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REVIEW: Nickel Creek’s “Celebrants” is a Refreshing Theatrical Journey

Having a new Nickel Creek album out is beyond comforting. Just hearing Grammy winners Chris Thile, Sean Watkins and Sara Watkins again brings warmth, but it is the message of Celebrants , a post-pandemic concept album with 18 interconnected songs, that makes hearing them again an experience. In many ways it’s more a theatrical production than it is an album, one that shares the hardships we’ve all experienced while also providing a healthy dose of optimism.

It’s been nine years since Nickel Creek’s last studio album, and, with Celebrants , you get the idea that being away from creating new music was just as hard for the trio as it was for their fans. This is clear in the first line of the title track: “My God it’s good to see you.”

“Strangers” is where Nickel Creek really returns to form. There’s a brilliant breakdown, followed by a breathtaking back and forth by Thile on mandolin and Sara on fiddle.

The more you listen to Celebrants , the clearer it is how much the trio has grown, together and individually. This all comes through with each new poignant, ambitious composition, one weaving into the next naturally and smoothly. “Water Under the Bridge,” “Goddamned Saint,” and “Going Out…” all reprise, and all remind the listener how magnificent it is to hear a well-constructed album. Don’t rely on the singles here, Nickel Creek fans, take it all in one song at a time, and listen to it again. And again.

The transitions are reminiscent of a musical, especially the way Nickel Creek returns to several refrains, with harmonies that would even impress Alison Krauss (especially on “To the Airport,” the most spellbinding track on the album. The A capella part gives me goosebumps). 

The musical artistry and arrangements of Celebrants take the listener in so many different directions. They all lay it out on the line here, giving everything. Take “Thinnest Wall,” where Sara shows off her remarkable vocal range, and “Where the Long Line Leads,” where Sara sounds more like Patty Griffin and Thile rocks out on the mando so hard you wouldn’t be surprised if he starts playing it with his teeth when you see him live. “Long Line” also has a catchy, prescient hook: “We only have a short time, but we’re making it a big one.”

“Going Out…” somehow embodies how we all felt once we got out of COVID. Never has the violin spoken to my soul so intimately. Sara’s work on the intro captures so much of the joy and celebration involved with once again being able to gather, once again being able to share a space with those we love; to share music, a treasure that was almost unbearable to lose. This feeling still lingers (just as it does on the album, reprising with “…Despite the Weather,” a jam you don’t want to end, thanks to Sean’s guitar leads).

Every tune on Celebrants offers something special. “Holding Pattern” is the tune that gets stuck in your head the most, and gets you snapping your fingers. It also features Thile’s best vocal performance. “From the Beach” is the most seductive, sultry tune on the album, which again is kudos to Sean’s lead work. “Stone’s Throw” is a rocker with a masterful arrangement. The transitions essentially switch from rock to bluegrass in a way very few other bands – if any – can accomplish. On ”Hollywood Ending,” Sean’s vocal quality and melody is reminiscent of James Taylor, and the last track, “Failure Isn’t Forever,” is the perfect note to end on. It features a wise, simple aphorism we all need to hear: “Failures aren’t forever/unless they quit wondering how to get better.” 

Speaking of wise, Nickel Creek made a great call recording Celebrants at RCA Studio A in Nashville with longtime producer/collaborator Eric Valentine (Queens of the Stone Age, Grace Potter, Weezer) and Grammy-winning producer-songwriter Mike Elizondo (Fiona Apple, Eminem, Joy Oladokun). In addition to adding his touch as a producer, he also played bass.

Celebrants is out March 24 wherever you stream music. Check it out, and be intentional about listening to it all the way through. It’s a masterpiece.

Highlights include “Holding Pattern,” “To the Airport,” “From the Beach” “Hollywood Ending.”

For more info, go to https://www.nickelcreek.com/

Enjoy our previous coverage here:  REVIEW: Nickel Creek’s 3 Out of Print Re-Releases are Exquisite and Remarkable

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Believe it...Nickel Creek gets better and better

The theatre at the ace hotel, los angeles, october 11, 2023.

Reviewed by Dan MacIntosh

Show Review: Nickel Creek at the Fox Theater, Oakland

Most bands rarely make it to five years, let alone 25.

Formed in 1989, reunited progressive bluegrass trio Nickel Creek are celebrating their 25th anniversary in 2014 with a new album and tour.

And lucky for me, I got to witness one of the band’s comeback shows.

Nickel Creek are a double threat in that they possess Grammy-level songwriting ability, and they deliver with unearthly, A-list studio player chops. This is a deadly combo.

If you’re at all curious, do a quick search on YouTube where you’ll discover a pint-sized Nickel Creek shocking audiences with prodigious chops and spot-on harmonies from way back in 1989. It’s clear they have a natural talent, but then playing as a unit for 25 years (with a short 7-year lapse) helps too.

In 2006, after five albums and a number of Grammy Awards, Nickel Creek announced they would no longer be recording as a group and that touring would cease for an indefinite period. In retrospect, the “quitting while you’re on top” method is respectable, but it certainly left fans heartbroken and wondering if they’d ever get a chance to witness the band again.

Fast forward to February 2014, and Nickel Creek announced the big news that they were back with not only tour dates –– but a full length album, A Dotted Line . During Monday evening’s performance at the Fox Theater in Oakland, fans were treated to a number of tracks from the new release, plus a generous helping of the band’s greatest hits from their 25 year existence. The trio were also joined by upright bassist Mark Schatz, who fit right into place with the band and provided well-placed low end.

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At the group’s center is Chris Thile, who is quite simply a genius of the mandolin. Watching him on stage is almost humorous at times. He’s a bit of a lanky fellow, and seeing him manipulate this tiny instrument is a trip. “The Lighthouse’s Tale” and “When in Rome” were standout vocal performances for Thile, and his solos during instrumental numbers were inspiring and on another level.

Fiddle player Sara Watkins deserves credit not only for her stellar playing, but also for her close-to-perfect voice. She’s a commanding singer, and for songs like “Reasons Why” and “Anthony,” she maintained a perfect balance of control and vulnerability.

Watkins’ brother, Sean, held down stage-left with expert acoustic guitar playing and singing. One of his highlights was “Somebody More Like You,” which demonstrated his role as a key player in NC’s songwriting department. His solos were blazing; they seemed to almost come from nowhere, and were gone before I could process what had happened.

The members of Nickel Creek are each worthy of the spotlight, but coming from a background in bluegrass – where playing an ancillary role is oftentimes equally as important as taking the lead – they understand how to support one another too. “Jealous of the Moon,” one of the show’s standout moments, was evidence of this.

It's no surprise that the members of Nickel Creek have enjoyed success outside of the band, but seeing them together once again is a reminder of what these three artists are capable of when they combine their 25-year chemistry.

View tour dates and pickup the band's new album at nickelcreek.com .

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For the beloved trio's return, nickel creek created its own world, 'we needed to let it rest,' sara watkins says of the 9 years between albums.

Brittney McKenna

Sean Watkins, Chris Thile and Sara Watkins sequenced Nickel Creek's Celebrants as a way to write the album. "We wanted the songs to relate to each other," says Sara Watkins. Josh Goleman/Courtesy of the artist hide caption

Sean Watkins, Chris Thile and Sara Watkins sequenced Nickel Creek's Celebrants as a way to write the album. "We wanted the songs to relate to each other," says Sara Watkins.

The opening song and title track of Nickel Creek 's fifth studio album, Celebrants , poses a striking image: "Heaven's always been in this cathedral that we rebuild nightly together." The line conjures the fantastical and the spiritual, but, at its heart, the song celebrates something simple, even ordinary: choosing to come together in community.

It's an idea made quietly radical not just by its origin — the beloved acoustic band wrote the bulk of Celebrants during the isolation of COVID-19 lockdown — but also for the context into which it's being released: a time largely defined by bitter, deeply entrenched division.

