Not content with conquering the worlds of bluegrass, indie-folk, jazz and JS Bach in recent years, mandolin virtuoso Chris Thile is now the host of liberal America’s most revered radio show, A Prairie Home Companion. He took over from Garrison Keillor just in time for the 2016 election, so these topical songs (written to open each week’s show) have soundtracked the trauma of the left-leaning part of the nation during the Trump era.
Stanley Ann is a twinkly, piano-led eulogy to Obama; Feedback Loop is a woozy ballad that confronts the self-reaffirming closed circuits of social media; Thank You, New York (featuring Gaby Moreno) celebrates the artsy, degenerate Big Apple. Thile can be a little too harmonically complex and over-wordy, while his whimsy can irritate (check the jaunty Elephant in the Room, about being trapped with relatives for Thanksgiving). But sometimes – as with Douglas Fir, a heavenly Yuletide duet with Aoife O’Donovan – it hits the spot.
