WEBVTT - Chris Thile 0:00:00.240 --> 0:00:02.960 Hey, I'm Norah Jones and today I'm playing along with 0:00:03.120 --> 0:00:03.720 Chris Thiely. 0:00:04.440 --> 0:00:15.960 I'm just playing alone with I'm just playing alone with. 0:00:20.600 --> 0:00:23.119 Hey, Welcome to the show. I'm Norah and with me 0:00:23.200 --> 0:00:28.120 as always is Oda. Hello, Sarah, Oda am today's show, 0:00:28.120 --> 0:00:28.960 we have Chris Thely. 0:00:29.480 --> 0:00:33.240 He is I think he's a genius. I was gonna 0:00:33.240 --> 0:00:36.280 say he's a bit of a whiz. He is amazing. 0:00:36.440 --> 0:00:41.520 He's an old friend and brilliant mandolin player, musician. 0:00:41.479 --> 0:00:43.760 And he's been playing music since he was just a 0:00:43.840 --> 0:00:45.640 wee wee child. 0:00:45.920 --> 0:00:46.720 Yeah. Five. 0:00:47.000 --> 0:00:47.240 Yeah. 0:00:47.320 --> 0:00:50.680 He came on the scene a long time ago with 0:00:50.760 --> 0:00:53.040 his band Nickel Creek, which sort of took the bluegrass 0:00:53.080 --> 0:00:56.840 scene by storm. But and he's had this incredible solo career. 0:00:57.680 --> 0:01:01.880 He took over for Garrison Keeler's Prayer Companion. They renamed 0:01:01.880 --> 0:01:04.360 it Live from Here, and it was a brilliant takeover 0:01:04.440 --> 0:01:06.080 of a show and he really found his own way 0:01:06.080 --> 0:01:09.920 with it. He has played with every brilliant musician I 0:01:09.920 --> 0:01:10.680 can think of. 0:01:11.280 --> 0:01:13.319 Yeah, I feel like he's known as just one of 0:01:13.360 --> 0:01:16.400 the great greatest bluegrass players out there. 0:01:16.440 --> 0:01:20.360 But he's also so versatile. He can play, he can 0:01:20.400 --> 0:01:23.280 do so much more. Yeah, so much more. I don't 0:01:23.319 --> 0:01:28.080 like genreing people. Really. I mean, I'm just gonna say it. 0:01:28.319 --> 0:01:29.560 He's a genre buster. 0:01:29.959 --> 0:01:31.080 It's not genre. 0:01:30.800 --> 0:01:36.120 Him, sorry, but I feel like he really floats through everything. 0:01:36.200 --> 0:01:39.640 He definitely does. He's a mold breaker. Yeah, he's incredible. 0:01:39.760 --> 0:01:42.840 And he's also, like what. 0:01:42.880 --> 0:01:43.640 A nice guy? 0:01:44.160 --> 0:01:47.680 Yeah, and a smooth speaker. I feel like he's just 0:01:47.840 --> 0:01:52.200 very well spoken. Yeah, he told some great stories. 0:01:52.240 --> 0:01:54.920 We had so much fun talking and I could have 0:01:54.960 --> 0:01:57.200 just talked to him for hours and played music with him. 0:01:57.400 --> 0:01:59.760 The fun thing about this show today is all these 0:01:59.760 --> 0:02:03.720 shows are different. Everyone has their own level of suggested 0:02:03.960 --> 0:02:07.600 songs from me, and then they throw songs back at 0:02:07.640 --> 0:02:11.440 me and suggest other songs. I usually try to stick 0:02:11.480 --> 0:02:14.640 to their catalog, but Chris suggested all these random covers 0:02:14.639 --> 0:02:17.400 that we do. So this is a kind of a 0:02:17.440 --> 0:02:19.799 fun one where we're just sort of jumping into songs 0:02:19.840 --> 0:02:23.240 together for the first time and wild cards. Yeah, and 0:02:23.320 --> 0:02:25.680 also we do some songs from his catalog as well though, 0:02:25.919 --> 0:02:28.280 And so we're going to drop in on the Chris 0:02:28.320 --> 0:02:31.840 Theely episode. I hope you enjoy it. We're gonna start 0:02:31.840 --> 0:02:35.000 this episode with a song from his solo album called 0:02:35.200 --> 0:02:38.440 Lay songs. This is a Hazel Dickens song. Please enjoy 0:02:38.639 --> 0:02:39.280 Chris Thiely. 