Chris Thile is the guest on the latest episode of American Songwriter's Basic Folk podcast. He talks with host Cindy Howes about his new solo album, Laysongs, comprising songs that contextualize and banter with his ideas about spirituality. They begin by discussing Thile's admiration for Bill Watterson's Calvin and Hobbes comics, and how recognizing the duality of Hobbes—both real and a stuffed animal—introduced him to the idea "that the world around us can ostensibly contain conflicting multitudes," a topic he examines on the new album. You can hear their conversation below.

"How beautiful and intoxicating finding a little bit of truth can be," Thile says, "intoxicating to the point that you start bashing people over the head with the truth that you just found for yourself, this thing that's unlocking some doors for you, you're so excited about the fact that it's doing that, and it's very tempting to think that it will and should do that for someone else. And then I feel like we start to consider it a threat to that truth that we've discovered for ourselves, a threat to the good that we perceive it doing for ourselves when someone else doesn't accept that as true. And I think that's giving all of us a whole lot of trouble right now, on the internet and everywhere else."

Recorded in a converted upstate New York church during the pandemic, Laysongs is Chris Thile’s first truly solo album: just Thile, his voice, and his mandolin, on new recordings of six original songs and three covers. You can hear it here.

Thile will lead a solo tour of the United States this fall. You can get tickets here.