Celebrants is Nickel Creek's first release since its 2014 album A Dotted Line , which itself came after another lengthy hiatus during which the trio — comprising Chris Thile , Sara Watkins and Sean Watkins — developed solo careers and other projects , all after spending their youth literally rewriting roots music.At first listen, Celebrants may seem like the trio's least accessible record, favoring musical world-building over playlist-ready singles.The gorgeous harmonies and intricate musicianship of those earlier LPs are there — in fact, the trio sounds and plays better than ever — but the album's structure doesn't lend itself to skipping around. Instead, Celebrants is the kind of album that truly rewards repeated, front-to-back listens. And that was by design — rather than focusing on individual songs, the band wrote the LP as one might write a novel, ensuring that each track helped to contextualize those before and after it.

At its heart, Celebrants is a record about human connection. There's the connection found in that cathedral — the collective joy of a concert, perhaps, or the awkward but necessary small talk of a party as recreated on the dizzying second song "Strangers." But there's also the seemingly smaller ones, the relationships and friendships that ground us, that reconnect us to past versions of ourselves and, to borrow a line from standout track "Holding Pattern," "hold" us "as the world burns down."

Accordingly, Celebrants also teases the political out of the personal. "Holding Pattern" brings to life the crackling fear and disorienting paranoia of early lockdown, with Thile singing, his voice uncharacteristically downcast, "One man's freedom's another's fever that keeps rising." The pair of "Goddamned Saint" and "Goddamned Saint, Reprise" first celebrates how music can tear down ideological walls — "A trickle of light shone in from where I hadn't been" — but also charts how such walls are built: "I find my choir has ceased to think and my thoughts have ceased to sing / 'Cause I won't even have a drink with anyone who disagrees."

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The year folk broke: how nickel creek made americana the new indie rock.

In a press release announcing the album, Sean Watkins shared that the band wanted Celebrants to be its most ambitious release yet. And it is. Across 18 interconnected tracks, Nickel Creek offers another world for listeners, not necessarily one to escape into — these songs are nuanced and honest, not fantasy — but one suited for introspection. The triptych of "Water Under the Bridge, Part 1," "The Meadow" and "Thinnest Wall" illustrates scenarios that will be familiar to anyone in a long-term partnership. "Where the Long Line Leads," which boasts one of Sara Watkins' finest vocals to date, and "Hollywood Ending" challenge our need for attention within an economy that literally profits off it. And closer "Failure Isn't Forever" ends the LP on a hopeful note, though not one without an important caveat: "Failures aren't forever unless they quit wondering how to get better."

From their respective homes, the three members of Nickel Creek joined a video chat to talk about getting back together to make Celebrants , honoring each other's perspectives and staying open to change.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Brittney McKenna: This is the longest hiatus between albums you've taken thus far. What is it like to come back together? To use a cliché, is it like riding a bike?

Sara Watkins: Interpersonally and musically, it's always felt like a really natural thing to step back into. And over the years, we've all kept in touch and seen each other at festivals and gigs, and always thought and expected to come together and make more music. But a lot of it has to do with being able to have the time to do it. And whenever we do have that time, things fall into place quite quickly.

Sean Watkins: As soon as we get together, it feels like the next morning after the last night we hung out, even if that was actually a couple years.

Chris Thile: It still sounds crazy to me that it's the longest period between records for us. It doesn't feel like that, at all. I wonder if people who haven't been in the same band since they were 8 years old can relate to the way that, sometimes, you forget to prioritize hanging out with your very best friends, because you know that that relationship isn't going anywhere. Then when we finally did get it on the books, which took a global pandemic, all of the sudden we started realizing how much we had to say together.

Sean Watkins: We should also note that, initially, you guys at NPR have no small role in this.

Chris Thile: That's true.

Sean Watkins: That piece that celebrated the 20th anniversary of our first self-titled album. It had us feeling nostalgic.

Sara Watkins: None of us had realized the anniversary was coming up.

Sean Watkins: Shortly after, I can't remember who brought it up, but there was a general sense of like, "Should we do something?" And that started our conversation about making this album.

"It's like if there's a sculpture in the middle of a room," Thile explains of the songwriting process, "and you've got three people standing around it, you need all of their descriptions to understand it as a whole." Josh Goleman/Courtesy of the artist hide caption

"It's like if there's a sculpture in the middle of a room," Thile explains of the songwriting process, "and you've got three people standing around it, you need all of their descriptions to understand it as a whole."

What were some of those early conversations and ideating sessions like? Sean, I read that you wanted Celebrants to be the trio's most ambitious record yet. What did "ambitious" mean to you, in the context of this record?

Chris Thile: We booked a bunch of time with each other and our families; all three of us brought our significant others and children to this big, old house in Santa Barbara and we started writing. The kids were tooling around; the dogs were tooling around together, we'd all have big family dinners together. And then Sara, Sean and I would spend the day working on various ideas and then spend the nights, after the families would go to bed, dreaming about what the thing could be. The longer that process went on, the bigger the idea became. We were able to fantasize about taking a real big swing at something that would feel like you could kind of poke around in it, like one of these great video games where you feel like you're inside of a little world.

That's an interesting idea, treating the album as a world the listener can enter. Some of my favorite albums feel that way, and I noticed it while listening to Celebrants : Songs call back to one another lyrically or reintroduce musical flourishes, in such a way that you're reflecting while you're listening.

Chris Thile: The way that people listen to music now is so fragmented. We get things in fits and starts. It's so easy to finish a song and put it out and have people start playlisting it; half the time they're on shuffle and they don't even mean to be. If you're going to make a record, I feel that now more than ever there needs to be a concrete reason, like the content needs to dictate the form. An LP is just not how people are consuming music now, so if you're making a conscious decision to create within that form, there must be a reason.

It seems you took great care in sequencing Celebrants . Like the way "The Meadow" leads into "Thinnest Wall" — all the married folks out there will especially get that one. Those moments of building and guiding are all over the record. How did you pull that off?

Sara Watkins: As we were scheming the broader structure, we talked about how great it would be to have the sequence determined before going in to record and to be able to form the record with all of that in mind. We wanted the songs to relate to each other. And we wanted to be able to do those reprisals you hear, and also have themes connect. We didn't write the songs in sequence, but as songs were coming out we were aware of how they related to each other. That was a really fun part of the process that was new to us in this band. And to write for it was really, I think, like exploring this world. By exploring our own lives with each other, and what we're all processing, [and] creating something inside of it.

Chris Thile: In a way, the sequencing was the writing of it. The shape of the album was directly impacting how the songs were composed and how the lyrics were written. It wasn't that you would finish a song and then decide where it fit. You would start a song and see what narrative service it could be and what it could help contextualize best.

Sean Watkins: From the very first writing session up through as far as we could go in the writing process, we were really working to fine-tune as much as we could with what time we had. The other thing that helped with sequencing was being able to record with Eric Valentine, our producer. He likes to do a sort of "practice swing" at an album. It's a tough thing to do, because it requires some extra time. But you get a lot of information. For an album like this — we'd never done an album in this way before, you know, sort of piecing together and dreaming up how the songs would fit — you have to hear how it happens in a real way. So, we were able to do that, by recording the whole album in a rough state.

When it came time to record the album, how did your time spent working on other projects lend itself to what you were able to accomplish creatively as a unit?

Sara Watkins: I feel like I became a much better musician when I started playing with other bands. For the longest time, personally, when we were doing Nickel Creek so intensely up through [ Why Should the Fire Die?] , I hadn't really played with anyone else, aside from jamming with people. Nickel Creek was taking up so much time, which is part of why we had to put it on the shelf. It was just everything. There was no way to do the band effectively and to have a career without doing it all the time. And that worked really well for a while. The metaphor that we used for a long time was that we had basically farmed every nutrient we could out of the potential of this band's soil and we needed to let it rest.

Chris Thile: We each come packaged with our unique perspective. We bring that to the various projects that we engage in. And, you know, for the longest time, we had our [individual] perspectives and we had the perspective of the three of us, but now that we've gone off and done all these different things, now the nuance of everyone's individual perspective, and then the coming together of the various shades of color that we're able to achieve now as a trio, it wouldn't have been possible without all of our gallivanting in various directions.

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To your point, do you have a sense of what each of your perspectives brings to the band? Do you feel that you each have a kind of role, in any sense?

Sean Watkins: We don't really think about it. Our perspectives are built in. We realize it's a rare thing. We know it's there and the joy that happens and that we all feel when we come together, that's the fuel.

