“Not Our First Goat Rodeo” – New Album From Grammy-winning Lineup of Duncan, Ma, Meyer, and Thile

Sony Music Masterworks released Not Our First Goat Rodeo, the long-awaited follow-up album to the GRAMMY Award-winning The Goat Rodeo Sessions, with Yo-Yo Ma, Stuart Duncan, Edgar Meyer, and Chris Thile. 

NOT OUR FIRST GOAT RODEO 
TRACKLISTING –

1. Your Coffee Is a Disaster
2. Waltz Whitman
3. The Trappings (feat. Aoife O’Donovan)
4. Every Note a Pearl (feat. Aoife O’Donovan)
5. Not for Lack of Trying
6. Voila!
7. Scarcely Cricket
8. We Were Animals (feat. Aoife O’Donovan)
9. Nebbia
10. 757 ml

LISTEN ON SPOTIFY >>

The highly anticipated follow-up album, Not Our First Goat Rodeo, seemed somewhat inevitable for these musicians to create. Nine years later, their organic friendships led them back to record together. Admiring their individual artistry, Yo-Yo Ma says, “What is so amazing about playing with Chris, Edgar, Stuart, and Aoife is that when I’m working with them, I’m almost not a full participant because I’m actually a fan. I’m such a big fan that I approach what they’re doing with a mixture of wonder and awe at these fellow musicians whom I feel very close to, but who are doing things that are almost beyond my imagination.”

Both sets of Goat Rodeo sessions combine the talents of the four solo artists, each a Grammy Award-winning talent in his own right, to create a singular sound that’s part composed, part improvised, and uniquely American. The music is so complex to pull off that the group likens it to a goat rodeo — an aviation term for a situation in which 100 things need to go right to avoid disaster. Both the first album and the new recording also feature the voice and artistry of singer-songwriter and fellow Grammy Award-winner Aoife O’Donovan, who rejoins the group as a guest on Not Our First Goat Rodeo.

As part of the album release, Sony also released a live performance video for the song “The Trappings,” featuring guest artist Aoife O’Donovan:

Sharing the story behind the track, Yo-Yo Ma recalls: “‘The Trappings’ came out of a question of aesthetics. I believe Edgar was talking about pop music, how he used to think, ‘Oh, if something’s too poppy, I’m not going to like it.’ But that’s like saying ‘classical music is boring,’ or that jazz, rock, rhythm-and-blues are one way, or even ‘people from different countries are’… You know that as soon as you make a general statement like that, it’s not true, because you can think of hundreds, thousands of exceptions. ‘The Trappings’ is one of those.”