How to Grow a Woman from the Ground
| How to Grow a Woman from the Ground | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
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| Studio album by Chris Thile | ||||
| Released | September 12, 2006 | |||
| Recorded | Sear Sound Recording Studios | |||
| Genre | Bluegrass, Progressive bluegrass | |||
| Label | Sugar Hill | |||
| Producer | Chris Thile | |||
| Chris Thile chronology | ||||
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| Professional ratings | |
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| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| Allmusic |   |
| Arizona Republic |  |
| Entertainment Weekly | (feature) |
| Harp | (positive) |
| JamBase | (positive) |
| Music Box | |
| Portsmouth Herald | (feature) |
How to Grow a Woman from the Ground is a 2006 album by Chris Thile and the Punch Brothers. It was released on Sugar Hill on September 12, 2006. The album is named after a song on the album; a cover of the original by folk singer Tom Brosseau.
The album debuted to positive reviews from major music critics, with critics calling the album “fantastic, eclectic”, and “genius”. The album earned Thile a Grammy Award-nomination in 2006.
For one of his side projects, Chris Thile knew he wanted to form a string quintet composed of mandolin, violin, banjo, guitar, and bass with childhood friend and fiddler Gabe Witcher, but didn’t know which direction he wanted to take the band. At the Telluride Bluegrass Festival in Telluride, Colorado, Thile met banjoist Noam Pikelny and later commented that “every note he played was something I wish I’d played”. It was then that Thile realized that he wanted to “put [his] stamp on the traditional bluegrass ensemble”. Thile wanted to get five musicians together for a Nashville jam session in 2005, after he found talented bluegrass musicians that could fill the positions. The bassist Thile was searching for, Greg Garrison, was recommended to Thile by Pikelny, who had performed alongside Garrison in the Cajun jam band Leftover Salmon. The guitar position was filled by Chris Eldridge, from the bluegrass band the Infamous Stringdusters. The five musicians met up in Nashville one day in 2005 and decided that they needed to “do something musical together”. A few nights later, the group met again “just to drop a ton of money, drink too much wine, eat steaks, and commiserate about our failed relationships”. That night, they came to an agreement and formed a bluegrass band.
The quintet decided to make this project serious and record an album. The album was recorded over the course of two days in 2006 at Sear Sound Recording Studios in New York. The album was not recorded digitally, but rather on tape. In an interview with the United States magazine Guitar Player, Chris Thile explained the old fashioned style in which the album was recorded:
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Wikipedia