Nickel Creek Nominated for Best Folk Album At 66th Annual Grammy Awards
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- Category: Theatre, Music
- Published on Friday, 10 November 2023 15:46
- Written by A&E Contributing Editor
GRAMMY Award-winning trio Nickel Creek—mandolinist Chris Thile, violinist Sara Watkins and guitarist Sean Watkins—are nominated for Best Folk Album at the 66th Annual GRAMMY Awards for their acclaimed new record, Celebrants.
The band's fifth studio album and first project in nine years, Celebrants was released this past spring via Thirty Tigers (stream/purchase here). The record adds to a triumphant career for Nickel Creek, who also recently received the Lifetime Achievement Trailblazer Award at the 2023 Americana Music Association Honors & Awards and performed on "Jimmy Kimmel Live!" and "CBS Saturday Morning" earlier this year.
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Critical acclaim for Celebrants:
"the trio sounds and plays better than ever…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"—NPR Music
"The siblings Sara and Sean Watkins pick circular guitar patterns and add vocal harmonies, while Thile plays a counterpoint on mandola that rises like mist off a pond."
—The New York Times
"highlights their unfettered harmonies and years-forged, tight-knit playing"—Billboard
"giddily ambitious…breathtaking instrumental interplay between mandolin, guitar, and
fiddle"—Spin
"their instruments and voices alternately blend and shine…it's a joy to have the gang back together"—Paste
"enchanting…a delicate, ambitious inspection of who they once were and who they are now"
—The Line of Best Fit
"finds the band all the way turned up, with roof-raising fiddle, mandolin, and throat-shredding vocals"—Stereogum
"Celebrants comes across as a bold new venture, one that's unrestrained in terms of melody, motif, and obvious enthusiasm"—American Songwriter
"instrumental virtuosity…showcases the ability of each musician to dazzle without sacrificing musical expression"—PopMatters
"the band reaches for new heights here, inventing new pathways for themselves, for the listener and for roots music itself"—No Depression
"a bountiful showcase of both the trio's eye-popping technical skills and the extraordinary potential of their creative union"—Bandcamp Daily
"one of the most notable albums released this year"—Bluegrass Situation
"finds the band's indie-friendly bluegrass in fine form"—Brooklyn Vegan
"a sublime and joyous musical experience"—Vintage Guitar
"The soundscape they create is vast and incredibly dynamic"—Acoustic Guitar
"their most ambitious album…18 tracks so fresh and interconnected that it feels like they're making their own Sgt Pepper or Pet Sounds."—Holler
"a fantastic showcase for their instrumental skills and rich, luscious harmonies, whilst also keeping you as a listener on your toes by switching styles throughout"—Entertainment Focus
"Celebrants lifts us, carrying us into the depths of the human condition and then transporting us into its heights"—Folk Alley
"Every tune on Celebrants offers something special…it's a masterpiece"
—Americana Highways
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In celebration of the new music, the band will continue their extensive headline tour through next year including shows at Madison's Overture Hall, Indianapolis' Murat Theatre, Louisville's Louisville Palace, Jacksonville's Florida Theatre, Newark's Prudential Center, Rochester's Kodak Center, Knoxville's Tennessee Theatre and Savannah's Johnny Mercer Theatre among others. See below for complete itinerary.
Recorded at Nashville's RCA Studio A, the album was produced by longtime collaborator Eric Valentine (Queens of the Stone Age, Grace Potter, Weezer) and features Mike Elizondo on bass. 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."
Together a sum of more than their staggering parts, Nickel Creek revolutionized bluegrass and folk in the early 2000s and ushered in a new era of what we now recognize as Americana music. In a 2020 retrospective entitled, "The Year Folk Broke: How Nickel Creek Made Americana The New Indie Rock," NPR Music praised, "20 years ago this month, an album arrived that seemed to speak all these languages at once: unafraid to push the boundaries of its primary genre, and packing the musical chops to bring such an eclectic vision to life. Behind it were three musicians just barely old enough to vote" and continued, "That makes Nickel Creek and its unofficial debut a critical point along a storied timeline, one whose innovations offer countless connections between the genre's origins and its future. Once dubbed 'progressive new grassers,' the three musicians now fit firmly within the ranks of Americana music—however nebulous, layered and diverse that realm may be. They have only themselves to thank."
