When Punch Brothers played the Ravinia Festival outside Chicago last week, it was something of a coming home for the band's banjo player, Noam Pikelny, a native son of the city. Chicago Tonight, from public television station WTTW, profiles Noam, offering footage of a very young Noam's early banjo playing (venue, the Pikelny basement; occasion, Noam's ninth birthday party), a reunion with one of his first banjo teachers, and the story behind the formation of the new band and the creation of its debut album's centerpiece, The Blind Leaving the Blind, which, says Chicago Tonight producer Jay Shefsky, "takes bluegrass where it has never gone before."

Chicago Tribune music critic David Royko tells Shefsky he's seen Noam play in just about every genre and concludes: "I haven't heard any limitations of what he can do." Royko also has high praise for Noam's bandmate Chris Thile, calling him "the guy who has set the new standard for mandolin. He has taken it into the next universe."

Together, Noam and Chris, with fellow Punch Brothers, guitarist Chris Eldridge, fiddler Gabe Witcher, and bass player Greg Garrison, create what Royko says is a sound unlike any other.

"There's something very unique about their sound, very unique about their approach, and that allows Noam to set his own path and hopefully—it's very possible—establish the path for the banjo post-Béla Fleck."

To watch the piece, visit wttw.com.