Chris Thile & Brad Mehldau features original material and interpretations from a wide range of songwriters, including Gillian Welch & David Rawlings, Elliott Smith, Bob Dylan and Joni Mitchell.

Nonesuch Records labelmates mandolinist/singer Chris Thile and pianist Brad Mehldau are two of the most acclaimed current generation musicians in America. Both have (separately) played in Australia in 2016 - Chris with Punch Brothers in August, and Brad in a duo with Joshua Redman as recently as October (Mehldau’s one solo show on the tour, for the Melbourne Festival, saw The Age’s jazz critic Jessica Nicholas hand out a rare 5-star review.)

The pair are longtime admirers of each other’s work. They first toured as a duo in 2013. At the end of 2015, they played a two-night stand at New York City’s Bowery Ballroom before going into the studio to record Chris Thile & Brad Mehldau, a mix of covers and original songs that Nonesuch releases on January 27, 2017.

The two musicians first performed together in September 2011 as part of Mehldau’s residency at London’s Wigmore Hall. The Guardian said of that performance, “Mehldau struck up his signature rocking chord vamp over which lightly struck motifs swell to sensuous extended melodies. Thile kept cajoling him with percussive snaps, flying runs, and chords strummed fast enough to sound as seamless as a purring strings section, inducing Mehldau … to bat back the playful provocation with stinging rejoinders.”

Track listing:

1. The Old Shade Tree (Brad Mehldau & Chris Thile)

2. Tallahassee Junction (Brad Mehldau)

3. Scarlet Town (David Rawlings & Gillian Welch)

4. I Cover the Waterfront (Johnny Green & Edward Heyman)

5. Independence Day (Elliott Smith)

6. Noise Machine (Chris Thile)

7. The Watcher (Brad Mehldau)

8. Daughter of Eve (Chris Thile)

9. Marcie (Joni Mitchell)

10. Don’t Think Twice It’s Alright (Bob Dylan)

11. Tabhair dom do Lámh (Ruaidri Dáll Ó Catháin)