Chris Thile, in Atlanta, Alone

We've seen Chris Thile in Atlanta with his group Nickel Creek and with a large cast of actors and musicians for his variety show Live from Here [see my blog posts of 04/2017 and 05/2018]. He's always been the life of the party, playing off the others on stage.

So what could he do all alone last Monday, November 22 at the vast Symphony Hall of Atlanta's Woodruff Arts Center? In disbelief before the show, several members of the audience took photos of the forlorn stage, draped in black, bare except for a microphone stand and stool.

Thile filled the space and a good 90 minutes with a dozen or more characters. He greeted us as old friends that he hadn't seen in a long time -- which, in fact, we are.

He opened with a suite of songs and followed up with amusing stories about his connections to each one. He brought Bach into the mix, whose persona and imagination are crystal clear when Thile plays his mandolin. Later, he introduced Bach to an admirer, Bartok.

We got to meet young fundamentalist Chris Thile in dialogue with his older agnostic-but-still-searching self, performing songs on the theme of spirituality from his truly solo album Laysongs. He conjured the devil for a 12-minute musical drama "Salt (in the Wounds) of the Earth." He explained, "The voice is Screwtape," a devil from C. S. Lewis's book The Screwtape Letters, "and the mandolin is me." (November 22 happens to be the day in 1963 Lewis died concomitantly with JFK. The Episcopal church honors Lewis on that date.)

Bob Dylan's fare-thee-well song "Don't Think Twice, It's All Right" was a piece of musical theatre. When Thile sang, "It ain't no use to sit and wonder why, babe," the presence of that woman was reflected in his face and tone, and we felt as if we were witnessing the break-up of a tumultuous relationship.

Of course, Thile shared the spotlight with his mandolin, a character with a mind of its own. Between verses, it veered off into other keys, moods, and strange sound effects.

Thile's voice plays many parts. At times it's a crooner, a yodeler, and an operatic countertenor sustaining straight high tones. In a very affecting moment, Thile stepped away from the mic to sing softly with the house.

At age 62, now, I recognized the same mix of ages and types that I found so remarkable 20 years ago when he performed with Nickel Creek at the Variety Playhouse -- teens and their grandparents, and everyone in between - hipsters, ex-hippies, cowboys, churchgoers, Bohemians.

That bodes well for Thile's professional longevity. If mine holds up, I'll see him again.