0:02:56.160 --> 0:03:01.960 I feel shodos ah upon me. 0:03:03.440 --> 0:03:09.160 And the juice back and to me. 0:03:12.160 --> 0:03:18.200 Before gold de sisters and brothers. 0:03:19.240 --> 0:03:24.400 Won't she come and sing for me? 0:03:28.080 --> 0:03:37.880 Sing we sang together in that plain little church with 0:03:38.240 --> 0:03:40.120 the bench. 0:03:39.520 --> 0:03:40.720 She all one? 0:03:43.600 --> 0:03:46.160 How did to my heart? 0:03:47.240 --> 0:03:55.000 How precious the moments we stood shake in hands. 0:03:54.520 --> 0:04:19.919 And sing in a song that birding is heavy? My 0:04:20.120 --> 0:04:32.960 way has gone, baby, I must travelorld that is long, and. 0:04:34.400 --> 0:04:42.640 What one sold hard? My dear brother, did you call 0:04:43.640 --> 0:04:46.279 and sing me on song? 0:04:49.760 --> 0:04:56.719 Say those same sweet said together in that. 0:04:57.040 --> 0:05:03.080 Plain little church where at the bend she's all boy. 0:05:05.920 --> 0:05:07.680 Helping to my. 0:05:09.640 --> 0:05:18.600 Heart? Bursious the moments we stood shaking hands and sing 0:05:18.720 --> 0:05:20.240 in a song. 0:05:58.720 --> 0:06:08.840 My home beyond that dark river, yours sweet faces, no 0:06:09.080 --> 0:06:15.520 more I will see. 0:06:14.560 --> 0:06:21.160 Unto winy weather. There's no more sad parting. 0:06:22.800 --> 0:06:36.200 Wants you come and sing for me? Sing those hymns we. 0:06:36.640 --> 0:06:45.760 Sad together in that plain little church with the benches 0:06:46.000 --> 0:06:56.640 all one. How dear to my heart, how precious the 0:06:56.839 --> 0:07:00.719 moment we stood and. 0:07:03.400 --> 0:07:06.080 Same song? 0:07:10.640 --> 0:07:15.000 I love that song? That was so fun We didn't 0:07:15.000 --> 0:07:20.280 even try it first. It's so funny. I'm like, I'm 0:07:20.280 --> 0:07:22.280 so excited to sing with you and to do this. 0:07:22.360 --> 0:07:24.440 But as soon as it was so naked, you know, 0:07:24.440 --> 0:07:25.840 in the beginning, and as soon as time for me 0:07:25.840 --> 0:07:30.560 to come in, I was like. 0:07:28.800 --> 0:07:29.760 I don't know how to say. 0:07:29.960 --> 0:07:33.200 There's actually there's a weird amount of space when it's 0:07:33.240 --> 0:07:34.320 just mandolin and voice. 0:07:34.400 --> 0:07:35.160 Yeah, I love it. 0:07:35.880 --> 0:07:38.880 A lot of space so that any choice you make 0:07:38.960 --> 0:07:40.440 feels like a big choice. 0:07:40.840 --> 0:07:42.840 Yeah. I love how naked it is. 0:07:42.880 --> 0:07:45.200 And this album is this song is from the album 0:07:45.240 --> 0:07:47.200 you made in a church, right. 0:07:47.120 --> 0:07:52.360 Yeah, in Hudson during during the pandemia the great what 0:07:52.560 --> 0:07:54.880 have you persists. 0:07:54.440 --> 0:07:57.840 So upstate you were in this church, yeah, with an engineer. 0:07:58.360 --> 0:08:01.360 Yeah, just just just the engineer and me and we 0:08:01.400 --> 0:08:04.160 would you know, we would test and and then go 0:08:04.320 --> 0:08:11.560 into the go into this church and and play that 0:08:11.560 --> 0:08:12.360 that kind of thing. 