{"id":139343,"date":"2023-07-16T06:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-07-16T13:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/?p=139343"},"modified":"2023-07-13T17:36:51","modified_gmt":"2023-07-14T00:36:51","slug":"how-nickel-creeks-sean-watkins-sara-watkins-and-chris-thile-made-their-most-ambitious-album-yet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/how-nickel-creeks-sean-watkins-sara-watkins-and-chris-thile-made-their-most-ambitious-album-yet\/","title":{"rendered":"How Nickel Creek\u2019s Sean Watkins, Sara Watkins, and Chris Thile Made Their Most Ambitious Album Yet\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Not many bands can claim to have played together for well over 30 years\u2014while its members are in their 40s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Nickel Creek, formed back when Chris Thile and Sara Watkins were seven and Sean Watkins was 12, is a special case. Chris and Sara were still teenagers when the band released <a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/3rt8CWo\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">the seminal 2000 album <em>Nickel Creek,<\/em><\/a> produced by Alison Krauss, which merged the sounds of bluegrass and Celtic music with contemporary song craft and went platinum. In the decades since, the trio has taken extended breaks while all were busy with other projects\u2014Chris with Punch Brothers and hosting the public radio show <em>Live From Here, <\/em>Sara and Sean with the Watkins Family Hour, Sara with <a href=\"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/im-with-her-brings-out-the-best-from-aoife-odonovan-sara-watkins-and-sarah-jarosz\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">I\u2019m With Her<\/a>, Sean with solo albums, and more. Every time Nickel Creek gets back together, though, they not only rekindle their connection but explore new territory. And that\u2019s certainly the case with their remarkable new album, <em><a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/3pPMSUg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Celebrants<\/a>,<\/em> released nine years after <em><a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/43keAWQ\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">A Dotted Line<\/a><\/em>.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Celebrants<\/em> was very much shaped by the pandemic shutdown, both in its themes and in the way it was made. With touring on hold, the trio found extensive time to create together\u2014Sean estimates 75 or 80 days of collective writing for the album, and then they had a month in Nashville\u2019s historic RCA Studio B to record with producer Eric Valentine. The result is an hourlong journey through 18 connected songs, each with intricate instrumental arrangements and layers of vocals. Though no other guest musicians appear alongside Chris (mandolin, mandola, bouzouki), Sara (fiddle, high-strung guitar), and Sean (standard and baritone guitars) aside from Mike Elizondo on bass, the soundscape they create is vast and incredibly dynamic\u2014from hushed, hypnotic tracks like \u201cHolding Pattern\u201d to the blazing odd-meter instrumental \u201cGoing Out&#8230;\u201d and the blues-rock blowout \u201cWhere the Long Line Leads.\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>On the verge of the album release, I spoke with the trio on Zoom from their respective homes in Southern California (Sara and Sean) and Brooklyn (Chris) to learn more about this new chapter in the Nickel Creek story. In addition, Sean explained the guitar craft behind some of the album\u2019s standout tracks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<span class=\"embed-youtube\" style=\"text-align:center; display: block;\"><iframe class=\"youtube-player\" width=\"1290\" height=\"726\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/RVDIiREJHY0?version=3&#038;rel=1&#038;showsearch=0&#038;showinfo=1&#038;iv_load_policy=1&#038;fs=1&#038;hl=en-US&#038;autohide=2&#038;wmode=transparent\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" style=\"border:0;\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-popups allow-presentation allow-popups-to-escape-sandbox\"><\/iframe><\/span>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>You all are involved in so many projects and bands. What does Nickel Creek draw out of you as players, writers, and singers that\u2019s special to this trio?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Sean:<\/strong> I mean, it\u2019s a unique thing to be in a band this long and still feel as challenged and excited about it as ever. Because we trust each other so much, when an idea is put forth that is outside my comfort zone, I tend to say, that\u2019s great\u2014let\u2019s see this through and I\u2019ll learn.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Chris: <\/strong>For me, this band has a voice that is so distinct. It\u2019s like an existing palette of colors that we can rely on as creators for whatever we have to express. That was particularly useful for this project, where we got pretty ambitious and tackled a pretty big subject.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>You know, we\u2019ve been in this band now for 34 years, so the palette we\u2019re using is well defined. Though it\u2019s constantly evolving, it\u2019s evolving from a place that is very solid and dependable, and I think that\u2019s invaluable.