CIVIL WAR DUO AND PUNCH BROTHERS

I watched Austin City Limits early this AM on PBS to view the music of Civil War followed by the Punch Brothers. I believe a married duo makes up Civil War and they show that great vocal harmonies can produce crowd pleasing music from two chord tunes. They sure don't do songs about the 1860's in America, but he is from Alabama and I am guessing that she comes from north of the Mason-Dixon line and that is where their name comes from. They opened the show and then the progressive bluegrass band The Punch Brothers came on like absolute gangbusters!  They started with an extremely percussive rhythmic sound featuring a vocal by Chris Thile.  Other band members include Gabe Witcher on fiddle, Chris Eldridge, guitar, Paul Kowert, bass, and Noam Pikelny's banjo. (I have recently been enjoying a CD entitled Noam Pikelny plays Bill Monroe/Kenny Baker, accompanied by a band of bluegrass all-stars.)  There are many excellent mandolin pickers today, but Chris Thile may be the most talented of all.  He said he became fascinated with the mandolin at the age of two and began playing when only five years old. My experience, and those of others, has been that a parent cannot impose any activity on a child with guaranteed success, but if the child really expresses an interest in an instrument, or anything else for that matter,  they have a much greater chance of doing very well. Chris Thile is an example of this as are other prodigies from Ricky Skaggs and Michael Cleveland to Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Felix Mendelssohn. The Punch Brothers have toured this area before and if they return you should consider catching their show.  You won't be disappointed.