American Acoustic

American Acoustic: Punch Brothers, I’m With Her, and Julian Lage brings two Nickel Creek alumni—Chris Thile and Sarah Watkins—and a host of other talented musicians, together, for an unparalleled jazz-and-bluegrass-infused jam session. Punch Brothers, fronted by Prairie Home Companion host Thile, with Paul Kowert (bass), Noam Pikelny (banjo), Chris Eldridge (guitar), and Gabe Witcher (violin) and I’m With Her— Watkins, Sarah Jarosz, and Aoife O’Donovan. The two bands are joined by in-demand composer and jazz guitarist Julian Lage. Thile cooked up the tour after he curated a weekend-long festival on the Kennedy Center stage in Washington, DC. “We started discussing how to make this tour happen as we were walking offstage,” he said. “On one hand, there was that delightful sense of discovery and almost childish wonder that you hope for when working with musicians you admire in a new context, but on the other, the kind of artistic compatibility and ease of communication you usually only experience in longstanding collaborations.