Noam Pikelny Makes Banjo Hip

NOAM PIKELNY

Beat the Devil and Carry a Rail

Compass 4565

* * * *

I highly recommend Noam Pikelny’s latest solo banjo release. Yes, I know that most people associate banjo with the theme music for The Beverly Hillbillies, but trust me when I say that it’s been decades since that style of playing has been dominant. But you don’t have to take me at my word about Noam Pikelny. His band The Punch Brothers is one of the hottest acts in bluegrass music and Pikelny won the 2011 Steve Martin Prize for Excellence in Banjo and Bluegrass. Pikelny has shared stages with Martin, and in case you’ve been asleep, Martin doesn’t wield the banjo as a comedy prop; he’s won a Grammy and an International Bluegrass Music Association award with it.

Martin isn’t the only good company Pikelny keeps. Also assisting on this album are music industry luminaries such as Tim O’Brien, Jerry Douglas (Allison Krauss Band), Aoife O’Donovan (Crooked Still), and Chris Thile (Nickel Creek). Want some old-time music? Check out his duet with Martin on “Cluck Old Hen.” How about some whimsy? Any tune called “My Mother Thinks I’m a Lawyer” will fit the bill, especially when wrapped in an arrangement that’s half bluegrass and half ‘30s-style string band. Desire a barnburner? Listen to Thile make his fingers do double duty to keep up with Pikelny on “Bear Dog Grit.” Looking to taste of something sweet? Pikelny turns down the noise and slows the pace so that O’Donovan can transform the Tom Waits composition “Fish and Bird” into something as delicate as a Kate Rusby offering. Don’t think a banjo album can be hip? Check this out and get back to me.

Here’s Steve Martin talking about banjo playing and being upstaged by Pikelny on The David Letterman Show.