Welcome to the New 12th Gate Coffee House!
One of the great joys of putting this project together regularly is that sometimes my wanderings around You-Tube introduce me to some really awesome talent that I had just missed over the years. Tonight, I am please to introduce you to a wonderful trio called Nickel Creek. The acoustic group included Sean and Sara Watkins and Chris Thile. While they generally performed with a bass, that role has always been filled by pick-up players.
I don’t usually do bluegrass, which is fine because they maintain that they were not really a bluegrass band, but that their music simply draws on bluegrass influences. They talk of themselves as “progressive acoustic.” Don’t you evil liberal idiots love that!
Begun in 1989, as a group of virtuoso kids – the oldest 12 years young. Just for fun, check out this clip – they were veeery young – View Clip
They got older (we all do) and better (some of us)! Nickel Creek was together for 18 years. Last year marked a farewell tour signifying at least a hiatus in their work together to pursue more individual projects. Nevertheless, there are some great albums and video clips out there.
This more extended clip is from a DVD called Bluegrass Journey that traces these musicians, especially Thile through the years – Hang in there – the last four minutes represent an amazing musical jam performed at the Wild Fox Bluegrass Festival – a song with an intriguing title, Old. Cold Coffee on the Dashboard
I’ll then share three more clips, plus an encore. Each a little bit different – the first two are music videos rather than live performances. The third, the Fox, is a recordinbg of the classic folk song, but represents a photo essay, pictures taken at a recent concert in Tulsa.
Add a little vocal for this canned video – it’s great. This Side. I love the words
This Side
One day you’ll see her and you’ll know what I mean.
Take her or leave her she will still be the same.
She’ll not try to buy you with her time.
Nothing’s the same, as you will see when she’s gone.
It’s foreign on this side,
And I’ll not leave my home again.
There’s no place to hide
And I’m nothing but scared.
You dream of colors that have never been made,
You imagine songs that have never been played.
They will try to buy you and your mind.
Only the curious have something to find.
It’s foreign on this side,
And the truth is a bitter friend.
Reasons few have I to go back again.
Your first dawn blinded you, left you cursing the day.
Entrance is crucial and it’s not without pain.
There’s no path to follow, once you’re here.
Climb up the slide and then you’ll slide down the stairs.
It’s foreign on this side,
But it feels like I’m home again.
There’s no place to hide
But I don’t think I’m scared.
(there’s no place to hide)
(there’s no place to hide)
But I don’t think I’m scared.
(there’s no place to hide)
But I don’t think I’m scared…
Besides being a fun video – the Smoothie Song has some awesome duet work that recycles in different ways through the different pairings of the instruments.
The Photo Essay – but also a great version of the old favorite song – The Fox
All right, here comes the encore – really, it is an encore.
With You-Tube clips, there is always some trade off between the quality of the recording and the quality of the performance. I tend to fall of the side of better videos, but every once in a while, even in an audience shot video, what is captured is special. The final stop on Nickel Creek’s Farewell (for now) Tour featured a closing jam of the gospel song, I’ll Fly Away, featuring some musicians who have influenced Nickel Creek’s Sean and Sara and Chris. Performers included: Bela Fleck (banjo), Mark Schatz (bass), Gillian Welch (vocals, guitar), David Rawlings (guitar), Tim O’Brien (mandolin), Benmont Tench (piano)
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Thanks for dropping by. Have a great weekend!
That’s some neat stuff! The first one reminds me of some of the music in AUGUST RUSH. (Sent me back to rewatch parts of it, actually.)