Punch Brothers and Nickel Creek Frontman Chris Thile Gives Rare Solo Performance Supporting the Great Lakes

Chris Thile performs at the FLOW benefit concert.

Chris Thile, a four-time Grammy-winning artist and member of Punch Brothers and Nickel Creek, gave a rare solo performance on July 5 benefitting FLOW (For Love of Water), a nonprofit organization that works to protect the Great Lakes through use of public trust principles and an underpinning of science and technical analysis.

Guests on the grounds of the newly restored Cherry Basket Farm in Omena, MI were greeted with delicious cocktails and snacks before gathering inside a barn for the concert, which consisted of a broad range of Thile’s original tunes as well as impressive Radiohead and Bach covers interpreted on the mandolin.

Thile, who also hosts NPR’s popular radio show Live From Here (formerly known as A Prairie Home Companion), spoke passionately about the importance of organizations like FLOW. “What organizations like FLOW are doing is considered to be among the most important work that humanity is doing, that we’re doing it is a testament to the ultimate goodness of humanity,” he said.

Audience members were united in their love of both the Great Lakes and the music, and felt it was a powerful experience to see so many people coming together in the spirit of a good cause – protecting Michigan’s water – and watching Thile perform silhouetted against the setting sun with his mandolin.

For more information on FLOW, visit their website and learn more about their efforts to shut down Line 5, a pipeline running through the Great Lakes, and other important Great Lakes-related initiatives.

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