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Sara: <\/strong>Right, there\u2019s the uniqueness of the foundation and the constant of the history, but in order for us to want to make an album, there has to be a reason. There has to be enough new that we\u2019re all bringing to the table, or enough new in life, that we are able to make music we haven\u2019t done yet.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><a href=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/nickel_creek-Shot_03_0356-photo-josh-goleman.jpg?ssl=1\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"683\" height=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/nickel_creek-Shot_03_0356-photo-josh-goleman.jpg?resize=683%2C1024&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"Nickel Creek \u2018Celebrants\u2019 press photo by Josh Goleman\" class=\"wp-image-139347\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/nickel_creek-Shot_03_0356-photo-josh-goleman.jpg?resize=683%2C1024&amp;ssl=1 683w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/nickel_creek-Shot_03_0356-photo-josh-goleman.jpg?resize=200%2C300&amp;ssl=1 200w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/nickel_creek-Shot_03_0356-photo-josh-goleman.jpg?resize=400%2C600&amp;ssl=1 400w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/nickel_creek-Shot_03_0356-photo-josh-goleman.jpg?w=750&amp;ssl=1 750w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 683px) 100vw, 683px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><em>Photo: Josh Goleman<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>This album feels really big to me\u2014a lot of songs, a lot of ideas, so many layers, all sort of bursting out of the confines of conventional song form. What drove that ambition?&nbsp;<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Chris: <\/strong>As Sara was saying, we wanted to get back together and make something, and we pointedly wanted it <em>not<\/em> to be like a class reunion\u2014but rather like the class is coming back together for a major research project.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And so, we were on the phone talking about \u201cOK, if we\u2019re going to do this, let\u2019s do something we haven\u2019t done, not just with each other but anywhere with anyone.\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Sean: <\/strong>We all felt like this was an opportunity not to redefine ourselves, but to reframe. You know, we started talking about making this record, gosh, almost three years ago, and our last record came out in 2014. Especially with Covid, it felt like a slingshot had been pulled back, and the intention to create and do new things was made even stronger because of what we all had to live through. Everything happening at that time made us want to take a much bigger swing than we have in the past.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>When I first I heard the lead track, \u201cCelebrants,\u201d I felt like I was listening to the opening number of a musical, introducing the themes and the cast. Does this music feel theatrical in that way to you?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Chris: <\/strong>Totally. You\u2019re always drawing on other mediums for inspiration, of course, and we have talked a lot about narrative. It\u2019s still abstract narrative\u2014it doesn\u2019t tell a point-A-to-point-B kind of a story necessarily. It\u2019s more vignettes, but they are all pointing at the same topic or a very related core of topics\u2014an arc. It\u2019s a meditation on togetherness, and it does have a beginning, middle, and end, despite the fact that it\u2019s not told sequentially or definitively.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Also a thing we talked about is this collective feeling that music is better at asking questions than providing answers, and that the art we gravitate towards provides the listener with a springboard to go explore themselves as opposed to being a slideshow of where we\u2019ve been exploring. It\u2019s like an arrow pointing off into the woods: like, hey, we think there\u2019s some cool stuff this direction, maybe you should come check it out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Sara: <\/strong>I agree. We\u2019ve been thinking about curiosity and how a lot of times that\u2019s the way to find hope, when you\u2019re in a very pessimistic society and not necessarily sure of what to be hopeful about. Especially among our peers and our age group, there\u2019s a real tendency to say the world is screwed and everything is bad except for me and my friends\u2014we\u2019ve got it all figured out.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The thing that I hope people get out of these songs is a sense of that curiosity that we strive for. A lot of the songs were brought by genuine conversations of catching up and wondering about each other, and ideally, art makes people curious.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Did you avoid working on songs individually beforehand so you could really start from scratch?