0:08:12.400 --> 0:08:12.720 I was. 0:08:13.720 --> 0:08:18.120 I was, uh, you know, staying up late thinking about 0:08:18.120 --> 0:08:20.679 all this kind of stuff, especially during the early stages 0:08:20.720 --> 0:08:24.480 of all of this, you know, kind of deprived of 0:08:24.520 --> 0:08:30.440 my my church, which is playing shows, and you know, 0:08:30.440 --> 0:08:32.200 playing music with me like what we just did that 0:08:32.240 --> 0:08:36.800 feels feels really spiritual to me. Yeah, ual, And and 0:08:36.840 --> 0:08:40.920 again like an opportunity to kind of sort of hold 0:08:40.920 --> 0:08:43.840 your heart out and and say here's some stuff I'm feeling, 0:08:43.880 --> 0:08:46.520 and how do you how are you feeling? How do 0:08:46.559 --> 0:08:50.440 we feel about it together? Not getting to do that 0:08:50.720 --> 0:08:54.800 for the first time since I started making music, you know, 0:08:54.840 --> 0:08:59.959 it was crazy. It was felt crazy. And but I'm 0:09:00.040 --> 0:09:00.880 assuming for you too. 0:09:00.960 --> 0:09:01.160 Yeah. 0:09:01.960 --> 0:09:04.400 Yeah, but as you know, with young kids, it was 0:09:04.480 --> 0:09:07.280 it was a nice distraction, even though it was not 0:09:07.400 --> 0:09:11.160 easy having them, it was it was it wasn't just 0:09:11.200 --> 0:09:13.760 sitting there without anyone, you know. 0:09:13.840 --> 0:09:14.360 Right right. 0:09:14.520 --> 0:09:17.880 Yeah, And I feel like call and I probably got 0:09:17.920 --> 0:09:22.600 to forge something that we might not have naturally gotten 0:09:22.600 --> 0:09:24.760 to forge otherwise, like my life the way. 0:09:24.640 --> 0:09:25.360 It normally is. 0:09:25.480 --> 0:09:27.800 Yeah, because you're gone a lot, gone a lot. But 0:09:27.880 --> 0:09:30.160 they were a good age. I think our kids to 0:09:30.320 --> 0:09:32.840 be home with us, you know, as good as you 0:09:32.880 --> 0:09:33.160 can be. 0:09:33.320 --> 0:09:34.400 I don't know totally. 0:09:34.600 --> 0:09:37.040 It was hard for everyone, but I feel like that 0:09:37.080 --> 0:09:38.439 was that's a nice age to. 0:09:38.400 --> 0:09:42.960 Have that experience with him. Probably. So back to the church. 0:09:43.120 --> 0:09:46.000 Back to the church, I'm pretty fascinated by people who 0:09:46.000 --> 0:09:51.280 grew up in church also, and there's many different types 0:09:51.320 --> 0:09:55.840 of that. And so in your church growing up the 0:09:55.880 --> 0:10:01.319 fire home and Brimstone. Yes, yes, So did you play 0:10:01.360 --> 0:10:04.360 in church? Was there a lot of music in the church. 0:10:04.360 --> 0:10:09.360 Yeah, yeah, there was, and and ours though that that 0:10:09.520 --> 0:10:14.640 church was very much the Christian contemporary thing. It was 0:10:14.679 --> 0:10:18.360 basically pop music with with Jesus lyrics. 0:10:18.559 --> 0:10:22.920 Okay, so not not not what you came to do. 0:10:22.920 --> 0:10:25.680 No, not what not not what we just did or 0:10:25.920 --> 0:10:28.720 or and also not the thing that really lights me 0:10:28.800 --> 0:10:32.520 up like these old you know when you when when 0:10:32.520 --> 0:10:34.240 I was going to that Episcopal church at the top 0:10:34.240 --> 0:10:37.120 of nob Hill in San Francisco, Like the music is good, 0:10:37.720 --> 0:10:39.680 really really good, like some of the best that human 0:10:39.720 --> 0:10:43.520 beings have ever made. You know, you you you sing 0:10:44.760 --> 0:10:45.839 Corrals the box. 0:10:45.559 --> 0:10:47.559 Set, you know that's so beautiful. 0:10:47.679 --> 0:10:50.480 Yeah, with a with an incredible organ and a beautiful 0:10:50.559 --> 0:10:54.000 choir and and then everyone singing along and you know, 0:10:54.040 --> 0:10:55.040 you've got the hymnal. 0:10:54.760 --> 0:10:55.840 That has the parts. 0:10:55.960 --> 0:10:58.200 Yea, the hymnals with all the parts that used to 0:10:58.240 --> 0:10:59.040 fascinate me as. 0:10:59.120 --> 0:10:59.840 Some people grabbing. 