Chris Thile: [It's like in ] Lord of the Rings or something — people take turns on watch; there are all of these roles and you cycle in and out. I particularly think about whoever's lookout. You really have to keep that cycling for everyone to stay energized. One of the three of us might run point for a little bit and then the other one does. It's like if there's a sculpture in the middle of a room, you know, and you've got three people standing around it, you need all of their descriptions to understand it as a whole.

At the top of our conversation, you all noted how the pandemic afforded you the time to make this record. I could hear inklings of the pandemic lyrically on the album, too, in songs like "Holding Pattern" and "To the Airport," woven into this broader meditation on human connection. Does the idea of the pandemic creeping into the LP resonate at all?

Chris Thile: One of those [songs]? Absolutely. The other one? Absolutely not. But I think that's a really great example of the power of music to constantly recontextualize itself based on the moment that we experienced it, as music lovers. So, yeah, "Holding Pattern" was musing over questions that arose during the early stages of lockdown. Whereas "To the Airport" is just a song about walking through airports.

Sean Watkins: With "Holding Pattern," that's a good one that represents what Chris was talking about, with the sculpture being on different sides. I had the guitar part and some lyrics, and the chorus was "Holding Pattern." I played it for Sara and Chris and they saw it from a totally different perspective, which was what it ended up being: how we're all feeling when COVID was really firing all cylinders, locked down. It was totally different than the vague idea I had going into it, and it was so great.

Chris Thile: So much of the time, the person who starts the thing has the least perspective on it. That's why I love being in a band. And then also with you, as the music listener, now getting to hear your thoughts as you're interviewing us about it, you have more perspective on this than we do know at this point, because you're hearing what's there. We know what we meant, but you're hearing what's actually there.

It sounds like there's so much letting go involved. You let go of an individual idea to the group, let go of revising when it's time to record, then fully let go once the music is released. It's not yours anymore.

Sara Watkins: The letting go process was ongoing on this album, I think, because of the sequencing that we wanted to hold true to. We tried to be open to adjusting anything until we recorded it. We were open to reconsidering lyrics. There were many parts that we just kept approaching, because one of us was not really satisfied with it. A song was never considered, like, "OK, we're done with that. We're not going to touch that," until we actually recorded it.

That openness you're talking about — has that always been part of the spirit of the band? Is it something that has grown stronger with time and age?

Sara Watkins: I don't think we had that for a long time.

Sean Watkins: We've never really had the time to be able to do that. But also, yeah, I think personally, as you grow up, you learn to hold loosely to your ideas. As you get older, you can kind of keep your ego more in check and not identify so much with your ideas.

A pair of songs I kept thinking about were "Goddamned Saint" and "Goddamned Saint, Reprise." The first track tells this story of one's world being made larger by music, but then veers into darker territory that mirrors today's political climate. Its reprisal seems to retain that darkness, but then takes a turn for the light when the narrator passes the torch to a younger generation.

Chris Thile: That one started with just that little soaring melody. The first time we worked on it, the place we were in had super high ceilings. I started singing that melody and Sarah doubled it, kind of just reflexively, at the octave. And you only hear that at the very, very end of the song. But we knew that we needed to get there. We tried starting with and it's like, "There's nowhere to go." It's such a big moment that we knew we were not going to start there. We're going to end there. We needed to figure out how to get there. We needed to figure out how to earn that moment. And the topic has to be range-y, to get to this moment where people can feel we've earned that catharsis. That moment, that's when we say, "I've forgotten that the well I've drawn from springs from disagreements with people who believe that we can only change someone as much as we're willing to be changed." It's one of the most bald-faced lyrics I've ever been a part of. It's smack in the middle of the record and summarizes what's been going so far, and puts a big, giant question mark: "Can we reopen our perspectives? Can we get back, somehow, to that naïve place when we would enter into a conversation with someone we disagree with in good faith?" Because that's how we got to these convictions that we have now and hold so dear and treat as being so sacred. Can we still do that?

That's the million-dollar question. Or perhaps billion-dollar, these days. "Where the Long Line Leads" and "Hollywood Ending" also felt like thematic siblings to me, the way they each address the pitfalls of chasing fame and living with social media, the latter of which wasn't really a thing when you all first started out. How do the observations those songs pose relate to your own experiences in the public eye?

Sara Watkins: I imagine that everybody encounters it to some to some degree, right? This is just the world we live in. It's just, "Go, go, go, more, more, more," and it's never enough. With "Hollywood Ending," there's a lot of connection to this part of the country. We wrote a lot of this record in Southern California; we're all from Southern California. That imagery comes out in a lot of ways on the record, and definitely on "Long Line." And I think exactly when you hit the nail on the head, where it's largely coming from a place of, "What do you want from me, so that I can be enough for you? So that I can be enough for me?"

Chris Thile: That's also an important component to the record to set up the idea that we're really extolling the virtues of staying open to change. It's one of the central tenets of the record, embracing that kind of friction that leads to personal and then potentially global change. And you want to make sure you're looking at it from all sides. "Long Line" is obviously a cautionary tale about changing yourself to attract greater attention or whatever it might be. That's something we're all quite wary of at this point. It was important to have a song that throws a little bit of a wrench into the grand themes of the record.

Sean Watkins: All the songs were vulnerable the whole time. That can be an unsettling feeling. But on the flip side, it can be really exciting.

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Live Review: Nickel Creek w/ Aoife O’Donovan @ Wolf Trap — 7/23/23

Nickel Creek, the self-described “progressive acoustic” band consisting of Chris Thile on mandolin and siblings Sara and Sean Watkins on fiddle and guitar, has been together (including breaks and hiatuses) for 34 years. Thirty-four years ago would be 1989, when the youngest member of the band, Sara Watkins, who is a year younger than me, would’ve been eight years old. It’s enough to make me self-conscious: when I was eight years old, I was just starting to read chapter books.

On Sunday night, Nickel Creek played to a packed audience at Wolf Trap, with Aoife O’Donovan — who has worked with Sara Watkins in the supergroup I’m With Her — opening the show.

With 34 years together as a band, Nickel Creek have an extensive catalog to draw from, but they recently released a new LP, Celebrants, and they opened at Wolf Trap on July 23 with a song from that album, “Where The Long Line Leads,” which features Sara on lead vocals. Chris introduced another song from the record, “Going Out,” by thanking the audience for coming out on a Sunday night; being in their 40s now, he said, they understood how hard it can be to come out. “Thinnest Wall,” as Sean explained, is a song about the middle of a relationship, rather than the beginning or the end. The set also included the title cut and “To The Airport,” which Chris introduced as a song about people you might see at the airport, unsurprisingly.

As a band based in bluegrass, instrumentals always make up a  part of Nickel Creek’s set. In addition to the aforementioned “Going Out,” they also played “The Elephant in the Corn.” Chris gave an extensive introduction to the old favorite, “To The Lighthouse.”  He apologized for getting political, but he brought up how the US government is decommissioning lighthouses, with the rationale that GPS has made them unnecessary. He expressed skepticism about the ability of GPS to prevent ships from hitting the rocks, but he was also enthusiastic about the prospect of the government auctioning off lighthouses to private owners. Chris seems like the kind of guy who’d make a good hermit living alone in a lighthouse, occasionally returning to society to play his music.

Sean wrote “21st of May.” The song was inspired by billboards he saw in Los Angeles, where he lives, that promised the world would end on May 21, 2011. As I’ve heard him quip before, when he appeared with Sara as the Watkins Family Hour at the Birchmere last year, he had the question of which time zone the proposed end of the world was synched with. Obviously, the world didn’t come to an end, and this preacher and his followers, who had lived as though it would — accumulating credit card debt in the anticipation they’d never have to pay it back — were left high and dry.

Watch Nickel Creek perform “21st of May” live for WNYC on YouTube:

The set included a number of audience favorites from the band’s extensive catalog: the title cut of the album This Side, “First and Last Waltz,” “Helena,” “Destination,” “Smoothie Song,” “Strangers,” “Sweet Afton,” “Someone More Like You,” and “I Should’ve Known Better.” They covered “Hayloft” by the band Mother Mother before closing the main set with “The Fox.” Eschewing the pageantry of leaving the stage and returning, after a momentary pause, they went into their encore, which consisted of “Scotch & Chocolate” and “Holding Pattern.”