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Sean: <\/strong>Yeah. One way that we\u2019ve done it a lot the past is that we all show up with songs that are mostly done and the other two add to it what they can. In that case, I love the analogy Sara uses: one person\u2019s fingerprints are all over it, and then there are some spare fingerprints from the other two.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>With this album, we wanted everyone\u2019s fingerprints to be on everything as much as possible\u2014also extending to Mike Elizondo, who played bass on the album. We left a lot unfinished because we wanted his fingerprints on it as well, which proved to be crucial. He\u2019s such a badass and a hero of ours, and he really helped shape the songs in a special way.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Chris: <\/strong>When you write a long-form composition, you have to be really comfortable with all the balls being in the air for a long, long time. A record like this, or a long piece like this, is like a tent; the thing doesn\u2019t look like it would do anything for you until all of a sudden it\u2019s a whole tent.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>That [type of writing] doesn\u2019t get done collaboratively a lot because it\u2019s nerve-wracking to be in a room with musicians you really respect with a bunch of unfinished stuff lying around. It\u2019s hard to share that vision of the completed project. It\u2019s still a raggedy canvas tent lying on the forest floor, and you\u2019re going, \u201cNo, no, you\u2019ll see, it\u2019s like a dome, and you\u2019re gonna be able to be in there and it\u2019s waterproof! You\u2019re gonna love it!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Sara: <\/strong>To do it as a group, you need to have a certain amount of time together. We had the luxury of two weeks living together and then the following two weeks living very close together and spending all day together. We were able to have united focus for that amount of time. So we were able to remember everything we were working on and all the hypotheticals and the like, \u201cOh, but remember this other section that was going to go there?\u201d It\u2019s all invisible and just in your audio memory or whatever outline you\u2019ve written in your head, so it behooves you to do it quite quickly or in a dense period of time if you\u2019re doing it as a group.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Chris:<\/strong> And then, of course, you dream something so much crazier when you have the strength of three imaginations instead of one, as long as you trust and respect each other. As someone who\u2019s sitting around in his room making stuff all the time, it\u2019s just so fun to see what happens when you open yourself up to the visions of others around you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><a href=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/nickel_creek-photo-josh-goleman.jpg?ssl=1\"><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"750\" height=\"500\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/nickel_creek-photo-josh-goleman.jpg?resize=750%2C500&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"Nickel Creek band photo by Josh Goleman\" class=\"wp-image-139348\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/nickel_creek-photo-josh-goleman.jpg?w=750&amp;ssl=1 750w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/nickel_creek-photo-josh-goleman.jpg?resize=300%2C200&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/nickel_creek-photo-josh-goleman.jpg?resize=600%2C400&amp;ssl=1 600w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/nickel_creek-photo-josh-goleman.jpg?resize=360%2C240&amp;ssl=1 360w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 750px) 100vw, 750px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><em>Photo: Josh Goleman<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>To get a bit more of a sense of the process, let\u2019s drill down into a few specific songs. First, \u201cStrangers.\u201d What do you remember about how that started or grew?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Chris:<\/strong> It\u2019s the oldest piece of music on the record. Sean brought it to us like five years ago.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Sean:<\/strong> We were going to try to write a new Nickel Creek song for <em>Live From Here<\/em>. That was one idea that got thrown around but never developed. We ended up doing a different song. But it was saved in a Dropbox folder or something called Nickel Creek ideas.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>That one had a real small germ. I love Lindsey Buckingham\u2019s fingerstyle stuff where he\u2019s really aggressive and does things in an unconventional way, like in \u201cNever Going Back Again.\u201d I was thinking about him when I was playing that fingerpicking part.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Chris:<\/strong> And you had the melody [<em>sings<\/em>]. Sara and I came up with the echo, so that was the kernel: that driving but hypnotic fingerstyle thing and a call and response. And then it went from there. That song also might have had the most arduous composition experience. We had some very fully developed false starts. False starts that got all the way to the end.