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Nickel Creek is one of those bands that I stumbled upon by a bit of luck and curiosity. I've long been a Toad the Wet Sprocket fan (and was considering posting their latest album to Musooklub but perhaps another time) and at one of their concerts back in 2002 or 2003, I saw Glen Philips (the lead singer) wearing a T-shirt that said Nickel Creek. Curious as to what Nickel Creek was, I looked them up and saw that they were a bit of a Folk/Bluegrass/Americana/Acoustic band. I ended up buying their first 2 CD's and really enjoying them.
Nickel Creek is a trio made up of a wickedly good mandolin player and singer named Chris Thile, and a brother and sister named Sara and Chris Watkins who both sing and play the fiddle and guitar respectively. All of them are amazing musicians. They won a grammy award in 2003 and later in 2007 broke up after a farewell tour.
Earlier this year, they released their first album since getting back together and I was able to see them at a local Portland venue called The Crystal Ballroom. They were great live, and there are a number of good tracks on the latest album. Although there may not be any breakout hits, it's a solid set of songs that's pretty easy to listen all the way through if you dig this kind of music. While I will admit not everyone may enjoy this kind of music, give them a chance and you might find you like them more than you expect.
One more bonus is that I heard that Chris Thile married the actress Claire Coffee and lives (or spends a lot of time) in the Portland area (where I live) which is cool. Enjoy!
Here's a link to the Dropbox zip file:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/joc391gdzgyf6hf/A%20Dotted%20Line%20-%20Nickel%20Creek.zip?n=289377267
I saw The Dandy Warhols at the Crystal Ballroom back in my Portland days. Good times...
ReplyDeleteWTF happened at the Hayloft song????
ReplyDeleteSeriously, some very good tracks. The 1st one Rest of my life, is very nice. It looks like a bit like some singers of the 1st 1/2 of the 90's sometimes, but nicer. I also like the tone of Destination, very smiley, with some nice sounding mandolin :) It is unpretentious and puts you in a good mood.
ReplyDeleteI like most of the songs, except to Hayloft song. They are different from what I am used to listen. They put me in a good mood. They are light, happy, imaginative.
A pretty good album to me.
4.
Right off the bat, this one gets bonus points from me for the mandolin :-)
ReplyDeleteI really liked this album - but Hayloft?? I didn't mind it... but it just pokes out so different from the feel of the rest of the songs! "Light, happy, imaginative" - My thoughts exactly. I'll be keeping this one around for a while I think. I give it a 4.
I really enjoyed this album, but I too was a bit surprised by "Hayloft". The instrumental work is really good, I don't mind me a bit of bluegrass.
ReplyDelete"21st of May" is a bit odd, I assume they're taking the piss?
A bit of trivia, the fiddle player (female singer) toured with the Decemberists, a band featured quite some time ago here on Musooklub.
I give this album a 4.
I forgot to say, I felt this album was too short...it leaves me wanting more.
ReplyDeletei'm proud to say i'm the guy that will shout "Toad the Wet Sprocket rulez" at punk rock shows. so Andy, you had me at Glen Phillips (PS, the last show i went to with Andy was a Toad show before we both left Cincinnati). Toad defined my adolescent and early teen years (along with Weezer, Tom Petty, GnR, + the Smashing Pumpkins). if i had more rotations on musooklub, i would force all of you to listen to a few of their albums (Dulcinea is one of my top 20 albums of all time)
ReplyDeletewhat were we talking about again? oh yea, Nickel Creek. man, this album was great. hopeful, melodic. playful. not trying to be poppy.
a solid 4.
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but i agree with Lolo/Laurent. WTF Hayloft?!? feels like it was written after an Amsterdam cafe session. A very jarring song that ruined the flow of the album for me. Pretty much the definition of a B-side. That being said 21st of May was a nice recovery in the album flow.
I've had to give this an extra half point bump. It's been on high rotation for me lately :-)
ReplyDeleteI was talking to a bluegrass musician friend about this album. She tells me that the mandolin that Chris Thile is playing is worth more than my house is. Yikes.