San Diego-based band Nickel Creek will bring its bluegrass and country tunes to Templeton-Blackburn Alumni Memorial Auditorium tonight.
There will be a lot of songs from the new record and some covers. I'm not gonna ruin the surprise
though guitarist Sean Watkins said.
Watkins and his violinist sister Sara joined with mandolinist Chris Thile in 1989. They have released three albums. Their latest, Why Should the Fire Die?, released in August 2005. Watkins said their first album was more bluegrass-oriented but the band members have matured in different ways musically.
Watkins doesn't like naming names when asked about his musical inspirations, saying it wouldn't be helpful in showing the band's range.
There were a lot of songwriters that we came in contact with
and that mixed with our love of Celtic and traditional music
classical arrangements and modern rock
Watkins said.
The band is what it is and we all enjoyG?individually messing around with other sorts of instruments
Watkins said.
Andrew Holzaepfel, associate director for the Office of University Events, said audiences have been requesting to see Nickel Creek in Athens.
We've been wanting to get them for the last four years
and we did a survey of students
and Nickel Creek was who they wanted to see
Holzaepfel said. He also mentioned that he does not consider Nickel Creek a country act, so scheduling them a week after country star Miranda Lambert was purely coincidental.
This show will also be special because at the end of the next year the band will be going on an indefinite hiatus
Watkins said.
We will have been a band for 19 years then
