Label: Sugar Hill Records CD-3909

Tracks: Ode To A Butterfly, The Lighthouse's Tale, Out Of The Woods, House Of Tom Bombadil, Reasons Why, When You Come Back Down, Sweet Afton, Cuckoo's Nest, The Hand Song, Robin And Marian, The Fox, Pastures New

Personnel: Chris Thile (mandolin, bouzouki, banjo, vocals); Sara Watkins (fiddle, vocals); Sean Watkins (guitar, mandolin, vocals); Scott Thile bass.

By Larry Carlin

WATCH OUT, TRADITIONAL bluegrass fans! The rules of the game are about to be twisted again. Two decades back players such as David Grisman, Tony Rice, and members of New Grass Revival stretched the boundaries of bluegrass. Soon the rules will have to be rewritten again to accommodate the hot young talent in the band Nickel Creek, who have a new CD with the same name and are about to make a name for themselves beyond the borders of bluegrass. The band has a bluegrass name - the members come from two families - and they play bluegrass instruments. But they do so in ways that might have a few pickers contemplating a new line of work.

Nickel Creek consists of the brother/sister duo of Sara Watkins on fiddle and Chris Watkins on guitar, and mandolin wunderkind Chris Thile, plus his father Scott on the bass. The average age of the band members (save for papa Scott) is 20. Sara, Sean and Chris have been playing together for ten years.

They have either won or been finalists on their respective instruments in national competitions and Scott has been playing jazz and classical bass for over two decades. Chris has already recorded two solo CDs - Leading Off (which he recorded at age 14) and Stealing Second -- and the band self-produced a CD three years back titled Here To There. Nickel Creek is their first recording for Sugar Hill, and it is bound for glory. Did someone say Grammys??

Hot pickin' was a foregone conclusion on this CD before it arrived. Yet what is even more astounding is that not only can these kids pick, they can also sing and write. Having heard Chris's solo instrumental CDs the assumption was that on the second song, The Lighthouse's Tale, that Sean was the singer. Not so, as Chris makes his debut as a singer here, and he also is the co-writer of the song. He also wrote two of the instrumentals (Ode To A Butterfly and House Of Tom Bombadil) and the melody to the Robert Burns poem Sweet Afton. Guitarist Sean wrote the two instrumentals Robin And Marian and Pastures New, and he co-wrote two songs that Sara sings --Reasons Why and The Hand Song. Out Of The Woods and When You Come Back Down (written by Tim O'Brien and Danny O'Keefe) are two of the prettiest songs in recent memory, and Chris does a spirited version of the traditional children's song The Fox. And feathers really fly on the traditional instrumental Cuckoo's Nest.

The production on Nickel Creek is first rate, with a "little-known" producer by the name of Alison Krauss calling the shots. What is eerie is that at times young fiddler Sara Watkins sometimes sounds like producer Alison when she sings. After having already broken through the bluegrass barriers Chris Thile's mandolin wizardry can now be heard in the classical genre when he performs with the Modern Mandolin Quartet. Folks, he's only 19 and just getting warmed up!

Uh, what was that mandolin player's name again in New Grass Revival?

Out here in the Bay Area the Oakland Athletics baseball team is running an ad campaign for their mostly young team with the slogan, "These kids can play." This same phrase can be used to describe this band here. Voyage on down Nickel Creek and enjoy the cruise.

Larry Carlin, Sausalito, Nr. San Francisco, USA |  Write to | Web site |

28 June 2000