| Not Our First Goat Rodeo | |
| Type: | Album |
| Artist: | Yo-Yo Ma, Stuart Duncan, Edgar Meyer, Chris Thile |
| Cover: | Not_Our_First_Goat_Rodeo.jpeg |
| Released: | June 19, 2020 |
| Recorded: | August 2019 |
| Genre: | Bluegrass, classical |
| Length: | 44:53 |
| Label: | Sony Masterworks |
| Prev Title: | The Goat Rodeo Sessions |
| Prev Year: | 2011 |
Not Our First Goat Rodeo is a 2020 collaborative album by Stuart Duncan, Yo-Yo Ma, Edgar Meyer, and Chris Thile, featuring Aoife O'Donovan. It was released on June 19, 2020.[1]
On October 24, 2011, Stuart Duncan, Yo-Yo Ma, Edgar Meyer and Chris Thile (with Aoife O'Donovan) released their first album together, entitled The Goat Rodeo Sessions.[2] [3] The album debuted at number one on the Billboard Classical, Classical Crossover, and Bluegrass charts[4] and reached number eighteen on the Billboard 200.[5] It also won the Grammy Award for Best Folk Album and the Grammy Award for Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical in 2013.[6]
The term refers to a chaotic event where many things must go right for the situation to work,[7] a reference to the unusual and challenging aspects of blending classical and bluegrass music. Ma described a goat rodeo thus: "If there were forks in the road and each time there was a fork, the right decision was made, then you get to a goat rodeo."[8]
Ma has stated in an interview that the group had the idea to make a second album in 2011, while recording The Goat Rodeo Sessions.[9] In August 2019, Meyer shared photographs on social media of the group, including O'Donovan, in studio recording new material.[10] On June 19 of the next year, this second album, Not Our First Goat Rodeo, was released.
On September 1, 2020, a Tiny Desk Concerts was released by NPR in which the group performed three songs from the album. Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the musicians each recorded themselves individually from home for the set.[11] [12]
The album has received praise from reviewers, who have cited the group's virtuosity, chemistry, and ability to bend genres.
The album features Stuart Duncan, Yo-Yo Ma, Edgar Meyer, and Chris Thile on all 10 tracks. Aoife O'Donovan appears on 3 tracks as a featured vocalist.[13] [14]
Not Our First Goat Rodeo has been received well by reviewers. Catherine Nelson of The Strad praised the album's complexity and "sheer joyfulness of expression".[15] Writing for AllMusic, Matt Collar described the album as a "deeply engaging, often rapturous album that balances keen and studied musicality with an almost chaotic passion for group interplay".[16] Comparing the album to The Goat Rodeo Sessions, Justin Hiltner called Not Our First Goat Rodeo "more ornery, more confident, brash, and joyously off-kilter", and said that the ensemble "feels veteran" for a second album.[17]
The album also reached number one on the Billboard Classical, Classical Crossover, and Bluegrass charts.