0:11:00.240 --> 0:11:02.960 And actually the first church when my parents so my 0:11:03.040 --> 0:11:06.840 parents were actually not religious at all and then converted 0:11:06.880 --> 0:11:07.520 when I was eight. 0:11:08.080 --> 0:11:10.720 Wow, so you didn't grow up until you were eight 0:11:11.040 --> 0:11:11.560 in church? 0:11:11.720 --> 0:11:12.880 Yeah, and then it went. 0:11:12.760 --> 0:11:14.719 Intense, and then they went, Yeah, so they were you 0:11:14.800 --> 0:11:19.680 know the yeah, hell have no fury like the like 0:11:19.720 --> 0:11:21.000 they're recently converted. 0:11:21.120 --> 0:11:22.120 That's pretty intense. 0:11:22.600 --> 0:11:24.640 Yeah, they were to go from zero to one hundred, 0:11:25.120 --> 0:11:29.120 zero to one hundred, and so they Yeah, they kind 0:11:29.120 --> 0:11:33.280 of just kept graduating to more and more intense versions 0:11:33.280 --> 0:11:38.000 of Christianity. Wow, until and I think it actually played 0:11:38.040 --> 0:11:40.079 a part in us leaving southern California and moving to 0:11:40.600 --> 0:11:44.640 a Murray, Kentucky. I think that getting into sort of 0:11:44.679 --> 0:11:48.199 the heart of the Bible Belt was part of I mean, 0:11:48.360 --> 0:11:51.920 they also anticipated that I would move to Nashville when 0:11:51.920 --> 0:11:54.120 I left the home. They didn't want the family nucleus. 0:11:53.720 --> 0:11:55.640 To oh, so they moved there later when you were 0:11:55.720 --> 0:11:58.000 already I was fourteen, You were. 0:11:57.920 --> 0:12:01.800 Already okay, wait, you were already to then, right, playing 0:12:01.840 --> 0:12:04.920 shows during the summer, usually with Nickel Creek. Yeah, exactly. 0:12:05.000 --> 0:12:07.800 Nickel Creek started when I was eight, okay, actually the 0:12:07.840 --> 0:12:09.040 same time conversion. 0:12:09.240 --> 0:12:11.400 Okay, but this is so confusing to me. 0:12:11.480 --> 0:12:15.400 Wait a second, So you converted to church, you started, 0:12:15.600 --> 0:12:18.440 but when did you start playing mandolin? I was five, Okay, 0:12:18.480 --> 0:12:20.800 so that that really had nothing to do with church. 0:12:20.760 --> 0:12:22.080 No, for you Okay, I know. 0:12:22.240 --> 0:12:26.240 Yeah, the the that was just this pizza place in 0:12:26.440 --> 0:12:28.880 southern California called that Pizza place had live blue grass 0:12:28.920 --> 0:12:29.719 every Saturday night. 0:12:29.880 --> 0:12:31.520 How random? So random? 0:12:32.080 --> 0:12:37.240 And although bluegrass and pizza places that that's like pizza 0:12:37.280 --> 0:12:40.080 places having a blue grass night is kind of a thing. 0:12:40.200 --> 0:12:46.960 It is. I guess it's more Irish bar. 0:12:47.880 --> 0:12:51.720 Did you ever go to the uh the village had 0:12:51.760 --> 0:12:53.560 that great bluegrass night forever the bagging in. 0:12:53.800 --> 0:12:56.960 Yeah, presided over by sheriff Uncle Bob. I never went, 0:12:57.040 --> 0:12:57.800 but I heard about it. 0:12:57.800 --> 0:12:59.640 Oh my god, it was so good. I wonder if 0:12:59.640 --> 0:13:01.440 you still doing it. I haven't, I haven't been for 0:13:01.480 --> 0:13:04.520 a long time. But that was a great bluegrass night, 0:13:04.679 --> 0:13:06.840 not at a pizza place. Sadly, maybe the only thing 0:13:06.960 --> 0:13:17.040 preventing it from. 0:13:12.320 --> 0:13:15.200 So you started playing mandolin, from going to the bluegrass 0:13:15.320 --> 0:13:16.120 at the pizza place. 0:13:16.480 --> 0:13:19.920 Yeah, and then and yeah, and then mom and dad 0:13:20.040 --> 0:13:25.000 got I think they just got really scared about having 0:13:25.320 --> 0:13:30.360 kids and not having answers about things. They were raised 0:13:30.800 --> 0:13:33.280 more or less without organized religion. 