In a classy move, Sean came out at the start of the evening to introduce the opening act, Aoife O’Donovan. Aoife performed in a trio with Isa Burke, who has also released records as a solo artists and with the band Lula Wiles, on electric guitar and backing vocals. The show started at 7:30, allowing O’Donovan to play a lengthy, hour-long set. Much of it was drawn from her latest LP, The Age of Apathy , which came out early last year. “Galahad”  references the Camelot knight who succeeded in the quest for the Holy Grail. “Phoenix” is inspired by the mythical bird that rose from the ashes. Introducing “Sister Starling,” Aoife told the audience, “I don’t actually know anything about birds,” and asked us to pretend the sparrows (someone in the audience told her what they were) were starlings; fittingly, a bird sang just before the band started playing.

Aoife’s set continued with “Prodigal Daughter.” Being on the road, she explained, “you get to a point where you can’t remember what happened where.” Sometimes, she said, you realize you’re in a place where a strange thing happened, which is what “Elevators” is about. She introduced “B61,” which is the name of a bus route to a seaside area of Brooklyn, as “a love song about public transportation.”

Watch Aoife O’Donovan perform “B61” live acoustically for the Age of Apathy Solo Sessions on YouTube:

Next up was “Hornets,” followed by “Porch Light,” from her 2016 album, In The Magic Hour ; she called attention to the fact that it was the magic hour, and that we’re in the “porch season” now. Introducing the title cut of that album, she talked up an Irish children’s book she loves, called The Turf Cutter’s Donkey , about a magical donkey. (Of related interest: I learned yesterday you can rent a heard of goats to take care of overgrown, invasive vegetation. And now I’m wondering if I can rent a herd of goats just to hang out.)

Many years ago, Aoife covered, in its entirety, one of the albums that has most inspired her: Bruce Springsteen’s haunting, sparse Nebraska . Earlier this year, she toured playing the album for live audiences, appearing at the Birchmere in March. She gave the audience at Wolf Trap a “sample,” playing “Open All Night.” She closed the set with one of her older songs, “Red & White & Blue & Gold,” and one of her newest sons, “Passengers.”

One of the evening’s funnier moments came when Sara revealed that, for the first time in 20 years, she’d had a Coca-Cola, and was amped up from the caffeine. It’s a moment that captures the silliness and sense of whimsy that Nickel Creek always has even as they’re quite serious about their music and their playing. They’re always a lot of fun — as is Aoife — and the evening was a thoroughly entertaining experience.

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Nickel creek and the secret sisters’ sibling harmonies: concert review.

Americana icons’ welcome return results in some serious shredding, offbeat humor.

By Chris Willman

Chris Willman

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Nickel Creek Performing - H 2014

A two-month road trip came to a close for the pop-bluegrass band Nickel Creek Wednesday night at the Wiltern, and the trio seemed in a mood to celebrate. “This is our last night,” said fiddler Sara Watkins , “and then we drive home!”

“Of the tour, that is,” added mandolinist Chris Thile , getting a little bit ahead of the audience.

“Right, of the tour,” repeated Watkins. “I guess we should clarify that in this particular band.”

Anyone aware of the band’s recent history (or, to be more apt, lack of a recent history) got the joke. Nickel Creek’s new album, A Dotted Line, is their first in nine years, and during most of that layoff, fans assumed maybe the band was gone for good. Nickel Creek’s epic hiatus left a glaring hole right in the heart of the Americana music movement, which needs all the homegrown stars it can get. When their first two Alison Krauss -produced albums arrived in the early 2000s, practically hand-in-rosin-stained hand with O Brother Where Art Thou? , they were the youthful yin to that soundtrack’s old-timey yang, and suddenly acoustic string-band music had real pop cachet. And then they were gone, and even fresh Americana standard-bearers like the Civil Wars and Mumford & Sons haven’t quite recreated Nickel Creek’s unique combination of virtuosity and vivacity.

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Wednesday night, it felt like Americana finally had its Beatles back. That’s not so much to do with the roar of the crowd, though that was certainly substantial and ecstatic enough at this sold-out homecoming show. (The three members were or are Southern Californians, originally by way of San Diego.) It’s more about the whole being even greater than the sum of the parts… and there were some pretty great parts in the interim, between Thile founding the acclaimed Punch Brothers and Sara Watkins finding her voice on a pair of terrific solo albums. Any of the three can command a stage as a vocalist or instrumentalist in his or her own right, but the three-part harmonies and combination of distinctive personalities makes for an alchemy that’s far more precious than mere nickel. Apparently, they all now know that as well as we did.

These are all funny folks, and the comedic highlight came in some extended riffing toward the end of the two-hour set about the dilemmas inherent in coming up with names for songs that have no words, the likes of which constitute about a fourth or fifth of their material. “The reason we took six-and-a-half years off,” Thile explained — dating their absence back to the close of their last tour — “is that we ran out of instrumental titles.” He admitted that they “dove right into the gutter” by allowing one of their signature instrumentals to be called “The Smoothie Song” (giving it “an emphatic two thumbs down and a sad bass note”), before introducing a new number with “the crown jewel of instrumental titles,” “Elephant in the Corner.”

STORY: Bonnie Raitt, T Bone Burnett, Rodney Crowell Pay Tribute to the Everly Brothers

Serious shredding ensued on almost every number, vocal or instrumental. The players do know when to cut out the solos and leave a tender moment alone — as they did in “When You Come Back Down,” the closest thing in their catalog to a conventional ballad, or their final encore, a supremely sad cover of Sam Phillips’ “Where is Love Now.” But half the fun of a Nickel Creek show is the emotional rock-concert intensity that results when Thile, Sara Watkins and Sean Watkins tear into their mandolin, fiddle and acoustic guitar, respectively. (“Sean, did you just rock a G-string clean off?” asked Thile at one point, going for a string-band gag that never gets old.)

Thile, who has a bit of lanky Chris Martin presence to him, has always had a bit more of a center-stage role as singer/songwriter than the sibling partners on either side of him. But a decade of doing side-project shows at Largo as the Watkins Family Hour has helped Sara, in particular, and Sean catch up as vocalists. When she recorded Bob Dylan ’s “Tomorrow is a Long Time” on 2005’s Why Should the Fire Die?, her voice was still girlish and tentative; at the Wiltern, she rendered it with such accomplished, womanly knowing that it didn’t even sound like the same tune.

Sean Watkins seems content to spend less time in the spotlight and provide a rhythm guitar anchor, occasionally stepping up to prove his soloing chops are as good as anyone’s. His big number was the new album’s hilariously sprightly “21st of May,” inspired by the infamous prophecy by evangelist Harold Camping that the rapture would occur on May 21, 2011. “This song could not be more relevant, calendar-wise,” he pointed out, noting that their tour was (coincidentally?) ending right on the third anniversary of the world not ending.

You could write a book on how Nickel Creek embraces some of the tropes of bluegrass — like hiring a stand-up bass player and eschewing a drummer — while completely avoiding others. Rural themes rarely pop up, with the exception being a song Sara Watkins introduced as being “about getting it on in a hayloft”; that would be “Hayloft,” which is actually a hard-rocking, un-country cover of an alt-rock song by the band Mother Mother.

But the best way in which they avoid bluegrass tradition (and rock tradition, for that matter) is with a finely honed sense of dynamics that finds highs and lows and fluidity in nearly every number. The new album’s “You Don’t Know What’s Going On” and the older “Helena” were perfect examples of songs that begin gently and then build up to harmony-fueled panic attacks, with the curtaining behind the stage turning red to match the musical intensity.

Harold Camping got it wrong: There was rapture to be found on May 21, but three years later than expected, and isolated to a historic movie palace in L.A.’s Koreatown district. Hey, close enough.

The Watkinses weren’t the only sibling act anchoring this tour. Opening the show were the Secret Sisters, aka Laura and Lydia Rogers , who effectively marry Everly Brothers-style harmonies to twangy Chris Isaak guitar tones. Their T Bone Burnett -produced sophomore album, Put Your Needle Down, rocks out more than its predecessor did; to that end, the sisters had two electrified side musicians on stage to supply extra swampiness, although, like the headliners, they ditched the drums. As much as Nickel Creek avoids classic country lyrical trademarks of lonesomeness and death, the Secret Sisters embrace these. And since the Rogers gals might have the sweetest personalities as well as voices in music today, you were glad for the self-conscious invocations of murder or other imminent doom, to keep things from getting too honeyed.  