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Sara:<\/strong> Like the middle section, that instrumental.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Chris: <\/strong>It was a real problem child. But we were all so attached to the idea and really believed in it. Had we not, I think the whole thing would have ended up as scraps on the floor. We kept pressing on, and it went through a lot of versions. It was as long as six minutes at one time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Sean: <\/strong>It went through like four different demo versions, and there was maybe a month before we recorded what is now the chorus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Chris: <\/strong>Yeah, that\u2019s what showed up right at the very end of the process. But you know, that first mover, the guitar figure with the call and response thing, is what suggested the lyrical material. That provided the north star for the song.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>How about \u201cHolding Pattern\u201d? I gather that started from Sean\u2019s little circular fingerpicking part.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Sara:<\/strong> I remember being in the house and Sean played this demo of the two guitar parts together [regular guitar and high-strung], which is unchanged. That was the foundation from the beginning. There was a verse melody and the chorus melody, though different lengths.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Sean:<\/strong> I had verses, but they got changed\u2014thankfully. The original verses were so weak compared to what they ended up being, and it really points to the power of the band and trusting each other. I remember it was early on in the process, maybe the first couple of days when we were looking through our notes or voice memos and just being like, is this a thing? And that was one I\u2019d forgotten about and found, and I remember Chris was like, \u201cThat\u2019s cool. What if I sing it and I have an idea for a different verse melody?\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Chris:<\/strong> That was almost the opposite of \u201cStrangers\u201d in terms of the form, and everything almost came down in real time. When you played that demo it was like, \u201cIt goes like <em>this<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Sara:<\/strong> The snaps [finger snaps on the backbeats] were part of it from the get-go.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Sean:<\/strong> Conceptually, we wanted the holding pattern vibe to be there, and part of that was, \u201cThis is going to be a very circular song that doesn\u2019t take you into any new keys.\u201d So we had that as a map.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Chris:<\/strong> Yeah, that\u2019s one where the content dictated form. That\u2019s a Stephen Sondheim thing: Content has to dictate form, or else it just starts to smack of insincerity\u2014or you are being contrived or forcing a square peg into a round hole.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Sean had that holding pattern idea, and that suggested those crazy routines we all got into during the early stages of lockdown, where we wore holes in our floors and were existing with the people that we share space with in such an intense way. That became the springboard lyrically.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Tell me about \u201cWhere the Long Line Leads,\u201d which has such an explosive sound and vocal from Sara. It has a blues-rock feel but not a typical blues chord progression.&nbsp;<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Chris:<\/strong> I wanted us to have a rager. You know, there are a couple ragers on the record, which is fun. I played the little germ of an idea [on mandolin] for Sara and Sean, and Sara was like, \u201cHey, can I sing that one?\u201d And we went from there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Sara:<\/strong> One of the things I love the most is that in order for me to sing it, it had to be in a different key. It just happened to work out perfectly for the mandola [tuned a fifth lower than the mandolin]. We haven\u2019t had that kind of a song on mandola yet, and I feel like it really puts it in a different and heavier place for us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Chris: <\/strong>I hadn\u2019t thought about that, almost like the way metal bands tune down.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Sara: <\/strong>It\u2019s our version of tuning the guitar down to C.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full is-resized\"><a href=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/Sean-Watkins-Gibson-Shot_03_0066-photo-Josh-Goleman.jpg?ssl=1\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/Sean-Watkins-Gibson-Shot_03_0066-photo-Josh-Goleman.jpg?resize=750%2C514&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"Sean Watkins' Gibson LG-2. Photo by Josh Goleman\" class=\"wp-image-139349\" width=\"750\" height=\"514\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/Sean-Watkins-Gibson-Shot_03_0066-photo-Josh-Goleman.jpg?w=750&amp;ssl=1 750w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/Sean-Watkins-Gibson-Shot_03_0066-photo-Josh-Goleman.jpg?resize=300%2C206&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/Sean-Watkins-Gibson-Shot_03_0066-photo-Josh-Goleman.jpg?resize=600%2C411&amp;ssl=1 600w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 750px) 100vw, 750px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><em>Sean Watkins&#8217; Gibson LG-2. Photo: Josh Goleman<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>So as you worked on these songs, were you charting anything out or just doing it by ear?