0:13:34.679 --> 0:13:35.199 I feel like. 0:13:35.160 --> 0:13:38.160 That's rare for the past generations. 0:13:38.280 --> 0:13:41.880 Yeah, yeah, I think there was so On dad's side, 0:13:42.200 --> 0:13:44.559 there was. His dad was. 0:13:44.520 --> 0:13:48.440 A total atheist. And then his mom was sort of 0:13:48.960 --> 0:13:52.280 new a new ager, like an early new Ager, and 0:13:52.360 --> 0:13:58.600 she was a metaphysical therapist, and yeah, she was amazing everywhere. 0:13:58.800 --> 0:14:01.920 I wish everyone could meet my grand Barbara makes you 0:14:01.960 --> 0:14:05.120 rest in peace. But then on my mom's side, I 0:14:05.120 --> 0:14:07.839 think just kind of not really atheists, but just sort 0:14:07.880 --> 0:14:10.880 of not practicing anything, and then got into a little 0:14:10.880 --> 0:14:14.520 new agey ness later on her dad's side. 0:14:15.000 --> 0:14:15.280 Wow. 0:14:16.400 --> 0:14:19.560 And so I think they had us and got really 0:14:19.600 --> 0:14:22.640 really scared. I think they felt that they had been 0:14:23.120 --> 0:14:26.600 as I mean, we all are messed up by our 0:14:26.640 --> 0:14:29.400 parents in various ways, and also you know, kind of 0:14:29.600 --> 0:14:31.680 saved from the world by our parents in various ways. 0:14:31.680 --> 0:14:34.320 Like there, it's just a it's a cocktail all the time, 0:14:34.360 --> 0:14:39.640 I feel like, of positive and negative impact. But I 0:14:39.720 --> 0:14:41.920 think they just got so scared that they didn't have 0:14:42.000 --> 0:14:46.120 any kind of answers, and fundamentalist Christianity provided a bunch 0:14:46.160 --> 0:14:48.160 of answers like you could do this, here's what you do, 0:14:48.240 --> 0:14:49.960 and here's what you don't do, and as long as 0:14:49.960 --> 0:14:51.480 you do those things, everything's gonna be fine. 0:14:51.640 --> 0:14:53.760 I would have never thought of that as being a 0:14:53.800 --> 0:14:57.520 recent a turn to religion, but totally is It makes 0:14:57.560 --> 0:14:58.160 a lot of sense. 0:14:58.320 --> 0:15:03.840 I certainly, having you know, a kid myself now can 0:15:04.320 --> 0:15:06.800 see the appeal in a way that I maybe went 0:15:06.800 --> 0:15:10.680 through a long period of my mid twenties and thirties 0:15:10.800 --> 0:15:12.359 not really seeing the appeeling. 0:15:12.000 --> 0:15:13.720 Trying without it. Yeah, I know what you mean. 0:15:13.760 --> 0:15:17.240 I feel like the sense of community, like in socialization, 0:15:17.440 --> 0:15:21.000 is something I would enjoy now having kids, whereas in 0:15:21.040 --> 0:15:23.920 my late twenties and thirties, I just wanted to go 0:15:23.960 --> 0:15:28.200 and have blinders on and just anonymously and yeah, now 0:15:28.240 --> 0:15:31.040 I have to meet everybody in the congregation, you know. 0:15:31.360 --> 0:15:33.040 Yeah. And for me, I was more. 0:15:34.800 --> 0:15:38.920 Self absorbed to not really looking for a disavowal of self, 0:15:38.960 --> 0:15:42.840 you know, looking more for the affirmation of self at 0:15:42.880 --> 0:15:43.480 that time. 0:15:45.160 --> 0:15:49.560 You know, for worse and for worse. It's all a journey. 0:15:49.680 --> 0:15:51.680 It's just a journey. It's all good. 0:15:51.680 --> 0:15:53.200 And here we are, Here we are. 0:15:53.480 --> 0:15:56.720 Wait, so when did you start touring with Nickel Creek. 0:15:56.800 --> 0:15:59.920 Then we started, well, we started really touring. 