Punch Brothers (Photo courtesy Nonesuch Records)
The Punch Brothers’ album Hell on Church Street is the band’s reimagining of, and homage to, the late bluegrass great Tony Rice’s landmark solo album Church Street Blues, featuring an inspired collection of songs by Bob Dylan, Gordon Lightfoot, Bill Monroe, and others. The band released the album via Nonesuch Records on Jan. 14!
In support of the new release, the Punch Brothers sold out a first night at the Lincoln Theatre in DC on Feb. 26, but they have added a second night on Sunday, Feb. 27.
Recorded in November 2020, Hell on Church Street had been intended as both its own work of art and a gift to Rice, who died later that year. “After we got over the shock of losing our hero and friend,” Noam Pikelny said. “We realized what Tony had left with us was his music, his spirit, and his legacy.”
“We spent a lot of time contemplating what happened when Church Street Blues hit our ears as a band,” Chris Thile said. “We held it out, we conversed with it, and now we’re handing it to you.”
Watch the Punch Brothers perform “Church Street Blues” live on YouTube:
Hell on Church Street follows Punch Brothers’ critically acclaimed and Grammy Award-winning 2018 album All Ashore, which featured nine original songs written by the band. The Boston Globe said of All Ashore, “Punch Brothers have crafted a deeply meaningful and downright gorgeous record that takes the world for what it is, but doesn’t use that as an excuse to give up.”
Punch Brothers — guitarist Chris Eldridge, bassist Paul Kowert, banjoist Noam Pikelny, mandolinist/singer Chris Thile, and fiddler Gabe Witcher — formed in 2006 and released its first Nonesuch record, Punch, in 2008. In 2009, the band began a residency at NYC’s intimate Lower East Side club The Living Room, trying out new songs and ultimately spawning Antifogmatic (2010). Those albums were followed by the critically praised Who’s Feeling Young Now? (also recorded at Blackbird Studio) in 2012 and 2015’s T Bone Burnett-produced The Phosphorescent Blues.
Punch Brothers
W/ Haley Heynderickx
Lincoln Theatre
Sunday, Feb. 27
Doors @ 6:30pm
$40 GA/ $119 VIP
All ages