Nickel Creek Set list:

Rest of My Life? Scotch & Chocolate ?? This Side ??Destination ?? Jealous of the Moon ?? Smoothie Song ?? Reasons Why? 21st of May? When in Rome? Tomorrow is a Long Time? Ode to a Butterfly? You Don’t Know What’s Going On? Somebody More Like You? The Lighthouse’s Tale? Anthony? Elephant in the Corn? When You Come Back Down? Hayloft? The Fox ?? —–? First and Last Waltz ?? Helena ?? Cuckoo’s Nest ?? Where Is Love Now

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Nickel Creek and Andrew Bird Announce 2024 Co-Headlining Tour

Kicking off in July

Nickel Creek  and Andrew Bird are teaming up for a Summer 2024 co-headlining tour.

After kicking off on July 5th in Jacksonville, Oregon, the joint trek will also make stops in cities like Boise, Minneapolis, and Atlanta before wrapping up on July 20th in North Charleston, South Carolina. See the full touring itineraries for both artists below.

Fans can look for deals and find tickets to sold-out dates via  StubHub , where orders are 100% guaranteed through StubHub’s FanProtect program. StubHub is a secondary market ticketing platform, and prices may be higher or lower than face value, depending on demand.

“AHHH!!! We can’t even BEGIN to express our excitement to be back on the road with Andrew Bird!” said Nickel Creek’s Chris Thile in a statement. “Our only other tour together was almost 20 years ago, and he’s been a HUGE source of inspiration to us ever since. Relentlessly creative, always searching for that next unexpected melody or couplet, and what a performer. We can’t WAIT to catch up with him and all of you this summer!”

Get Nickel Creek Tickets Here

Outside of the co-headlining tour, Nickel Creek have their own set of previously announced dates across the US (get tickets here ), while Bird will continue on the road with Amadou & Mariam (get tickets here ).

Last year, Nickel Creek returned with their first album in nine years, Celebrants . Bird dropped his most recent full-length, Outside Problems , last July.

Nickel Creek 2024 Tour Dates: 02/06 – Iowa City, IA @ Hancher Auditorium 02/07 – Madison, WI @ Overture Hall 02/09 – Des Moines, IA @ Hoyt Sherman Place 02/10 – Indianapolis, IN @ Murat Theatre at Old National Centre 02/12 – Peoria, IL @ Peoria Civic Center Theater 02/13 – Kalamazoo, MI @ Kalamazoo State Theatre 02/15 – Columbus, OH @ Mershon Auditorium 02/16 – Fort Wayne, IN @ The Clyde Theatre 02/17 – Louisville, KY @ The Louisville Palace 02/19 – Durham, NC @ Durham Performing Arts Center 02/20 – Augusta, GA @ Miller Theater 02/21 – Jacksonville, FL @ Florida Theatre 02/23 – Fort Lauderdale, FL @ Broward Center for the Performing Arts 02/24 – Clearwater, FL @ Ruth Eckerd Hall 03/12 – Canton, OH @ Canton Palace Theatre 03/14 – Bethesda, MD @ Music Center at Strathmore 03/15 – Newark, NJ @ NJPAC 03/16 – Rochester, NY @ Kodak Center 03/17 – Burlington, VT @ Flynn Center for the Performing Arts 03/19 – Groton, MA @ Groton Hill Music Center Concert Hall 03/21 – Storrs, CT @ Jorgensen Center for the Performing Arts 03/22 – Troy, NY @ Troy Savings Bank Music Hall 03/23 – Buffalo, NY @ University at Buffalo Center for the Arts 03/24 – Lancaster, PA @ American Music Theatre 04/25 – Knoxville, TN @ Tennessee Theatre 04/26 – Knoxville, TN @ Tennessee Theatre 04/27 – Savannah, GA @ Johnny Mercer Theatre 04/28 – Wilkesboro, NC @ MerleFest 04/30 – Huntsville, AL @ VBC Mark Smith Concert Hall 05/02 – Little Rock, AR @ The Hall 05/04 – New Orleans, LA @ New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival 05/11 – Miramar Beach, FL @ Brandi Carlile’s Mothership Weekend 07/05 – Jacksonville, OR @ Britt Pavilion * 07/06 – Bend, OR @ Hayden Homes Amphitheater * 07/07 – Boise, ID @ Outlaw Field at the Idaho Botanical Garden * 07/08 – Missoula, MT @ Big Sky Brewing Co. Amphitheater * 07/10 – Sandy, UT @ Sandy Amphitheater * 07/12 – Omaha, NE @ The Astro Amphitheater * 07/13 – Minneapolis, MN @ Surly Brewing * 07/14 – Bayfield, WI @ Lake Superior Big Top Chautauqua * 07/15 – Interlochen, MI @ Kresge Auditorium * 07/17 – Charlottesville, VA @ Ting Pavilion * 07/18 – Asheville, NC @ Rabbit Rabbit * 07/19 – Atlanta, GA @ Coca-Cola Roxy * 07/20 – North Charleston, SC @ Firefly Distillery *

* = w/ Andrew Bird

Andrew Bird 2024 Tour Dates: 02/15 – Guadalajara, MX @ Teatro Diana 02/17 – Mexico City, MX @ Auditorio BB 07/05 – Jacksonville, OR @ Britt Pavilion * 07/06 – Bend, OR @ Hayden Homes Amphitheater * 07/07 – Boise, ID @ Outlaw Field at the Idaho Botanical Garden * 07/08 – Missoula, MT @ Big Sky Brewing Co. Amphitheater * 07/10 – Sandy, UT @ Sandy Amphitheater * 07/12 – Omaha, NE @ The Astro Amphitheater * 07/13 – Minneapolis, MN @ Surly Brewing * 07/14 – Bayfield, WI @ Lake Superior Big Top Chautauqua * 07/15 – Interlochen, MI @ Kresge Auditorium * 07/17 – Charlottesville, VA @ Ting Pavilion * 07/18 – Asheville, NC @ Rabbit Rabbit * 07/19 – Atlanta, GA @ Coca-Cola Roxy * 07/20 – North Charleston, SC @ Firefly Distillery * 08/08 – Indianapolis, IN @ Rock The Ruins at Holliday Park ^ 08/09 – Grand Rapids, MI @ TBA ^ 08/10 – Royal Oak, MI @ Royal Oak Music Theatre ^ 08/12 – Montreal, QC @ L’Olympia ^ 08/13 – Schenectady, NY @ Frog Alley Brewing Summerstage ^ 08/15 – Deerfield, MA @ Summerstage at Tree House Brewing Company – Deerfield ^ 08/16 – New York, NY @ Pier 17 ^ 08/17 – Westport, CT @ Levitt Pavilion ^ 08/18 – Kennett Square, PA @ TBA ^ 08/20 – Raleigh, NC @ North Carolina Museum of Art ^ 08/21 – Vienna, VA @ Wolf Trap – Filene Center ^

* = w/ Nickel Creek ^ = w/ Amadou & Mariam

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Utah Concert Review

Relive the Utah Concert Experience!

Nickel Creek and Andrew Bird

Nickel Creek • Andrew Bird • July 10, 2024 • Sandy Amphitheater

Reviewed and Photographed by Kevin Rolfe

There is something special about seeing a Bluegrass band in an outdoor amphitheater on a summer’s night.  Some might even say that this is the only way you should see a Bluegrass or Americana band.  I can’t say I disagree.  I’ve seen some of these shows indoors and while it is still awesome, I do prefer the outdoor shows.  There’s something in the music that calls for a setting sun, a warm temperature, and a cold drink.  These were the conditions for Nickel Creek and Andrew Bird at Sandy Amphitheater.  The crowd made sure to arrive early so when I walked into Sandy Amp the venue was pretty much completely full already.

