I’m all excited because Nickel Creek’s latest CD, “Why Should the Fire Die” came out today, and I picked up a copy on the way home from work.
I discovered Nickel Creek sort of by accident - I’d gone to a music-festival primarily to see Bela Fleck & the Flecktones but Nickel Creek was also performing. After one set, I was hooked!
Has anyone else ever even heard of this group? Does anyone else like them? Just wondering how “off the beaten path” my musical tastes are…
(for the record, Nickel Creek is one of those “category-killer” groups - it’s a trio of 20-somethings who’ve been playing together since they were kids. They play fiddle, mandolin and guitar and were originally a bluegrass group. While their roots are still in “roots” music, they’ve drifted into unknown territory, making awesome music that’s uniquely their own. )Their last CD, “This Side” won a Grammy for “best contemporary folk,” so maybe that’s what they are! :D)
I’m a fan. Here’s my review of This Side. Pick up Chris’ album Not All Who Wander Are Lost. It features Chris with Stuart Duncan, Béla Fleck, Edgar Meyer, Jerry Douglas, and Bryan Sutton. It’s an amazing collaboration of some of the best acoustic musicians in the business.
Like Homebrew, I also appreciate Thile’s solo work as well. Hell even listening to his early pre Nickel Creek solo work is a nice experience.
I also enjoy AKUS and Jerry Douglas. If you like Jerry Douglas, I highly recommend Slide Rule, which even has Ms. Krauss on some vocal tracks before she was “famous”.
If you’re looking for category killer groups in a similar rootsy vein…may I suggest The Duhks?
I’m a would-be mandolinist, so I worship the ground Chris Thile walks on! I have both “Not All Who Wander Are Lost” and also the collaboration with Mike Marshall “Into the Cauldron.” Awesome stuff!
At the festival I mentioned in my OP (Suwannee Springfest, FWIW), Chris Thile jammed with the Flecktones in their set. It was amazing!!
Thanks for the suggestion of the Dukhs. I’m always on the lookout for new good stuff, so I’ll have to check them out!
I heartily second The Duhks. Best album I’ve bought this year, or at least in a tight race with Illinois by Sufjan Stevens.
I’m a big fan of Nickel Creek; I saw them once when they were fairly young teenagers, then again just a couple of years ago (just after This Side came out). I admit that I’m way more fond of their instrumental work than I am of their vocals and lyrics, but I’ve always seen that as room to grow.
You might want to check out Mutual Admiration Society. It mostly consists of the members of Nickel Creek and Glen Phillips. Also, at least on tour, they have John Paul Jones on bass and Pete Thomas (from Elvis Costello and the Attractions) on drums.
I could scout out some free legal mp3’s if anyone’s interested.
I do have Chris’ first CD around here somewhere, recorded when he was 13 IIRC. Produced by the banjo player from Hot Rize. A very impressive record – easy to forget he’s just a kid.
I liked their premiere CD, not so much a fan of their recent stuff. ‘Reasons why’ definitely stands out in my mind, though there was a lot of good stuff on that first disk.
from ‘this side’, “house carpenter” struck me as just plain creepy, a lot of the rest of it was forgettable or worse. (sigh.)
I saw them on “Austin City Limits” a couple of years ago and was impressed enough to order their CDs. I don’t have the new one yet. The mandolin player really impresses me.
You sound like you must be a bluegrass traditionalist. That’s fine. Bill Monroe is good. But This side was certainly a genre killer. Ironically, House Carpenter is an old, old traditional ballad. But even given a traditionalist viewpoint, I’m at a loss to think This Side, Spit on a Stranger or Green and Gray could be called forgettable.
News to me if I’m a bluegrass traditionalist. (Though it could be true anyway.) You could put me in the camp of “I knows what I likes when I hears it.” First got exposed to NC through country music television canada… the video for ‘reasons why’ and a live performance of ‘the lighthouse’s tale’ certainly.
And I guess, now that you call me on it, I remember ‘spit on a stranger’ from the second CD, and don’t have anything really bad to say about either of it, so maybe ‘forgettable or worse’ is slight overstatement. But it didn’t impress me much at all, and I can’t say that I remember either of those other two tracks.
Checking my collection of digital music, I see that I’ve kept ‘speak’ and ‘house carpenter’ from that CD, given a ranking of two stars each. The rest of the album has gotten cleared off my hard drive. shrugs
PS: regarding bluegrass in general, my tastes have also drawn me to some other artists that probably qualify as bluegrass or bluegrass-inspired… alison krauss, lee ann womack. (does she count?) But I don’t tend to worry about the labels so much.
Huge Nickel Creek fan here. Their latest album** Why Should the Fire Die? ** is just incredible. Not a dud song on the whole thing. They haven’t completely returned to their traditional bluegrass sound, but their sound on this album is just as good or dare I say it, even better. The new album just blows the second album out of the water. Doesn’t even compare, IMHO.
I finally finished listening to the whole thing, and all I can say is WORD!
It took multiple playings for “This Side” to grow on me, but this one was great from the beginning. I was glad to see more instrumentals on this one - that’s really where they shine, IMHO.
The reviews I’ve read all say that this one’s “darker” than their previous albums, but I can’t say I agree. “This Side” was at least as dark, I’d say.
Per their website, they’re scheduled for a concert in my town (Tampa) in November. Tickets go on sale 9/2, and I’m already saving my pennies. They’re awesome live!
I’m a huge fan as well! We just saw them on their special tour they did of small venues with tickets only available through radio stations. The venue was the Cactus Cafe in Austin, which holds about 150 people - basically a coffee shop. They performed the new album beginning to end, then a few more. Awesome show!
Not All Who Wander Are Lost is definitely one of my “desert island discs”.
Loving the new Creek CD too, just got it yesterday.
Just FYI, Spit on a Stranger is a cover, too – Pavement, if I remember rightly. And I get chills every time they play the descending bass fiddle line during G&G’s chorus. Their version of the traditional song The Fox is also amazing, and I love The Smoothie Song.
Hearing all the recommendations here, I think I’ve got to go ahead and spring for their new disc, and probably some Mutual Admiration Society as well.
You could put me in the camp of “I knows what I likes when I hears it.” First got exposed to NC through country music television canada… the video for ‘reasons why’ and a live performance of ‘the lighthouse’s tale’ certainly.