Amazon.co.uk Review
Chris Thile is a nimble-fingered plectrum-picker whose apparently effortless virtuosity, both solo and as a member of hot young bluegrass band
Nickel Creek, prompts ecstatic and well-deserved praise from his fellow musicians.
Not All Who Wander Are Lost, his third solo album, itself wanders farther from the bluegrass roots of his earlier records to explore neo-classical, trad-Irish and even jazz forms (the track "Club GROSS", inspired by Calvin & Hobbes, sounds like a
Raymond Scott composition--if Scott had written for the mandolin). Other tracks are variously inspired by Queen Amidala ("Song for a Young Queen") and baseball ("Big Sam Thompson"), while the album title is derived from Tolkien.
It is this musical eclecticism that distinguishes Thile from other bluegrass wizards like Ricky Skaggs or Sam Bush, and gives him a closer affinity with British mandolin virtuoso Simon Mayor, whose own recordings explore classical, folk and original pieces. Both Mayor and Thile are devoted to extending the boundaries of popular mandolin repertoire beyond its folky confines. Both with Nickel Creek and in his solo outings, Thile has done a great deal to show off the full range of this marvellous little instrument. --Mark Walker