The Goat Rodeo Sessions. This album is such a lovely blend of high art and boundary-pushing creativity. The music of this collaboration draws upon the structures and forms of bluegrass music if only loosely. It is at once technically virtuosic, lush, lazy, playful and beautiful.
The Goat Rodeo Sessions is a project developed by world renowned musicians Yo-Yo Ma, cello; Chris Thile, mandolin/fiddle/guitar/gamba/vocals; Edgar Meyer, bass/gamba/piano; and Stuart Duncan, fiddle/mandolin/fretless banjo. All the music on this album was written by Thile, Meyer and Duncan. One of my favorite instrumental tracks is “Where’s my bow?” Who knows, you might hear it arranged for Third Wheel in the future. These gifted musicians are joined on two tracks by vocalist Aoife O’Donovan who also co-wrote my next favorite track “Here and Heaven.”
“Things can fall apart, or threaten to, for many reasons, and then there’s got to be a leap of faith. Ultimately, when you’re at the edge, you have to go forward or backward; if you go forward, you have to jump together.” Yo-Yo Ma
Below is a video of “Here and Heaven.”
Below is a video of “Attaboy”
