Nickel Creek

Though grounded in bluegrass traditions, Nickel Creek earned acclaim as one of progressive acoustic music’s boldest and most wide-ranging acts. The lineup of siblings Sean Watkins on guitar and Sara Watkins on fiddle alongside mandolinist Chris Thile first gained notice while still in their teens, tearing through festival stages until the Sugar Hill imprint signed them. Their 2000 debut, produced by Alison Krauss, introduced a precocious, forward-leaning trio whose instrumental mastery and three-part vocal blend spanned jazz and alternative sounds alike. Over their early years the group drifted further from bluegrass conventions, earning mainstream crossover, a Grammy, and widespread critical acclaim. Following an extended break that began in the late 2000s, the members thrived individually through ventures such as Punch Brothers, Fiction Family, I’m with Her, and assorted solo releases. Their 2014 return produced the album A Dotted Line, after which Thile and the Watkins siblings resumed separate paths yet kept Nickel Creek active with occasional joint appearances into the 2020s. Nine years after A Dotted Line, the band issued its fifth studio album, Celebrants, in March 2023.

Sean Watkins and Chris Thile first studied under the same teacher in 1989. With Sean’s younger sister Sara they began performing as preteens in San Diego, inspired by weekly shows from the band Bluegrass Etc. at a local pizza parlor. A regional promoter encouraged the notion of a youthful string ensemble, leading to Nickel Creek’s formation with Thile’s father Scott on bass.

Throughout most of the 1990s the group became fixtures on the festival circuit; during that span Thile issued two solo projects, 1994’s Leading Off… and 1997’s Stealing Second. In 1998, thanks to Alison Krauss’s assistance, Nickel Creek secured a deal with Sugar Hill. Krauss helmed their self-titled debut, released in 2000; once the young players proved capable, Scott stepped away. Although rooted in bluegrass, the record incorporated classical, jazz, and both classic and alternative rock elements, reflecting the progressive bluegrass lineage of Krauss, Edgar Meyer, and Béla Fleck. Bolstered by the roots-music surge surrounding O Brother, Where Art Thou?, the album built steadily, reaching gold status by early 2002, entering the country Top 20, and earning a Grammy nomination for Best Bluegrass Album. Sean issued his solo debut Let It Fall in 2001, and Thile followed with Not All Who Wander Are Lost.

The band’s second album, This Side, arrived in 2002, debuting inside the pop Top 20 and peaking at number two on the country chart. Even broader in scope than its predecessor, the Krauss-produced set drew indie-rock attention with its version of Pavement’s “Spit on a Stranger.” This Side captured the Grammy for Best Contemporary Folk Album in early 2003; Sean then released his second solo effort, 26 Miles. In 2005 the trio enlisted producers Tony Berg and Eric Valentine—known for work with Smash Mouth and Queens of the Stone Age—to shape Why Should the Fire Die?, an introspective set that carried them still farther from bluegrass origins.

Midway through 2006 Nickel Creek announced an indefinite hiatus after a planned 2007 tour, allowing each member to focus on individual work. Thile launched Punch Brothers, whose debut Punch appeared on Nonesuch in 2009. That same year Sara Watkins issued her self-titled Nonesuch album, produced by Led Zeppelin’s John Paul Jones, while Sean Watkins, collaborating with Switchfoot’s Jon Foreman in Fiction Family, released the ATO album Fiction Family. Sara and Sean also began hosting the monthly Watkins Family Hour revue at Hollywood’s Largo, inviting an array of visiting musicians—including Gabe Witcher, Benmont Tench, Greg Leisz, Jon Brion, Jackson Browne, Glen Phillips, Mark O’Connor, Ethan Johns, Matt Chamberlain, Tim O’Brien, and Tom Brosseau—for spontaneous sets.

The hiatus stretched into the early 2010s as the members pursued separate recordings. Thile remained especially active, delivering two additional Punch Brothers albums, the Yo-Yo Ma collaboration The Goat Rodeo Sessions, and his own classical outing Bach Sonatas & Partitas transcribed for mandolin. Sara released the 2012 follow-up Sun Midnight Sun, and Sean issued Fiction Family Reunion in 2013.

Marking their 25th anniversary, Nickel Creek reconvened in early 2014. The resulting Nonesuch album A Dotted Line, their first in nine years, was promoted with an extensive tour. Afterward the musicians again concentrated on personal projects while reuniting sporadically as Nickel Creek. Sara formed the trio I’m with Her alongside Aoife O’Donovan and Sara Jarosz and also recorded with her brother under the Watkins Family Hour banner; Sean released his fifth solo album What to Fear in 2016, and later that year Thile succeeded Garrison Keillor as host of A Prairie Home Companion, later rebranded Live from Here, which featured the band several times before its 2020 cancellation amid the global pandemic.

During quarantine the group mined its archives, issuing the first live collection, Live from the Fox Theater—captured in Oakland, California, on May 19, 2014—in 2021. After earlier livestream performances that year, both Thile and Sara Watkins issued solo albums, Laysongs and Under the Pepper Tree. By 2023 the trio had prepared a new studio effort, their first since 2014. Expanded by double bassist Mike Elizondo, the 18-track Celebrants proved as intricate and daring as any prior Nickel Creek release.