Noam Pikelny and Stuart Duncan perform in the Radio Heartland studio
by Mike Pengra, Noam Pikelny and Stuart Duncan
May 21, 2014
A fiddler and a banjo player walk into a bar …
Really.
If you ask Noam Pikelny and Stuart Duncan how they started playing together, they'll both start talking simultaneously about how much they admire each other's playing.
Pikelny is the banjo player with The Punch Brothers. He's played with a long list of musicians from all sorts of musical genres including the Decemberists, Wilco, Ronnie McCoury and Marcus Mumford.
And if you look in the liner notes of just about any Americana album in your collection, you'll find Stuart Duncan's name in the credits. He's one of the leading fiddle players in the industry as a member of the Grammy-winning Nashville Bluegrass Band and recording appearances with Bela Fleck, The Seldom Scene, John Prine, George Jones and many, many others.
Pikelny and Duncan are currently touring as a duo. That's right. Just fiddle and banjo. But … they're not your average players either. They're in town tonight (Wednesday, May 21) at the Dakota Jazz Club in Minneapolis. Before the gig, they stopped by the Radio Heartland studio to chat.
Songs performed
"Milford's Reel"
"Sad and Lonesome Day"
"Lonesome Moonlight Waltz"
"Wheel Hoss"
Hosted and produced by Mike Pengra
Engineered by Cameron Wiley