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After meeting as young children and subsequently earning the respect of the bluegrass circuit for a decade, the trio signed with venerable label, Sugar Hill Records, in 2000 and quickly broke through with their Grammy-nominated, Alison Krauss-produced self-titled LP. Since that effort, the trio has released three more studio albums to date: 2002's This Side, which won Best Contemporary Folk Album at the 45th Grammy Awards, 2005's Why Should the Fire Die? and 2014's A Dotted Line.
Each member of Nickel Creek has also taken part in many outside projects over the years. Thile is a 2012 recipient of a MacArthur Fellowship and served as the host of the American radio variety show Live from Here (formerly A Prairie Home Companion) from 2016 to 2020. He has also released collaborative albums with world-renowned musicians like Yo-Yo Ma, Edgar Meyer, Brad Mehldau and Stuart Duncan as well as six studio albums with his Grammy-winning band, Punch Brothers. Sean Watkins is a co-founder of Watkins Family Hour alongside Sara, who has released three albums and maintains a long-running collaborative show in Los Angeles. Sean has also released a string of solo albums, while Sara's extracurricular projects include the aforementioned Watkins Family Hour, as well as the Grammy-winning roots trio, I'm With Her, which she co-founded alongside Aoife O'Donovan and Sarah Jarosz. Sara has released four studio albums and has contributed fiddle to recordings by artists like Phoebe Bridgers, the Killers and John Mayer.
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CELEBRANTS TRACK LIST
1. Celebrants
2. Strangers
3. Water Under the Bridge, Part 1
4. The Meadow
5. Thinnest Wall
6. Going Out…
7. Holding Pattern
8. Where the Long Line Leads
9. Goddamned Saint
10. Stone's Throw
11. Goddamned Saint, Reprise
12. From the Beach
13. To The Airport
14. …Despite the Weather
15. Hollywood Ending
16. New Blood
17. Water Under the Bridge, Part 2
18. Failure Isn't Forever
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NICKEL CREEK CONFIRMED TOUR DATES
February 6, 2024—Iowa City, IA—Hancher Auditorium
February 7, 2024—Madison, WI—Overture Hall
February 9, 2024—Des Moines, IA—Hoyt Sherman Place
February 10, 2024—Indianapolis, IN—Murat Theatre at Old National Centre
February 12, 2024—Peoria, IL—Peoria Civic Center Theater
February 13, 2024—Kalamazoo, MI—Kalamazoo State Theatre
February 15, 2024—Columbus, OH—Mershon Auditorium
February 16, 2024—Fort Wayne, IN—The Clyde Theatre
February 17, 2024—Louisville, KY—The Louisville Palace
February 19, 2024—Durham, NC—Durham Performing Arts Center
February 20, 2024—Augusta, GA—Miller Theater
February 21, 2024—Jacksonville, FL—Florida Theatre
February 23, 2024—Fort Lauderdale, FL—Broward Center for the Performing Arts
February 24, 2024—Clearwater, FL—Ruth Eckerd Hall
March 12, 2024—Canton, OH—Canton Palace Theatre
March 14, 2024—Bethesda, MD—Music Center at Strathmore
March 15, 2024—Newark, NJ—NJPAC
March 16, 2024—Rochester, NY—Kodak Center
March 17, 2024—Burlington, VT—Flynn Center for the Performing Arts
March 19, 2024—Groton, MA—Groton Hill Music Center Concert Hall
March 21, 2024—Storrs, CT—Jorgensen Center for the Performing Arts
March 22, 2024— Troy, NY—Troy Savings Bank Music Hall
March 23, 2024—Buffalo, NY—University at Buffalo Center for the Arts
March 24, 2024— Lancaster, PA—American Music Theatre
April 26, 2024—Knoxville, TN—Tennessee Theatre
April 27, 2024—Savannah, GA—Johnny Mercer Theatre
April 30, 2024—Huntsville, AL—VBC Mark Smith Concert Hall
May 2, 2024—Little Rock, AR—The Hall
