1000 x 90

Punch Brothers Return to The Schaefer Center at ASU with Aoife O’Donovan Wednesday, March 19

March 18, 2014. Punch Brothers with Aoife O’Donovan will perform at the Schaefer Center for the Performing Arts at Appalachian State University on March 19 at 8 p.m. Doors open at 7 p.m.   

Tickets are $12 and $18 for Appalachian students and the general public, respectively, and can be purchased at the Schaefer Center box office at 828-262-4046 or online at http://theschaefercenter.org/tickets.

punch_brothersPunch Brothers are a New York City-based quintet of mandolinist Chris Thile, guitarist Chris Eldridge, bassist Paul Kowert, banjoist Noam Pikelny and violinist Gabe Witcher.

The New Yorker magazine calls their most recent album, “Who’s Feeling Young Now?,” a “mystical alchemy of old-time music and contemporary sensibilities.”

The album contains some of the most exhilaratingly direct, sonically daring performances the group has ever recorded.

Opening act Aoife O’Donovan will perform songs from her debut solo album “Fossils,” which was a full decade in the making. O’Donovan’s music resembles the folk-traditions she grew up withduring her New England childhood.

“This solo album seems like it was a long time coming to me,” O’Donovan said. “I’ve been thinking about it since I was 18 years old.”

The folk and bluegrass of both acts will play into the heritage of the Appalachian region.

“I think we’re a lot more comfortable now playing to our strengths and our bluegrass roots,” said Eldridge.

“We kind of came around to a place where that was something we were just as willing to present to the world – it’s obviously part of who we are, always has been – but I feel we’ve been a little reticent, as if playing a simple bluegrass song wasn’t enough. We’ve gotten a lot more comfortable in our skin.”

The event is sponsored by Appalachian Popular Programming Society.