&nbsp;<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Sara:<\/strong> There were a lot of voice memos going on. And we shared digital lyric notes. We\u2019ve never employed that kind of technology before, where we were able to see everything in one place and to try out ideas on each other in real time.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Sean: <\/strong>I remember like a week into [the writing process], we were staying at a friend\u2019s house in Santa Barbara and we were all in different rooms. We\u2019d been working and talking about lyrics, and when we\u2019d go to sleep, I\u2019d get a notification on my phone that the notes have changed. I open it up, and I can see Chris write in real time\u2014type a word, erase it, then it comes back, erase. It was so fun to watch the process and the living document.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Sara:<\/strong> We all took personal notes. I actually think in outline form, so a lot of times I\u2019ll just have very sparse notes that help me keep the song straight when a lot of things are changing. As Chris said, you have to be willing to have everything in mush state for a very long time. And so for me, it\u2019s helpful to be like, \u201cOh, this is where we left this last time: We crossed off this whole section, and then this part went up here.\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Chris:<\/strong> Nothing made it into notation, despite that there\u2019s some stuff that definitely could have.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Sean:<\/strong> I charted out stuff at times, especially when we got into the studio to take a practice swing with our producer, Eric Valentine, which is what he likes to do. We did that on <em>Why Should the Fire Die?<\/em> as well, where we recorded the whole thing, real rough sketches, just so we could look at the structure and see what it was.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Chris:<\/strong> Does it look like a tent?&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Sara:<\/strong> Put the pole higher!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Thinking back on your history, how would you draw the line between what you played as kids\u2014bluegrass and cowboy songs and all\u2014to this music? What\u2019s the throughline?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Sara:<\/strong> It\u2019s funny you mentioned the cowboy songs, because there\u2019s a moment in \u201cThe Meadow\u201d where there\u2019s this bent harmony [dipping down a half step and back up]. And we\u2019re totally referencing Sons of the Pioneers.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Sean:<\/strong> In \u201cStrangers,\u201d too, the harmony.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Sara:<\/strong> Yeah, there\u2019s this lilt that really feels like the stuff we heard from those cowboy singers we grew up hearing at the Western Music Association meetings of Old Tucson.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Sean: <\/strong>I also think that the throughline, to be more zoomed out, is the joy that we\u2019ve always felt, and the curiosity about what a song could be. It feels the same to me, that joy and fun, even though the music sounds totally different.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Chris:<\/strong> When I listen to something like our first record on Sugar Hill, that\u2019s the thing: As different as that stuff sounds when you compare it directly with <em>Celebrants,<\/em> what strikes me as being very similar is that it\u2019s joyful, no matter how dark the topic is. There\u2019s something about doing this in each other\u2019s company that keeps it suspended somehow and optimistic. Not in a Pollyanna way, but in a \u201cbeautiful to be alive and to be able to make music together\u201d way.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Sara:<\/strong> I think that it <em>was<\/em> sort of Pollyanna at first, like the first album, because we were super naive and we were kids. What\u2019s interesting to me is that this album is about choosing to return to people, to sort through the mess and to find the beautiful and remember and celebrate. Now it might take a little bit of effort or deliberate intent, but in this band that does come more naturally.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Chris<\/strong> You know, there are myriad ways in which human beings suck and we\u2019ve made it so hard for each other, but also myriad ways in which we\u2019re the best. As long as we\u2019re still here and we\u2019re trying, then there\u2019s hope. And I feel like that\u2019s a defining characteristic of Nickel Creek\u2019s sound. