A colorblind Jewish kid from Skokie, Illinois, is not where you would expect a progressive bluegrass pioneer to come from. This deep dive traces Noam Pikelny from beginner banjo lessons at age eight, taken because his older brother already played mandolin, through study at Chicago's Old Town School of Folk Music and with Greg Cahill of Special Consensus, to the moment an album by Bela Fleck and the Flecktones convinced him to abandon clawhammer style for the three-finger Scruggs technique that unlocked jazz-like melodic possibilities.

We follow his laboratory years with Leftover Salmon from 2002 to 2004, his 2004 solo debut In the Maze, his stint with the John Cowan Band, and the 2006 jam session with Chris Thile, Gabe Witcher, Greg Garrison and Chris Eldridge that became Punch Brothers after two earlier names. The episode also covers his s ...