With a soft spot in my heart for former teenage Southern California bluegrass musicians (yup, I was one), musicians who develop their act at L.A.'s Largo and the tremendous catalog of Nonesuch Records, the latest Nonesuch signing is a fine one: former Nickel Creek mandolin virtuoso Chris Thile.
Album from Thile's band the Punch Brothers - featuring  Chris Eldridge on guitar, bassist Greg Garrison, Noam Pikelny on banjo and Gabe Witcher on fiddle -  will be released Feb. 26. The new album will include Thile's four-movement composition, "The Blind Leaving the Blind," which the band performed at Carnegie Hall's Zankel Hall earlier this year as part of John Adams' In Your Ear festival.
IN addition, Thile's solo records and collaborations will be released by Nonesuch, beginning with an album with composer/bassist Edgar Meyer later in 2008.
Thile formed the band  for his 2006 Sugar Hill record, "How to Grow a Woman from the Ground."