Nickel Creek Returns With New Album & Headline Tour For Spring

Nickel Creek, made up of mandolinist Chris Thile, violinist Sara Watkins and guitarist Sean Watkins, is releasing its first new album in nearly a decade, Celebrants, March 24 via Thirty Tigers. Ahead of the release, the trio recently unveiled a new song from the collection, “Strangers.”

The new album, their fifth studio project, marks a highly anticipated return for the trio and explores the dynamics of human connection. The 18 tracks on Celebrants tackle subjects like love, friendship and time as they explore bridges built, crossed, burned and rebuilt. Recorded at Nashville’s RCA Studio A, the album was produced by longtime collaborator Eric Valentine (Queens of the Stone Age, Grace Potter, Weezer) and features Mike Elizondo on bass.

“This is a record about embracing the friction inherent in real human connections,” shares the trio. “We begin the record yearning for and pursuing harmonious connection. We end the record having realized that truly harmonious connection can only be achieved through the dissonance that we’ve spent our entire adult lives trying to avoid.”

Nickel Creek will also return to the road this spring on their first headline tour since 2014. The extensive run kicks off April 15 in Cincinnati, Ohio and includes stops in Pittsburgh, Boston, Philadelphia, New York, Atlanta, Chicago, Milwaukee and more. Additional dates will be announced soon. In addition to the new dates, the band also plans to perform three sold-out shows at Nashville’s Ryman Auditorium on April 27-29, and will make several festival appearances including a headline set at Bristol Rhythm & Roots Reunion in September.

The group helped to revolutionize bluegrass and folk in the early 2000s and ushered in a new era of what is now recognized as Americana music. After meeting as young children and subsequently earning the respect of the bluegrass circuit for a decade, they signed with Sugar Hill Records in 2000 and quickly broke through with their Grammy-nominated, Alison Krauss-produced, self-titled LP. Since then, the trio has released three more studio albums: 2002’s This Side, which won Best Contemporary Folk Album at the 45th Grammy Awards, 2005’s Why Should the Fire Die? and 2014’s A Dotted Line. Each member has also taken part in many notable outside projects over the years.