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 are set to return 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 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.
Monica Martin will open the performance, followed by Nickel Creek after a short intermission.