0:16:01.680 --> 0:16:07.600 When I was eighteen, but we were like summer festival warriors. 0:16:07.240 --> 0:16:10.000 Yeah, for like throughout high school. 0:16:10.080 --> 0:16:12.760 Yeah, yeah, lots of lots of summer festivals and things. 0:16:12.800 --> 0:16:16.040 And dad Dad played bass, with Nickel Creek. Then okay, 0:16:16.200 --> 0:16:17.760 so Sean and Sarah, but brother and sister. 0:16:17.880 --> 0:16:18.560 That's amazing. 0:16:18.600 --> 0:16:21.960 And then it was my me and my dad and 0:16:22.600 --> 0:16:24.800 that must have been fun. Oh, it was, It was great. 0:16:24.840 --> 0:16:25.320 It was great. 0:16:25.320 --> 0:16:28.360 And also I think actually that dynamic prevented me from 0:16:28.560 --> 0:16:32.480 from ever really rebelling from the fundamentals Christianity. 0:16:33.520 --> 0:16:35.000 That and by the way, now mom and. 0:16:35.000 --> 0:16:40.200 Dad are super moderate on all that stuff, and like 0:16:40.240 --> 0:16:45.040 actually very very they're they're good lefties. 0:16:45.080 --> 0:16:47.560 They're like the most liberal people in all of Kentucky, 0:16:47.600 --> 0:16:47.920 I think. 0:16:48.160 --> 0:16:49.080 And they're still in Kentucky. 0:16:49.120 --> 0:16:52.880 They're still in Kentucky church now, they still go to church, 0:16:52.920 --> 0:16:55.680 but now it's a very different vibe. 0:16:55.880 --> 0:16:58.200 They go to a different church than they moved to Kentucky. 0:16:58.280 --> 0:16:58.600 Yeah. 0:16:58.840 --> 0:17:03.240 Yeah, well the that the hell Fire and Brimstone Church 0:17:03.440 --> 0:17:04.879 was in Kentucky, but then they moved. 0:17:04.880 --> 0:17:09.320 They they I think so much credit to them. 0:17:09.359 --> 0:17:12.040 They kept their ears open the whole time, like even 0:17:12.080 --> 0:17:14.320 as fascinating that. 0:17:14.160 --> 0:17:16.480 They are amazing, they're amazing people. 0:17:16.560 --> 0:17:19.280 Do you talk about religion with them now? About like 0:17:19.680 --> 0:17:22.760 where you guys, you talk about the past? Yeah, every 0:17:22.960 --> 0:17:25.080 where they took you and everything. 0:17:24.720 --> 0:17:27.840 And there was there was this there was this period 0:17:27.840 --> 0:17:31.280 I feel like in my mid twenties, as my middle 0:17:31.280 --> 0:17:33.200 brother and I kind of went off into the world 0:17:33.280 --> 0:17:39.320 and would come back for holidays, you know, with sort 0:17:39.359 --> 0:17:42.600 of news news from the wide wide world. And I 0:17:42.640 --> 0:17:47.320 remember coming back home, I had I had my barber 0:17:47.359 --> 0:17:49.639 across the street from my apartment in the East Village 0:17:50.680 --> 0:17:55.639 at will from Whistle who is gay and has a 0:17:55.720 --> 0:18:00.160 kid with his with his husband, and I remember were 0:18:00.200 --> 0:18:03.960 sitting there in the barber chair like hearing this, hearing 0:18:04.080 --> 0:18:07.800 him talk about his little boy and his husband and 0:18:07.800 --> 0:18:11.320 and just bouncing that against everything that I had been 0:18:11.400 --> 0:18:13.520 raised with, going like there's nothing. 0:18:13.600 --> 0:18:15.360 Why is this a problem? 0:18:15.600 --> 0:18:19.320 Yeah, Like this seems he loves this kid that hurt, 0:18:19.480 --> 0:18:21.960 and he loves his husband, and he and his husband 0:18:22.000 --> 0:18:23.240 seem like great parents. 0:18:23.240 --> 0:18:24.400 Like he's showing me the pictures. 0:18:24.400 --> 0:18:27.800 It's all just like all the family units I was 0:18:27.880 --> 0:18:29.720 raised there at Like it's the same. 0:18:30.680 --> 0:18:35.560 So why why does my religion condemn this man to hell? 0:18:35.880 --> 0:18:37.920 The wheels were like really turning. 