Andrew Bird

We’ve had the opportunity to see Andrew Bird a few times in a variety of ways.  He’s been on the Red Butte Garden stage and we got to see him at the Park City Song Summit where he not only performed on his own but also did an amazing panel with Saturday Night Live alum and musician himself, Fred Armisen.  He played the straight man in the comedy duo, but the panel was not only hilarious, but it was amazing to see the two working together both musically and comedically.  And of course, Andrew was at the Sandy Amphitheater last year. It was good to know he was coming back. Seeing him on the same bill as Nickel Creek we knew it would be a perfect match.

Andrew Bird is an interesting artist.  He’s not only a good singer and songwriter but he’s an incredible instrumentalist.  Particularly on the violin.  He can play so many styles.  I particularly enjoyed the more classical pieces.  He was able to show off what he’s capable of.  The audience was amazing when he played the violin like a guitar or mandolin.  

Now if you know Andrew Bird, you know that the violin is not the only instrument he plays.  In fact, I’m not totally sure this is considered an instrument, but he’s so skilled musically with this it’s difficult to call it anything else.  But he whistles exceptionally well.  It sounds like he’s playing an actual instrument.  I’ve tried to sound close to what Bird does and I’m not even close.  It’s truly an impressive talent.  

Andrew Bird wrapped up his set to a standing ovation from the crowd.  Little did they know that they would, spoiler alert, get to see Andrew Bird back on stage later that night.

Nickel Creek

Nickel Creek is a band that has been on my radar for a long time, and yet I have never had the chance to see them live.  Part of that is due to their lengthy hiatus from 2014 to 2020.  But for one reason or another, I just haven’t had the opportunity.  They played last year at Red Butte Garden and before that, their last time in Utah was in 2014.  So to say I was looking forward to this concert is an understatement.  The night did not disappoint.  Andrew Bird did a great job teeing up Nickel Creek.  So when they took the stage the audience was pretty fired up for them to perform.  I’d guess there were others in attendance like me, getting to see these guys for the first time

Nickel Creek is an American Bluegrass band from of all places, Carlsbad, California.  I’m sure if you polled a large group and had them listen to Nickel Creek then guess where they’re from I don’t think anyone would have guessed that they were from just outside of San Diego. Probably not considered the hub of Bluegrass, but then again, you never do know.  Regardless of the location or the music rooted in the area, Nickel Creek is as authentic and genuine as I’ve seen.  Pure talent and an absolute connectivity to the audience. 

The band consists of brother and sister, Sean and Sara Watkins on guitar and fiddle respectively.  They are joined by Chis Thile on vocals and mandolin.  We’ve had the opportunity to see Chris at Red Butte Garden with The Punch Brothers.  He’s a virtuoso mandolin player.  It was impressive to see what he was able to do on that instrument.  There were moments where I looked to the audience and they were just frozen in a stare.  They were mesmerized by what Thile was doing.  It blew us all away. That being said, the Watkins are no slouches by any means.  The consistency and evenness of Nickel Creek is a great strength for the band.

The set seemed to fly by.  Nickel Creek featured songs from their 2023 release, Celebrants .  Playing six songs from the album.  But they didn’t shy away from playing fan favorites.  A personal favorite, “The Lighthouse’s Tale” was just the second song played.  I was taking photos but I couldn’t help but stop for a moment to take in this beautiful song.  

It’s not a surprise that this trio harmonizes so well.  They each have strong voices that sound amazing as soloists.  So hearing them blend is a real treat.  Sara Watkins shined when she took the lead on vocals during “I Should Have Known Better”.  Every time she’d hit a high note the crowd would cheer her on.  She sounded so good.  And to top it off she was playing the fiddle throughout as well.  

Chris Thile joked to the crowd that they probably didn’t plan on coming to hear long instrumentals right before they played one.  But I don’t think anyone inside Sandy Amphitheater had any issue with the instrumentals they played.  I think we were all awestruck by the music we were hearing.  And while these guys are incredible vocally, to sit and get to listen to them just play was an unbelievable experience.  

Of course, we weren’t shy about hearing songs we love like, “When You Come Back Down” or “The Fox”.  People who were with Nickel Creek from the beginning were so happy that they are hearing these songs almost a quarter of a century later.  And that they still sound this good.  I enjoyed clapping along to “The Fox”.  An element of Bluegrass music is that these bands don’t have a drummer.  Most of the time the music is so good that I rarely notice.  But when we started providing the beat with our hands, I thought, “Oh yeah, we haven’t had a drummer all night”.  

When Nickel Creek returned to the stage for the encore they brought Andrew Bird with them.  The setlist indicated that they were to play three songs.  But they cut “Tomorrow is a Long Time”.  My guess is they cut it for time.  I believe Sandy Amphitheater is under a 10 PM curfew and we were getting close to that.  I didn’t realize they cut the song until after, so in the moment I was just excited to see them gather around a mic and play a couple more songs for us.  

They played “To The Airport” and followed that with “Tumbling Tumbleweeds”.  This was the perfect closer and a great selection for both Nickel Creek and Andrew Bird to perform together.  Bird’s whistling fit perfectly with the song and the harmonies were on full display as the audience sat in awed silence to the closing song.  

I’m so glad I finally got to see Nickel Creek live.  They have been coming to Utah as far back as 2001 at the old Zephyr Club and I can understand why they keep returning to us.  We love them.  I’d be content to spend a summer night listening to this beautiful music every year.

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World Music Central

Nickel Creek Stretch Out 2023 Headline Tour

Nickel Creek ‘s 2023 headline tour has been extended with newly confirmed shows in various cities, including Los Angeles, Portland, St. Paul, Denver, Santa Barbara, Dallas, and Austin. This tour marks their first as a group since 2014. The trio, composed of mandolinist Chris Thile , violinist Sara Watkins, and guitarist Sean Watkins, has won a Grammy Award.

This tour comes on the heels of their highly anticipated new album, Celebrants, which is set to release on March 24, 2023, via Thirty Tigers. The album, their fifth studio recording, explores the nuances of human connection, including themes of romance, friendship, and time. Across 18 tracks, Nickel Creek’s lyrics are both poetic and straightforward, as they examine the building, crossing, burning, and rebuilding of bridges. Celebrants was produced by longtime collaborator Eric Valentine and features Mike Elizondo on bass.

In anticipation of the album’s release, Nickel Creek has shared three tracks: “Where The Long Line Leads,” “Holding Pattern,” and “Strangers.”

Reflecting on the project, the band shares, “ This is a record about embracing the friction inherent in real human connection. We begin the record yearning for and pursuing harmonious connection. We end the record having realized that truly harmonious connection can only be achieved through the dissonance that we’ve spent our entire adult lives trying to avoid. ”

Full details can be found at www.nickelcreek.com/tour .

NICKEL CREEK CONFIRMED TOUR DATES April 15—Cincinnati, OH—Andrew J Brady Music Center*

April 17—Pittsburgh, PA—Byham Theater*

April 18—New Haven, CT—College Street Music Hall*

April 20—Concord, NH—Capitol Center for the Arts*

April 21—Portland, ME—State Theatre*

April 22—Boston, MA—MGM Music Hall at Fenway Park*

April 23—Philadelphia, PA—The Fillmore*

April 25—Birmingham, AL—Avondale Brewing Co*

April 27—Nashville, TN—Ryman Auditorium* (SOLD OUT)

April 28—Nashville, TN—Ryman Auditorium† (SOLD OUT)

April 29—Nashville, TN—Ryman Auditorium‡ (SOLD OUT)

April 30—Wilkesboro, NC—MerleFest

May 1—Charlottesville, VA—Ting Pavilion‡

May 3—York, PA—Appell Center for the Performing Arts‡ (SOLD OUT)

May 4—New York, NY—The Rooftop at Pier 17‡

May 31—Charleston, SC—Spoleto Festival

June 2—Atlanta, GA—The Eastern*

June 3—Greenville, SC—Peace Center*

June 4—Lexington, KY—Railbird Festival (SOLD OUT)

June 6—Akron, OH—E.J. Thomas Hall*

June 8—Grand Rapids, MI—Venue TBA* (on-sale May 5)

June 9—Chicago, IL—The Salt Shed*

June 10—Milwaukee, WI—Riverside Theater*

June 11—Chesterfield, MO—The Factory at The District*

June 13—Kansas City, MO—Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts*

June 15-17—Telluride, CO—Telluride Bluegrass Festival (SOLD OUT) 

