Bonus Episode w Noam Pikelny

In episode 26 we went deep on the banjo. I asked three leading contemporary players how they’d fallen for their instrument and what they thought about the state of the banjo in 2017. There is a LOT we did not and could not cover, including the African American origins of the banjo and its multi century journey through many genres of music. But there are great resources out there on that subject including the Earl Scruggs Center in Shelby NC and the American Banjo Museum in Oklahoma city. We were talking largely about bluegrass and its modern manifestations. And so I was intent on sitting down with Noam Pikelny, banjo player for the Punch Brothers and recipient of the first Steve Martin Prize for Excellence in banjo and bluegrass in 2010. That conversation was fantastic and it went on way too long to fit into the hour long episode. So here’s the rest of the interview. We talk about the development of the Punch Brothers project and the influence of that band’s instigator, mandolinist and musical master Chris Thile. We also get into a much deeper conversation about Noam’s new album Universal Favorite, featuring solo banjo instrumentals.