New Album Review: Punch Brothers- Hell on Church Street

Punch Brothers- Hell on Church Street

Label: Nonesuch

Producers: Punch Brothers

Newgrass hero Chris Thile and his brethren return for their sixth studio album, and first in four years, by revisiting a pivotal artistic influence, which in turn leads them to a unique space within the confines of their prodigious and experimental discography. Hell on Church Street is a song-for-song revisitation of bluegrass legend Tony Rice’s 1983 classic, Church Street Blues, and it provides the setting for what is undoubtedly the band’s most purely traditional bluegrass album to date. With that said, one wouldn’t expect someone as relentlessly creative as Thile to approach this project as a strict recitation rather than a recreation. While they certainly play with their own updated arrangements on this collection of songs, themselves covers from the likes of roots pioneers such as Jimmie Rodgers, Bill Monroe, Tom Paxton, Gordon Lightfoot, and Bob Dylan, they do within the confines of honest and contemporary bluegrass frameworks, highlighted by gorgeous mandolin, fiddle and Thile’s inimitable voice. It’s both an effective examination of their rawest roots and a sterling tribute to their hero. It’s sure to please both purists who loved Rice’s original and intrigue listeners who are new to both these songs and Rice himself. Lead single “Church Street Blues”, “Streets of London”, “Orphan Annie”, and pure instrumentals like “Cattle in the Cain” are surefire highlights, but there’s not a bad track in the lot; all of them glow with the superlative musical talents of this esteemed troop. Another undeniably superb offering from the brothers Punch.

Track Listing

1. “Church Street Blues” (Norman Blake)
2. “Cattle in the Cane” (Traditional)
3. “Streets of London” (Ralph McTell)
4. “One More Night” (Bob Dylan)
5. “The Gold Rush” (Bill Monroe)
6. “Any Old Time” (Jimmie Rodgers)
7. “Orphan Annie” (Blake)
8. “House Carpenter/Jerusalem Ridge” (Traditional/Monroe)
9. “Last Thing On My Mind” (Tom Paxton)
10. “Pride of Man” (Hamilton Camp)
11. “Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald” (Gordon Lightfoot)