July 6—Seattle, WA—Woodland Park Zoo Amphitheatre+ (SOLD OUT)

July 7—Portland, OR—Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall +

July 8—Bend, OR—Hayden Homes Amphitheater +

July 9—Rohnert Park, CA—Weill Hall+ (on-sale March 23) 

July 11—Reno, NV—Grand Sierra Resort +

July 12—Salt Lake City, UT—Venue TBA+

July 13—Steamboat Springs, CO—Strings Music Pavilion+ (on-sale May 11)

July 15—St. Paul, MN—Palace Theatre †

July 16—Bayfield, WI—Lake Superior Big Top Chautauqua† (on-sale March 28)

July 18—Detroit, MI—Masonic Cathedral Theatre †

July 19—Toronto, ON—Danforth Music Hall †

July 21—Raleigh, NC—North Carolina Museum of Art †

July 22—Wilmington, NC—Greenfield Lake Amphitheater †

July 23—Vienna, VA—Wolf Trap† (on-sale March 31)

July 24—Union Hall, VA—The Coves Amphitheater †

July 27—LaFayette, NY—Break & Skiff Apple Orchards †

July 28—Newport, RI—Newport Folk Festival

September 1—London, UK—Barbican Centre

September 8-10—Bristol, TN—Bristol Rhythm & Roots Reunion

October 6—Oakland, CA—Fox Theater ‡

October 8—Santa Barbara, CA—The Granada Theatre‡ (on-sale TBC)

October 10—Los Angeles, CA—The Theatre at Ace Hotel ‡

October 11—Los Angeles, CA—The Theatre at Ace Hotel ‡

October 13—San Diego, CA—The Rady Shell at Jacobs Park ^

October 14—Mesa, AZ—Ikeda Theater at Mesa Arts Center +

October 15—Las Vegas, NV—Brooklyn Bowl +

October 17—Albuquerque, NM—Revel Entertainment Center +

October 18—Denver, CO—The Mission Ballroom +

October 19—Salina, KS—Stiefel Theater +

October 20—Dallas, TX—Majestic Theatre +

October 21—Austin, TX—Moody Amphitheater at Waterloo Park +

*with special guest Gaby Moreno

‡with special guest Hawktail

+with special guest Monica Martin †with special guest Aoife O’Donovan

^with special guest TBA

Author: World Music Central News Room

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Published: 2023/02/07

Nickel Creek to Set Out on First Tour Since 2014

Photo by Josh Goleman

Americana icons Nickel Creek have announced that they will hit the road this spring, embarking on the group’s first tour since 2014. The extensive national run will follow the March 24 release of Celebrants –the band’s fifth studio project and first new album in nine years–and will include stops across the U.S. as well as several festival appearances. 

The Grammy-nominated trio–mandolinist Chris Thile, violinist Sara Watkins and guitarist Sean Watkins–will start things off in Cincinnati with an April 15 show at the Andrew J Brady Music Center. Then, they will work their way through the Northeast with appearances in Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Maine, and Massachusetts. On April 27, the trio will head down to Nashville, Tenn., for three sold-out nights at the historic Ryman Auditorium, where they will be joined by special guest Aoife O’Donovan. Nickel Creek’s national sweep will continue through May and into June, with concerts across the East Coast and Midwest. The U.S. tour will wrap up in Colorado after a three-night stand at the Telluride Bluegrass festival on June 15 through June 17.  

Notable venues for Nickel Creek’s 2023 run include Pittsburgh’s Byham Theater, Boston’s MGM Music Hall at Fenway Park, Philadelphia’s The Fillmore, New York’s The Rooftop at Pier 17, Atlanta’s The Eastern, Chicago’s Salt Shed, Milwaukee’s Riverside Theater and Kansas City’s Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts.

Guatemalan singer-songwriter Gaby Moreno will perform as a special guest for most of the tour, excluding Nickel Creek’s festival appearances as well as the group’s Charlottesville, Va., (May 1) and York, Pa. (May 3) shows, which will feature support from the instrumental quartet Hawktail.  

Tickets and “Celebrants Club” VIP packages will be available for pre-sale starting tomorrow, Feb. 8, at 10 a.m.  General ticket sales will begin this Friday, Feb. 10, at 10 a.m. on the Nickel Creek website . Additional dates and updated venue information will also be posted on their website.  

Scroll to view the current 2023 tour schedule below. 

Nickel Creek Confirmed 2023 Tour Dates

April 15—Andrew J Brady Music Center* —Cincinnati, Ohio

April 17—Byham Theater*—Pittsburgh, Pa.

April 18—College Street Music Hall*—New Haven, Conn.

April 20—Capitol Center for the Arts*—Concord, N.H.

April 21—State Theatre*– Portland, Maine

April 22–MGM Music Hall at Fenway Park* –Boston, Mass.

April 23—The Fillmore*–Philadelphia, Pa.

April 25—Avondale Brewing Co*—Birmingham, Ala.

April 27—Ryman Auditorium* (SOLD OUT)—Nashville, Tenn.

April 28—Ryman Auditorium* (SOLD OUT)—Nashville, Tenn.

April 29—Ryman Auditorium* (SOLD OUT)—Nashville, Tenn.

April 30—MerleFest––Wilkesboro, N.C.

May 1—Ting Pavilion‡—Charlottesville, Va.

May 3—Appell Center for the Performing Arts‡—York, Pa.

May 4—The Rooftop at Pier 17‡—New York, N.Y.

May 31—Spoleto Festival—Charleston, S.C.

June 2—The Eastern*—Atlanta, Ga.

June 3—Peace Center*—Greenville, S.C.

June 4—Railbird Festival (SOLD OUT)—Lexington, Ky.

June 6—E.J. Thomas Hall*—Akron, Ohio

June 8—Venue TBA*—Grand Rapids, Mich.

June 9—The Salt Shed*—Chicago, Ill.

June 10—Riverside Theater*—Milwaukee, Wis.

June 11—The Factory at The District*—Chesterfield, Mo.

June 13—Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts*—Kansas City, Mo.

June 15-17—Telluride Bluegrass Festival (SOLD OUT) —Telluride, Colo.

September 1—Barbican Centre—London, U.K.

September 8-10—Bristol Rhythm & Roots Reunion—Bristol, Tenn.

*with special guest Gaby Moreno

†with special guest Aoife O’Donovan

‡with special guest Hawktail

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Nickel Creek tour dates 2024

Nickel Creek is currently touring across 2 countries and has 38 upcoming concerts.

Their next tour date is at Bryce Jordan Center in University Park, after that they'll be at TD Garden in Boston.

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In case you didn’t think there was such a thing as progressive acoustic music, Nickel Creek are here to prove otherwise. And in case you don’t think that sounds like a genrre that’s all that viable in commercial terms, consider this, too; the trio’s self-titled album - produced by Alison Krauss - went platinum in the U.S., and they also won a Grammy for Best Contemporary Folk Album in 2003. They’d secured a place for themselves as the titans of their genre, but in 2007, they chose to disband so that their individual members could pursue other interests; Sara Watkins, for instance, went on tour with The Decemberists. Earlier this year, though, the three-piece announced that they planned to release a new album, A Dotted Line, at the start of April, followed by a U.S. tour to support it. They’re in the thick of that as we speak, playing with a stripped-down lineup and affording equal representation to each of their albums across the setlists. Their next step is to schedule some European dates, where their fanbase is considerably more niche; if intimate solo shows that Sara Watkins played on these shores during their break are anything to go by, though, there’s certainly an audience for them here.

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Nickel Creek Plots Extensive 2024 U.S. Tour

Lorie Liebig

Updated: 

Award-winning trio Nickel Creek is hitting the road again for a lengthy headlining tour next year. The band has added a stretch of 28 new live dates for 2024 in support of their latest record,  Celebrants .

Videos by American Songwriter

Bandmates Chris Thile , Sara Watkins , and Sean Watkins will kick off the trek with a performance in Iowa City, Iowa, on February 6. They’ll spend nearly three months traveling to cities across the U.S., including Indianapolis, Columbus, Jacksonville, and Buffalo, before taking the stage for a final performance in Little Rock on May 2.

