Nickel Creek

**Nickel Creek** was an American acoustic musical group. Although the group's music has roots in bluegrass, Nickel Creek now calls itself "progressive acoustic". The band has three people: Chris Thile (mandolin), Sean Watkins (guitar), and Sara Watkins (violin). A fourth member also plays bass with the band. Chris Thile's father Scott Thile, Byron House, and Derek Jones have played bass with the group. Mark Schatz has played bass with Nickel Creek since 2003. The band has played songs by Radiohead, Elliott Smith, Bob Dylan,  and even "Toxic" by Britney Spears. However, most of the songs the band play are originals.

## History

The band started in California in 1989 with Scott Thile, Chris' father, playing the double bass. The oldest of the children, Sean Watkins, was only twelve years old at the time. In the early days, Nickel Creek made two albums: _Little Cowpoke_ in 1993, and _Here to There_ in 1997.

### _Nickel Creek_: 2000–2001

Alison Krauss produced the album _Nickel Creek_, which came out in 2000 on Sugar Hill Records. It was awarded a gold certification in 2002 by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). Nickel Creek got two Grammy Award nominations for the album: Best Bluegrass Album and Best Country Instrumental for "Ode to a Butterfly". Three singles, "When You Come Back Down", "The Lighthouse's Tale", and "Reasons Why" were released with music videos, and the first two were on the US Country chart. The album itself topped the Billboard Heatseekers chart, and reached number 125 on the _Billboard_ 200.

To help sell the album, Nickel Creek toured with artists like Lyle Lovett, Dolly Parton, Vince Gill, and Amy Grant.

### _This Side_: 2002–2004

In 2002, _This Side_ came out and it was also produced by Alison Krauss. It reached number 18 on the _Billboard_ 200, and was also made gold by the RIAA. _This Side_ was different from the first album by adding more pop and rock. Chris Thile described the album in 2002:

On the _This Side_ tour of 2002 and 2003, Nickel Creek played shows as the main act for the most part, but also opened five shows for John Mayer in November 2002 in Upstate New York and New England, and played with Gillian Welch and David Rawlings earlier in the year. In 2003, Nickel Creek was on Béla Fleck's album _Little Worlds_.

Nickel Creek also released three singles from _This Side_: "This Side", "Speak", and "Smoothie Song". "This Side" appeared on the US Country chart, but the others did not chart with Billboard. However, "Smoothie Song" topped the AAA Contemporary chart for three weeks.

### _Why Should the Fire Die?_: 2005

Nickel Creek released _Why Should the Fire Die?_ in August 2005. The album brought even more rock and pop to Nickel Creek's sound, just as _This Side_ did. Chris Thile talked about the band's genre and style in a 2005 interview from _JamBase_: "We actually feel like more than a bluegrass band that stretched out. We are a band that incorporates bluegrass into our music. There's been a problem in perception. 'Bluegrass band leaves the fold' (uses a news announcer voice). No, no, no, no, no. Actually, it's a band that incorporates a little bluegrass into whatever the hell kind of music they play." Sean Watkins also said:

### _Farewell (For Now)_: 2006–2007

On August 28, 2006, Nickel Creek announced on their website that they would not be together as a band anymore. The message was:

After the break was announced, a tour was scheduled. To say goodbye to their fans, the tour was named the _Farewell (For Now)_ Tour, because the band does not know if they will get together again. The tour started in April 2007 and ended in November 2007 in Nashville, Tennessee. The tour had many guest appearances by musicians like Fiona Apple, Glen Phillips, Jon Brion, Bruce Molsky, Béla Fleck, and Tift Merritt.

When talking about Nickel Creek's last tour before the break, Sara Watkins said "A lot of the other stuff will be special in the way that anything is special when you realize that it’s not going to be around forever... Nothing is going be Nickel Creek except Nickel Creek. I’m not looking for anything to top this. It can’t be duplicated in my life."

### Wins

- 2000: International Bluegrass Music Association (IBMA) Emerging Artist of the Year
- 2001: IBMA Instrumental Group of the Year
- 2003: Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Folk Album (_This Side_)
- 2006: Country Music Television (CMT) Top 10 Country Compilations of 2006 (_Reasons Why: The Very Best_)

### Nominations

- 2001: Grammy Award for Best Bluegrass Album (_Nickel Creek_)
- 2001: Grammy Award for Best Country Instrumental Performance ("Ode to a Butterfly")
- 2001: Country Music Association (CMA) Award for Best Vocal Group
- 2001: CMA Horizon Award
- 2005: Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Folk Album (_Why Should the Fire Die?_)
- 2005: Grammy Award for Best Country Instrumental Performance ("Scotch & Chocolate")

### Studio albums

|Year|Album|
| --- | --- |
|1993|_Little Cowpoke_|
|1997|_Here to There_|
|2000|_Nickel Creek_|
|2002|_This Side_|
|2005|_Why Should the Fire Die?_|

### Singles

|Year|Song|Album|
| --- | --- | --- |
|2001|* "When You Come Back Down" * "The Lighthouse's Tale"|_Nickel Creek_|
|2002|* "Reasons Why"|_Nickel Creek_|
|2003|* "This Side" * "Speak" * "Smoothie Song"|_This Side_|
|2005|* "When In Rome"|_Why Should the Fire Die?_|

## References

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## Other websites

- Official Website
- VH1 biography

## Infobox (musical artist)

- **name**: Nickel Creek
- **img**: NickelCreek2005.jpg
- **img capt**: Sara Watkins, Chris Thile, and Sean Watkins in 2003
- **landscape**: yes
- **background**: group_or_band
- **origin**: Southern California, United States
- **genre**: Progressive bluegrass, Progressive Acoustic music, acoustic
- **years active**: 1989–2007
- **label**: Sugar Hill Records
- **url**: [http://www.nickelcreek.com/ www.nickelcreek.com]
- **current members**: Chris Thile
Sara Watkins
Sean Watkins