Word: bluegrass
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Nothing about them smells of bluegrass. They're from San Diego, for one thing, and the fresh faces of Nickel Creek's musicians make them look like one of those trendy outfits from Iceland. Their influences range from Mozart to Counting Crows, and their tunes have ethereal titles like Ode to a Butterfly. But this nontraditional trio is the biggest thing behind a budding bluegrass revival. Their sound? Something like Dueling Banjos as remixed by Fatboy Slim. This cultural collision of the sweetest kind is the handiwork of guitarist Sean Watkins, 24; his sister Sara, 19, a violinist; and mandolin...
...trickier licks. Now success is arriving faster than the Orange Blossom Special. Nickel Creek's video, When You Come Back Down, is in heavy rotation on CMT, and its eponymous debut album cracked the Billboard country Top 20 and earned two Grammy nominations. Says Alison Krauss, herself a former bluegrass prodigy, who produced the band's album: "I can't imagine what they'll be doing in a year." And that's just the point, for to hear Nickel Creek is to hear the vibrant reinvention of a classic form...
...grand ole history seems abandoned, like some sad burden left roadside. Fortunately, there are musicians who have found new ways to overcome old barriers and fresh approaches to reclaiming worthy traditions. These performers, composers and programmers hear cinematic sounds in computer games; they've discovered lush new fields of bluegrass in which to play; and they've found that the whole world can be balanced on the reed of a clarinet. They pass through walls like music itself...
...long last, and to many cheers, the other 6,000 bandits and I cross the starter’s line. The first several miles are wonderful. I’m warm, completely energized by the crowd and the bluegrass music. My calf has loosened up, and I’m running ahead of my pace. (My theoretical goal was to run a four-hour marathon...
...trouble drawing a crowd. The space had formerly been a typical Bowery bum bar, one of dozens in the neighborhood, opening at 10 in the morning with a few guys from the flophouse standing anxiously at the door. The original hippie concept was to fill it with "Country, BlueGrass, and Blues" (hence the initials appearing on the club's tattered canvas awning) and other American genres that only become exotic when they show...