These just-released show dates will help kickstart another new chapter for the beloved act. Earlier this year, the group made a long-awaited comeback onto the music scene with the release of  Celebrants . The captivating 18-track LP marked their first new full-length project in nine years.

Over the decades, Nickel Creek has returned from multiple hiatuses, allowing the three bandmates to pursue their own solo projects. Although nearly a decade has passed between their acclaimed fourth album,  A Dotted Line , and the arrival of  Celebrants , the gifted bluegrass-centered outfit sounds as cohesive as ever.

[RELATED: Nickel Creek Gives Listeners Their Money’s Worth]

A complete list of newly announced dates is listed below. Tickets for all noted shows are on sale now. Fans can find more information on the tour by visiting Nickel Creek’s official website .

Nickel Creek’s 2024 Tour Dates

February 6 – Iowa City, IA @ Hancher Auditorium

February 7 – Madison, WI @ Overture Hall

February 9 – Des Moines, IA @ Hoyt Sherman Place

February 10 – Indianapolis, IN @ Murat Theatre at Old National Centre

February 12 – Peoria, IL @ Peoria Civic Center Theater

February 13 – Kalamazoo, MI @ Kalamazoo State Theatre

February 15 – Columbus, OH @ Mershon Auditorium

February 16 – Fort Wayne, IN @ The Clyde Theatre

February 17 – Louisville, KY @ The Louisville Palace

February 19 – Durham, NC @ Durham Performing Arts Center

February 20 – Augusta, GA @ Miller Theater

February 21 – Jacksonville, FL @ Florida Theatre

February 23 – Fort Lauderdale, FL @ Broward Center for the Performing Arts

February 24 – Clearwater, FL @ Ruth Eckerd Hall

March 12 – Canton, OH @ Canton Palace Theatre

March 14 – Bethesda, MD @ Music Center at Strathmore

March 15 – Newark, NJ @ NJPAC

March 16 – Rochester, NY @ Kodak Center

March 17 – Burlington, VT @ Flynn Center for the Performing Arts

March 19 – Groton, MA @ Groton Hill Music Center Concert Hall 

March 21 – Storrs, CT @ Jorgensen Center for the Performing Arts

March 22 – Troy, NY @ Troy Savings Bank Music Hall

March 23 – Buffalo, NY @ University at Buffalo Center for the Arts

March 24 – Lancaster, PA @ American Music Theatre

April 26 – Knoxville, TN @ Tennessee Theatre

April 27 – Savannah, GA @ Johnny Mercer Theatre

April 30 – Huntsville, AL @ VBC Mark Smith Concert Hall

May 2 – Little Rock, AR @ The Hall

Photo by Josh Goleman, Courtesy of Sacks & Co.

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Nickel Creek

This event has passed, a reunion nine years in the making.

Nickel Creek is mandolinist Chris Thile, violinist Sara Watkins and guitarist Sean Watkins. Together a sum of more than their staggering parts, the trio revolutionized bluegrass and folk in the early 2000s and ushered in a new era of what we now recognize as Americana music. After a nine year absence, the Platinum-selling, Grammy Award-winning trio returned in 2023 with the highly-anticipated album,  Celebrants —a bounty of 18 disparate but loosely connected songs written collectively during a creative retreat in Santa Barbara in early 2021. The result is perhaps the most audacious yet accessible release of the Grammy-winning trio’s 34-year career. The entire enterprise is, naturally, shot through with the trio’s virtuosic picking and shiver-inducing harmonies. The lyrics—addressing love, friendship, time, and the universal travails of travel—combine the poetic and plain-spoken, hitting a sweet spot of ethereal and relatable as bridges are built, crossed, burned, and rebuilt. In celebration of the release, the trio will return to the road including three sold-out shows at Nashville's Ryman Auditorium with more dates to be announced soon. 

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DPAC offers a variety of Accessible Seating & Accessible Services to make our performances and facilities accessible to all.

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Please note that all guests require a ticket, regardless of age. Children under the age of 6 are not allowed at this performance. Children must be able to sit quietly in their own seat without disturbing other guests.

NEW - Cashless Payments for Snacks and Beverages at DPAC

• Cash is no longer accepted for snack or beverage purchases at DPAC’s lobby bars or snack and beverage stands.
• Snack and beverage purchases now require payment using credit or debit cards, Apple Pay or Google Pay or a DPAC gift card.
• If you happen to arrive at DPAC with cash only, guests may purchase a DPAC gift card in $20 increments at our Entry Lobby Guest Services window. These gift cards can then be used at any lobby bar or snack and beverage stand.

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DPAC offers a diverse selection of entertainment. Not all productions will appeal to or be appropriate for every guest or for all ages. Ticket buyers should take responsibility for making informed decisions regarding their purchases. We recommend visiting the official website of each show to learn more about the show you are coming to see at DPAC. If you ever have questions about the content or appropriateness of a show, please contact us at  [email protected] .

Our lobby doors open 60 minutes prior to show time.

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7:00 PM- Lobby Doors 8:00 PM- Performance Begins * Please note all times are approximate and subject to change without notice.

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All performances scheduled at DPAC normally take place as planned. For more information on our inclement weather policy, please visit  INCLEMENT WEATHER FAQ .

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• This show allows photography and video recording using mobile phones — please no flash.
• We ask that you be courteous to guests behind and around you. Please know that any obtrusive use (such as holding the phone where it can block the view of other guests) or video recording longer than a single song  is prohibited . 
• GoPro’s, tablets, and cameras of any kind  are prohibited  at all DPAC events.

Related Links

• Nickel Creek Website
• Apple Music

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• For your safety, all guests and their bags are subject to inspection before entry.
• This inspection may include the use of metal detectors.
• Restricted items include, but are not limited to: Alcohol, Cameras, Glass Bottles, and Weapons of any kind.
• In addition, no large bags are allowed including backpacks and large purses 12 or more inches deep.
• Small clutch purses are STRONGLY recommended.
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• Safety first is our goal. Please let us know if you have any questions or feedback at  [email protected]   

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Standing and Dancing at Concerts: DPAC is proud to welcome all types of concerts to our stage. Sometimes during the course of a concert performance, audience members will show their enthusiasm by standing and dancing, especially when encouraged by the performers to do so. Unless directed by the show, we do not ever enforce a must sit policy at concerts. For most concerts, this would not be acceptable to the performers on stage who often love it when the crowd is moved enough by the performance to stand. This is especially true for rock shows and for seats closest to the stage.

Please know that DPAC does not have a “no standing” policy and in most situations will allow guests to stand even if they block the view of the stage for other guests. If your view is ever blocked by a standing or dancing guest, please contact an usher and we’ll attempt to find alternative seating.

• Most tickets buyers purchase right from our website using the  Buy Ticket s  button on this page.
• In addition to purchasing online, DPAC offers several other ways to purchase the seats you want to the best Broadway, concerts, comedy, family shows and special events in North Carolina.
• Our computerized ticket system enables you equal access to great DPAC seats whether you buy online, by phone, or in person at DPAC.
• For more details, visit our  Purchase Seats  page for complete information on purchasing great seats for all events at DPAC.
• All tickets for DPAC events are fully digital and only accessible via your mobile device.  A mobile ticket is the safest, most convenient, and flexible way to receive and manage your tickets while increasing protection against fraud. To learn more about mobile entry, please visit our  Mobile Entry FAQ .

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Currently, this event has not approved using our video screens.  Please feel free to check back closer to the event for updates. If approved, we will post notice here.

For many concert, comedy, and special events at DPAC, we offer added views of the stage with two big screens (size: 16’ x 9’) hung to the sides of the stage or above the stage. These big screens can add to the visual experience of our concert, comedy, and special events and give guests seated farther from the stage what we like to call “a tenth row view”. Approval to use these screens always rests with the visiting show and about half of all concert and comedy events do use these screens.

VIP Packages

Celebrants Club VIP Package

• One (1) Premium Reserved Seat
• Access to Private Pre-show Performance by Nickel Creek
• Access to Private Q&A with Nickel Creek
• Limited Edition Poster signed by band
• Celebrants Club Enamel Pin
• Early Entry to Venue
• Crowd Free Merchandise Shopping
• On-Site Event Host

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