Girl Friday #14: Playing with Fire

Yes, yes, I know…enough with the fiddlers already! Allow me just one more. I’m postponing my Mother’s Day edition to tell you that Sara Watkins may be coming to a stage near you.

When I first heard about Nickel Creek, I was in the early stages of my discovery of bluegrass and being a snob overall, thought, “Yeah, but it can’t really be bluegrass or so many people wouldn’t be listening to them.” Well, I was partly right, in fact. But when I first heard this band on an incredibly stormy, rainy night on top of a little Appalachian mountain in Harpers Ferry, WV, I was awestruck at the musicianship and sophistication of these very young talents who played under some pretty awful circumstances – like, having to tear down the stage to avoid being struck by lightning. The band adjourned into an old farm house nearby where they continued to jam until it was permissible to come back outside and finish the show. I miss having that kind of stamina.

Young Sara Watkins, brother of Nickel Creek guitarist Sean Watkins, is the band’s fiddle virtuoso. Yet another musician trained in the traditional fiddling techniques, she could nonetheless give the best classical violinists a real run for their Juilliard, Curtis, or Eastman diplomas.

Sara is coming to The Kent Stage this Saturday, and I’m hoping my kids and I will be able to take in the show to celebrate mom’s day. She’s opening for Darol Anger. (Whoops, I got in a bonus fiddler name, didn’t I? Hee hee.) If that’s not in your neighborhood, I hope you’ll treat yourself to one of her live appearances soon. Visit http://www.nickelcreek.com/ for a complete list of her upcoming dates.

And listen to a snippet of one of my favorites, House of Tom Bombadil, or check out Bluegrass Journey's opening frames for their take on a favorite fast-moving Alison Krauss tune, We Hide And Seek.