0:18:38.160 --> 0:18:41.199 Yeah, they were really just sitting there talking to people 0:18:42.400 --> 0:18:45.639 about their their lives. And that's the friction. That kind 0:18:45.680 --> 0:18:48.800 of friction is what I feel like I'm missing in 0:18:48.880 --> 0:18:54.760 my in my current life like that everyone, So that 0:18:54.760 --> 0:18:58.679 that friction like with me sort of teetering on the 0:18:59.720 --> 0:19:05.159 you know, still carrying some fundamentalist Christian baggage with me, 0:19:05.800 --> 0:19:07.320 but kind of teetering on the edge. I was in 0:19:07.359 --> 0:19:09.560 all of these conversations with people who felt different ways 0:19:09.600 --> 0:19:13.360 about things than I at least had felt, and that 0:19:13.480 --> 0:19:14.480 kind of friction. 0:19:16.359 --> 0:19:17.879 Helped me grow so much. 0:19:18.400 --> 0:19:22.000 And like, could I take that kind of friction now, 0:19:23.040 --> 0:19:25.920 you know, like with people who don't feel the same 0:19:25.960 --> 0:19:29.600 way about about various things, but I might be able 0:19:29.640 --> 0:19:30.720 to learn from well. 0:19:30.720 --> 0:19:33.080 But I think that's part of why things are so 0:19:33.200 --> 0:19:37.480 bad right now with the polarization, is that people can't 0:19:37.560 --> 0:19:41.639 just have conversations like that right now because whatever it 0:19:41.760 --> 0:19:44.480 is in the air and the media and the social media, 0:19:44.680 --> 0:19:48.600 there's just so much anger or they're not having those 0:19:48.680 --> 0:19:53.080 kinds of healthy debates. They're just getting angry, right And. 0:19:53.040 --> 0:19:55.920 Do we just feel like anything that's not an agreement 0:19:57.160 --> 0:20:00.480 or that's not actively agreeing with you a threat? 0:20:00.680 --> 0:20:03.200 Is that what we I think that's how people are acting. 0:20:03.400 --> 0:20:06.399 And I don't think I think that if everybody could 0:20:06.400 --> 0:20:08.760 take a step back and have those kinds of a 0:20:08.800 --> 0:20:15.159 healthy debate maybe we'd be in a better place, you know, globally, right, oh. 0:20:15.119 --> 0:20:15.760 God, nasally. 0:20:15.960 --> 0:20:16.359 I don't know. 0:20:23.880 --> 0:20:29.080 When you guys hit like really big, How old were you? Well, 0:20:29.800 --> 0:20:33.000 you know, I really not really big. But when you 0:20:33.040 --> 0:20:36.239 guys were huge, No, but I mean when you when 0:20:36.280 --> 0:20:37.360 it started getting really. 0:20:37.200 --> 0:20:41.120 Big, like got big, Yeah, bigger, bigger at least. Yeah, 0:20:41.240 --> 0:20:43.760 that was we I was like. 0:20:45.480 --> 0:20:48.480 Nineteen twenty, I think is when is when that first 0:20:48.520 --> 0:20:53.280 record that we made for for Sugar Hell, which I 0:20:53.280 --> 0:20:56.040 mean they thought was going to do like a bluegrassy thing, 0:20:56.119 --> 0:20:59.720 like seven thousand copies would have been the contract was 0:20:59.760 --> 0:21:01.919 sort of old for selling seven thousand copies, and then 0:21:01.960 --> 0:21:04.480 the record company could make sure that they made enough 0:21:04.520 --> 0:21:06.639 money to pay for it from selling you the record 0:21:06.720 --> 0:21:10.280 to sell at festivals. Yes, that was a significant part 0:21:10.680 --> 0:21:14.800 of the potential income for a bluegrass record label. Yeah, 0:21:14.800 --> 0:21:19.040 and then and then, I don't know, Alison agreeing to 0:21:19.080 --> 0:21:20.160 produce was a big deal. 0:21:20.520 --> 0:21:21.160 Alison Kraus. 