Nickel Creek - "This Side" 2002 (Sugar Hill Records)
The world of bluegrass music is a very elitist one. Musicians have been playing bluegrass music for centuries, and there are many hard-core fans who believe that no change should ever befall their traditional genre. And when Nickel Creek arrived in early 2000, their revitalized and modernized bluegrass sound really put those genre "purists" on their heels. In an interview with Rolling Stone, fiddler Sara Watkins seemed unfazed by the cold shoulder they'd received. "There are festivals where Ricky Skaggs and Del McCoury are too progressive," she says. "We don't go to those festivals because they don't like us. And that's fine. We don't want to play places where they don't like us."
I'm amazed, however, that anyone wouldn't like a band like Nickel Creek! Their latest album, "This Side," seems so meticulously crafted that it's hard to imagine bluegrass's sound without their improvements. Throughout the length of the album, they take some massive risks (like covering Pavement's "Spit on a Stranger," or Carrie Newcomer's "I Should've Known Better" to which they add dissonant string chords to the background, making it exceptionally haunting).
And what makes the album work is that the risks work! "This Side" is perhaps the most daring Bluegrass revival album to come out on a major label.
And one would have to think Alison Krauss had a major hand in making sure Nickel Creek were allowed to work their magic. When she signed the band to her Sugar Hill label back in 1999, she gave the members artistic freedom to define their own sound. It's that freedom that allows the band to traverse so many genres with what has been prior to this album an old man's palette. And to those purists who feel that a band this young is "killing" traditional bluegrass, I laugh out loud. I was raised on bluegrass, and still I can see just how important a band Nickel Creek is.
Even more impressive is that the innocence of their first album is still present, despite the massive shifts in the fury of their creative defiance. The album opens with "Smoothie Song," an instrumental performance that highlights mandolin phenom Chris Thile's impressive chops, and then jumps headlong into "Spit on a Stranger," which could perhaps be the most impressive cover I've heard from any band in a good while. Other standouts include "Green and Grey" (which features some amazingly tortured bass tones during the chorus), "Seven Wonders" (a gorgeous, melodic "single quality" track that features Watkins on lead vocals, backed by stunning harmonies on the chorus) and the album's closing track, "Brand New Sidewalk."
The latter is disturbingly dark, and is one of those songs that really sticks with you. "They'll rob you blind of what they gave, yes you gave them that power," Thile sings, his voice strained. "You might not have meant to, but it's done you can't take it back ... cry about where they've sent you." The chorus ends with a ringing bell in the background that sounds more like it came out of hell than from redemption. It's something you won't hear every day, but more importantly you'll not hear it from a band as sincere and devoted to their craft.
Nickel Creek is the real deal if you're looking for top class new-grass from a band intent on developing its genre beyond the usual restrained redundancy. And if the improvement on their sophomore album is any indication, this young group of innovators will be around for many albums to come. Though now they've got their own classic album to live up to.
Rating: ****1/2
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