Some facts about Nickel Creek:
- THIS SIDE RELEASE DATE: August 13, 2002 - Debuted at #18 on the Top Album Chart. This Side reached GOLD this fall, while the self-titled debut is expected to reach platinum by Christmas.
- Currently, their instrumental song "Smoothie Song," was the first acoustic instrumental to reach #1 on Adlit Alternative Radio, while the video is in heavy rotation on CMT is also being played on VH-1
- Though originally created as a bluegrass band, their music expands on those influences by incorporating Beatles-flavored psychedelia, left-of-center alt rock, pop, folk and more.
- The band is technically a trio, fiddle player Sara Watkins, Guitarist Sean Watkins (26), Mandolin Player Chris Thile - they are supplemented on stage by a bass player-- whose membership changes from tour to tour.
- The band recently won their first Grammy (they have been nominated four times in other categories) for BEST CONTEMPORARY FOLK ALBUM. Past winners have included Bruce Springsteen, Bob Dylan, Emmylou Harris and Lucinda Williams. The band feels this category most aptly describes their music.
- Most of the songs on THIS SIDE were written by Chris Thile and Sean Watkins, though their cover songs from diverse sources: Pavement, Tim O'Brien, folk singer Carrie Newcomer along with traditional songs.
- They met, not surprisingly, through music, when their parents took them to hear a weekly bluegrass show at "That Pizza Place" in Southern California. Nickel Creek became a band over 13 years ago, when a concert promoter was taken by the idea of putting together a bluegrass "kid band." The trio got their name from a fiddle tune called Nickel Creek by Byron Berline.
- Individually, the members of Nickel Creek have performed or recorded with The Dixie Chicks, Dolly Parton, Bela Fleck, Glen Phillips and others. Both Thile and Watkins have released two solo albums each; all members won various instrumental contests in their teens.
- Alison Krauss, who produced both albums, describes their sound as "just Nickel Creek music."
- Rolling Stone included the band in their "Best of 2002" while Time Magazine featured them in the music innovators special in May of 2000.
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