Noam Pikelny Plays CAPA Tonight

Arguably two of the most celebrated roots musicians of their generation, Aoife O'Donovan (Crooked Still) and Noam Pikelny (Punch Brothers) have been crossing paths at venues and festivals for the last decade. In 2012, Pikelny released Beat the Devil and Carry a Rail, which featured O'Donovan as a guest vocalist and garnered a Grammy nomination for Best Bluegrass Album. Rounding out the ensemble are bassist Barry Bales (Alison Krauss & Union Station) and fiddler Shad Cobb (John Cowan Band). The quartet will hit the road in the autumn of 2014, playing a mixture of vocal and instrumental music, ripe with intricate three-part harmony and grounded firmly in tradition.

CAPA presents Aoife O'Donovan and Noam Pikelny at the Lincoln Theatre (769 E. Long St.) tonight, November 8, at 8 pm. Tickets are $19 and $29 at the CAPA Ticket Center (39 E. State St.), all Ticketmaster outlets, and www.ticketmaster.com. To purchase tickets by phone, call (614) 469-0939 or (800) 745-3000.

Noam Pikelny has emerged as the preeminent banjoist among a new generation of acoustic musicians. Hailed by the Chicago Tribune as the "pros' top banjo picker," Pikelny is a founding member of Punch Brothers, a string ensemble which The Boston Globe calls "a virtuosic revelation" and The New Yorker describes as "wide-ranging and restlessly imaginative." In 2010, Pikelny was awarded the first annual Steve Martin Prize for Excellence in Banjo and Bluegrass. In 2012, his second album, Beat the Devil and Carry a Rail, received a Grammy nomination for Best Bluegrass Album.

Pikelny has shared the stage with The Decemberists, Marcus Mumford, Béla Fleck, Dave Douglas, Steve Martin, the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, and members of the Lincoln Center Chamber Orchestra. He continues to broaden the awareness of the banjo in the mainstream through his work with Punch Brothers, collaborating with Wilco, Fiona Apple, Norah Jones, and Jon Brion for the soundtrack to This is 40, a feature song on The Hunger Games soundtrack, and a collaboration with Marcus Mumford on the most recent Coen Brothers film, Inside Llewyn Davis.

His latest release, Noam Pikelny Plays Kenny Baker Plays Bill Monroe, is the first complete banjo adaptation of Kenny Baker's 1976 seminal recording of Bill Monroe instrumentals, and is poised to take the bluegrass world by storm. The concept for the album first grew out of the word-play on the original album title, but the more Pikelny explored the idea, the more he realized that it was both musically exciting and challenging. Pikelny delved into the intricacies of Kenny Baker's fiddle playing and emerged with note-for-note versions of Baker's fiddle arrangements for banjo. Joining Pikelny on this tour de force project are the finest instrumentalists in bluegrass-Stuart Duncan (fiddle), Bryan Sutton (guitar), Ronnie McCoury (mandolin), and Mike Bub (bass). Noam Pikelny Plays Kenny Baker Plays Bill Monroe shows Pikelny at a new pinnacle of maturation as a banjo player and musician, redefining the role of the banjo an unprecedented approach to melodic playing, and therefore, setting a new standard in bluegrass for years to come.

O'Donovan's most recent album, Fossils, was released in 2013 to critical acclaim and was hailed as "a vocalist of unerring instinct" by the New York Times. Produced by Tucker Martine (The Decemberists/My Morning Jacket), the album features 10 original songs by O'Donovan and contributions from friends and frequent collaborators including Sam Amidon and Dave Douglas. Rich in songs and unexpected textures, the resulting album bears the remarkable fruits of O'Donovan's and Martine's creative partnership.

O'Donovan is known as the lead singer of Crooked Still and Sometymes Why, and for singing on the 2013 Grammy winning The Goat Rodeo Sessions with Yo-Yo Ma, Edgar Meyer, Chris Thile, and Stuart Duncan. She also sang on Noam Pikelny's 2013 Grammy-nominated album Beat the Devil and Carry a Rail. She received high praise for her performances at both Celtic Connections and Transatlantic Sessions, and the stunning versatility and appeal of her voice has brought her to the attention of some of the most eminent names across roots, classical, bluegrass, and jazz, from Alison Krauss and Punch Brothers to the Boston Pops and Dave Douglas. O'Donovan is working on her sophomore solo album due out next year.

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