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">What Sean Watkins Plays<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Watkins\u2019 main guitar on <em>Celebrants<\/em> is a <a href=\"https:\/\/reverb.grsm.io\/ag?query=%20Gibson%20LG-2%201949\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">1949 Gibson LG-2<\/a> that was a gift from Jackson Browne. \u201cI love it so much,\u201d he says. \u201cIt\u2019s just so warm and round from the low notes to the high notes, and it plays really well with Chris\u2019 Loar [Gibson mandolin] on this album.\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Other core acoustics in his collection include his Bourgeois signature model, a Brazilian rosewood cutaway OM; a slope-shoulder Bourgeois dreadnought that he uses for low tunings; and a rubber bridge baritone from Old Style Guitar Shop in Los Angeles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Watkins prefers <a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/46PtgjO\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">D\u2019Addario strings<\/a>, typically nickel bronze .013s. \u201cThey sound great,\u201d he says. \u201cThey don\u2019t start off bright and then get dead. They start out medium and stay there, which I love.\u201d His go-to flatpicks include the <a href=\"https:\/\/reverb.grsm.io\/ag?query=BlueChip%20TAD60\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">BlueChip TAD60<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/reverb.grsm.io\/ag?query=Wegen%201.2%20mm\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Wegen 1.2 mm<\/a>, and <a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/46OSTRB\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">D\u2019Addario Chris Thile signature Casein.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For amplification, Watkins uses an <a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/3OcvQZD\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">L.R. Baggs Lyric<\/a> internal mic plus an Audio-Technica lavalier mic that clips into the soundhole. Both run through a <a href=\"https:\/\/reverb.grsm.io\/ag?query=Grace%20Felix\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Grace Felix<\/a> preamp\/DI. <em>\u2014JPR<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<div>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/store.acousticguitar.com\/products\/no-341-july-august-2023\" name=\"magazine link\"><img decoding=\"async\" style=\"width: 150px; height: 198px; margin: 0px 20px 10px 0px;\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/001_341_Cover-150px.jpg?w=1290&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"Acoustic Guitar magazine cover for issue 341\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\"><\/a>\n<p style=\"font-family: sans-serif; margin: 0px 0px 15px 0px;\">This article originally appeared in the <a href=\"https:\/\/store.acousticguitar.com\/products\/no-341-july-august-2023\">July\/August 2023<\/a> issue of <em>Acoustic Guitar<\/em> magazine.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>On \u2018Celebrants,\u2019 their first new record in nine years, the trio rekindles their connection and explores new territory.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":139346,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"On \u2018Celebrants,\u2019 their first new record in nine years, the trio rekindles their connection and explores new territory.","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[1155],"tags":[1846],"ppma_author":[1559],"blocksy_meta":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/nickel_creek-Shot_01_1809-photo-josh-goleman.jpg?fit=750%2C519&ssl=1","authors":[{"term_id":1559,"user_id":0,"is_guest":1,"slug":"jeffrey-pepper-rodgers","display_name":"Jeffrey Pepper Rodgers","avatar_url":{"url":"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/About-Us-8.jpg","url2x":"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/About-Us-8.jpg"},"user_url":"https:\/\/www.jeffreypepperrodgers.com\/","last_name":"","first_name":"","description":"Jeffrey Pepper Rodgers, founding editor of <em>Acoustic Guitar<\/em>, is a grand prize winner of the John Lennon Songwriting Contest and author of <a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/3P3hwn9\"><em>The Complete Singer-Songwriter<\/em><\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/store.acousticguitar.com\/collections\/instruction\/products\/beyond-strumming\"><em>Beyond Strumming<\/em><\/a>, and other books and videos for musicians. In addition to his ongoing work with <em>AG<\/em>, he offers live workshops for guitarists and songwriters, plus video lessons, song charts, and tab, on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.patreon.com\/jeffreypepperrodgers\" target=\"blank\">Patreon<\/a>.\r\n"}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139343"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=139343"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139343\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":141294,"href":"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139343\/revisions\/141294"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/139346"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=139343"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=139343"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=139343"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=139343"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}