Chris Thile: Growing pains

Chris Thile
How To Grow A Woman From the Ground
Sugar Hill

On his latest solo album, Nickel Creeker Chris Thile goes country. And rocks out. And returns to his roots. And explores new territory.

The result is a somewhat bumpy ride through a mix of styles, all of which Thile manages to excel at. Five tracks of the CD's fourteen are instrumentals, some traditional bluegrass breaks, others more of a jazz-fusion twang thang. Another generous helping are covers. Receiving the most hype was his cover of the White Stripes' "Dead Leaves and the Dirty Ground," done here as an upbeat bluegrass ditty
-- a treatment I applaud for its boldness, but I'm not sure it works. Much better executed is a cover of the Strokes' "Heart in a Cage." The banjo version of the intricate guitar work on the original is breathtaking, and the slightly countrified cover in this case works like a charm. But perhaps the boldest and best cover here is his barnburner version of Gillian Welch's "Wayside (Back in Time)." Sped up about 4000 times over the laid-back original, it takes on a whole new tone, giving a great song a whole new spirit. Thile and his "How To Grow a Band" band must have lost several instruments to spontaneous combustion along the way for this track, and the vocals are sassy and fun, moving the song away from its wistful origins toward a new life as a devil-may-care rogue anthem. Love it.

Not so hot, however, are Thile's originals on this album. And it pains me to say it, both because of my passionate crush on Mr. Thile and because I've usually loved the songs he's written for Nickel Creek and on his previous solo albums. None of his songs on "How To Grow a Woman" are bad, per se -- I'd use the word "forgettable." The best of the bunch is probably "I'm Yours if You Want Me," (yes please!) with its minor-key melody and vocals that avoid the too-sweet territory Thile's voice can sometimes inhabit. But the rest, while pleasant to listen to, leave you as soon as the next track starts.

Perhaps this album tries to do too much. I'm all for a mix of styles, but sometimes a mix can become a mash. There's no continuity of mood, or style, or subject, or much of anything that I can discern here. At the end of the CD, I feel like I've just listened to a bunch of singles -- not many of which are memorable. But the simple fact remains that Thile is an incredibly gifted artist, a triple threat of instrumentalist, songwriter and singer. Taken as a whole, "How To Grow a Woman" maybe isn't his best work, but he clearly has a lot more to say and do, so when the next solo album comes out, I'll be first in line.