0:21:21.240 --> 0:21:27.960 Alison Krause, And oh, she's incredible and such a great producer. 0:21:27.960 --> 0:21:30.720 That she's made so many records, so. 0:21:30.720 --> 0:21:34.880 Many records, and she has such she has such a perspective, 0:21:34.920 --> 0:21:37.200 she has such a sound in her head that she's 0:21:37.240 --> 0:21:39.560 always chasing for whatever she's part of. 0:21:39.680 --> 0:21:40.680 She knows what she wants. 0:21:40.760 --> 0:21:43.880 She knows what she wants, she really she deeply does, 0:21:43.960 --> 0:21:46.840 and and anything that's not that is like nails on 0:21:46.840 --> 0:21:50.400 a trackboard to her, which was really helpful, I think 0:21:50.440 --> 0:21:54.960 for us as kind of headstrong, you know, cocky musicians 0:21:54.960 --> 0:21:59.080 who have been fairly coddled by the bluegrass community up 0:21:59.080 --> 0:22:03.160 to that point. And I had a really strong I've 0:22:03.160 --> 0:22:05.600 always had a sound in my head too, so to 0:22:05.880 --> 0:22:09.639 run up against someone like Alison, who's the sound that 0:22:09.680 --> 0:22:11.639 she heard in her head was maybe a little louder 0:22:11.680 --> 0:22:12.800 than I heard at. 0:22:12.640 --> 0:22:15.159 That point in my life, you know, was amazing. 0:22:17.160 --> 0:22:19.119 And that was another source of those conversations, kind of 0:22:19.119 --> 0:22:22.480 mind expanding conversations, which is talking to Alison about the 0:22:22.520 --> 0:22:26.080 world music first and foremost, but then also just about 0:22:26.240 --> 0:22:29.320 being alive. But I think then the old Brother where 0:22:29.400 --> 0:22:34.399 Art Thao thing happened and we were we rode that 0:22:34.440 --> 0:22:37.560 way that if you had one record, if you had 0:22:37.560 --> 0:22:39.280 one blue mass record, you had O Brother where Art 0:22:39.280 --> 0:22:40.440 Thou and you're like. 0:22:40.359 --> 0:22:44.119 Man of constant sorrow. And if you had two you 0:22:44.200 --> 0:22:47.440 had that and something of Alison's. And if you had three. 0:22:47.520 --> 0:22:49.800 Then you all said nicol Creek's amazing. 0:22:49.560 --> 0:22:53.040 Because we were young, and I think sugar Hill they 0:22:53.160 --> 0:22:56.320 like re. They redid the cover of the record so 0:22:56.320 --> 0:22:57.919 that we looked a little bit more fashionable. 0:22:58.240 --> 0:23:01.320 I was looking at the cover recently and when I 0:23:01.359 --> 0:23:03.199 was trying to, you know, figure out what songs we 0:23:03.200 --> 0:23:08.040 were doing, and you look quite dashing your teenagers. The 0:23:08.160 --> 0:23:12.320 frost tip was that like a slight justin Timberlake frost 0:23:12.440 --> 0:23:17.320 tip situation. Holy, they were, Yeah, it was gorgeous. 0:23:17.880 --> 0:23:21.480 It looked amazing. Everyone in Nashville had frosted tips. Really, yeah, 0:23:21.480 --> 0:23:22.639 oh my god, yeah. 0:23:22.400 --> 0:23:24.720 Because I mean I think it was Nashville would have 0:23:24.760 --> 0:23:27.400 always been. It felt like we were one step behind 0:23:28.200 --> 0:23:30.240 living in Nashals like being one step by So the 0:23:30.280 --> 0:23:33.120 in sync would have been those would have been Yeah, 0:23:33.240 --> 0:23:34.600 that's fashionable. 0:23:34.960 --> 0:23:42.359 Yeah, that's what that's what you do. Let's do always judging, 0:23:42.640 --> 0:23:43.639 Oh my god. 0:23:45.200 --> 0:23:50.320 Always judging. Okay, So I haven't thought about this song 0:23:50.880 --> 0:23:52.720 since I wrote it. 0:23:53.720 --> 0:23:56.160