Bluegrass instrumental to their music

Nickel Creek violinist Sara Watkins talks about growing up in the "semi-bluegrass" world, but don't jump to the conclusion that her trio is a bluegrass outfit. The band is so undefinable that the members have taken to describing themselves with characteristics of what they sound like. "We have a hard time describing us. We just list character traits," she explained in a phone call from her tour bus as it pulled into Orlando, Fla., last week. "We'll say we're an acoustic band. Or we're a band that plays acoustic instruments that's largely bluegrass instrumentation. There's lots of instrumentals and there's a lot of highly arranged pieces and there's a lot of room for improvisation." The 24-year-old SoCal native, who plays the Rialto Theatre on Tuesday, has been asked the question so many times since the trio blipped the national radar in 2000 that she's whittled it down to a comfortable definition: "folk-rock band with a lot of instrumentals." The confusion is easy to understand. Nickel Creek - which also includes Watkins' brother, guitarist Sean Watkins, and mandolin/banjo/ bouzouki player Chris Thile - got its start and its inspiration from bluegrass from the time the three decided to form a band before they reached their teens. The trio made the rounds of bluegrass festivals and jams and even cut a couple of recordings. But it wasn't until 2000 that the band got its major push into the mainstream. That was the year of "O Brother, Where Art Thou?" The movie and its multiplatinum soundtrack revitalized acoustic and bluegrass music in a way no one would have imagined. Suddenly bands picking mandolins and making fiddles cry found themselves selling out venues of thousands instead of cozy theaters before hundreds. Nickel Creek found a friend in one of the genre's biggest names when Alison Krauss signed on to produce the band's 2000 eponymous debut album on Sugarhill Records. The disc was steeped in bluegrass tradition with modern twists, and fans and critics fell over themselves gushing praises. The gushing quieted a bit on the follow-up, 2002's "This Side," even though the album snagged the Best Contemporary Folk Album Grammy. Some critics accused the band of "wussing" out on its bluegrass tradition. What those critics overlooked was the band's musical evolution. Taking its cue from progressive experimentalists like Belá Fleck and Edgar Meyer, Nickel Creek was feeling its way around, trying new things and developing what is slowly becoming its definitive sound: rootsy, acoustic, rich and daring. Nickel Creek released its third album - "Why Should the Fire Die?" - this summer, and the critics were quick to note the evolution. "(Nickel Creek) finally shed their youthful innocence, delivering a complex and decidedly adult collection of progressive bluegrass and folk," opined Livedaily.com online. "Second generation 'newgrass' has never seemed more lush, more thick with possibility, or more untrimmed around the edges," PopMatters.com chimed in. The album casts a new definition to "newgrass," adding more contemporary pop elements while maintaining the rich acoustic bluegrass instrumentation. The album, heavily penned by Thile and Sara Watkins, explores adult aspects of love and loss in sometimes melancholy ways. The disc's shining moments outweigh its low points. The opening track "When in Rome" highlights Thile and Sara Watkins' rough-hewn, almost dark harmonies. The mandolin's echo ring adds an air of mystery to the almost Eagles- esque ballad "Jealous of the Moon." And the celtic-kissed instrumental "Scotch & Chocolate" sets a new standard in musical simplicity: uncluttered, unfettered and almost childlike in its layered approach. The album dances over various genre flavors, blending together to create perhaps a new chapter in the book of newgrass or a new genre classification altogether: high energy chamber music, complemented with hollow acoustic echoes. "It's always funny when you hear song styles with instrumentation that's not really common," Watkins said, noting the trio's bluegrass treatment of Bob Dylan's classic "Tomorrow is a Long Time." Watkins said she and her musical mates aren't envisioning celebrity for their efforts. "I don't think celebrity is a goal for us as much as a satisfaction of playing for a lot of people and feeling like you're enjoyed by audiences," she said.

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