This Side

Although grounded in bluegrass, Nickel Creek’s musical canvas is a great deal more expansive, with nods to swing, rock and roll,country ,and the Irish tradition.

The album kicks off with an instrumental from the pen of mandolinist Chris Thile, replete with stringwork of the first water, and moves through a bewildering set of emotional questions and responses, from Pavement's ‘Spit On A Stranger’ to a drop dead gorgeous version of Andy Irvine's ‘Sabra Girl’. Beginning with a solo vocal from Sara Watkins, it builds beautifully, its lonesome quality further underscored by Edgar Meyer's Arco bass. Against that, the title track is a bright little pop song driven and supported by harmonies of the celestial kind.

Eclecticism in music can be very difficult to achieve, but no such charge could be laid, or sustained, here.This is music where heart, soul and mind are at work together, rarely, if ever, out of step with each other. With each successive hearing, This Side gets better and better. A thing of rare beauty, no question about it.