, Punch Brothers frontman, and Nickel Creek founder — one of the most decorated mandolinists of his generation. Michael Daves (b. 1976) was a Brooklyn-based guitarist widely regarded as the fastest traditional flatpicker on the New York scene, a fixture at the Rockwood Music Hall Monday-night jams.
- Debut album Sleep with One Eye Open (Nonesuch, 2011), produced by Jerry Douglas, recorded in two days entirely live and in analog at Jack White's Third Man Records in Nashville. All material was traditional: Bill Monroe, Stanley Brothers, Jim & Jesse, Louvin Brothers, and gospel songs — nothing written after 1960.
- Features only Thile's mandolin and Daves's guitar with their two-part harmony vocals. No bass, no banjo, no fiddle — a deliberate stripped-down approach that put all the weight on their playing and singing.
- Nominated for the Grammy for Best Bluegrass Album (2012).
- Tracklist includes “Rabbit in a Log,” “Billy in the Lowground,” “Sleep with One Eye Open,” “Bury Me Beneath the Willow,” “Loneliness and Desperation,” and “What'll I Do.”
- The pair have continued to perform together periodically at festivals and special-event shows, and both have appeared on each other's subsequent solo projects. Daves performed regularly on Thile's Live from Here / A Prairie Home Companion radio show in the late 2010s.
- Daves's own solo releases include Orchids & Violence (Nonesuch, 2016, where the album is delivered twice — once as straight bluegrass, once as rock band arrangements) and Laughable & Scarce with Tony Trischka.
- Daves has also performed with Steve Martin, Sting (on If On a Winter's Night), and widely on Manhattan's acoustic-music scene. Taught guitar at the Brooklyn Music School.
- The album remains widely cited as essential listening for contemporary bluegrass, and the Monday-night Rockwood jam scene it emerged from continues as a gathering point for Manhattan pickers.
-
Chris ThilePlayed on recordings with Chris Thile and Michael Daves
-
Michael DavesPlayed on recordings with Chris Thile and Michael Daves
-
Carl BroemelPlayed on recordings with Chris Thile and Michael Daves
-
Dennis CrouchPlayed on recording with Chris Thile and Michael Daves
-
Rob IckesPlayed on recording with Chris Thile and Michael Daves