Apple Creek
Weather-wise, I got lucky. Mid-August evenings in this part of the world can be balmy, stormy or just plain hot. Saturday was cool and dry, and the only hot stuff was going on at the Mann Music Center with Nickel Creek and Fiona Apple on Saturday night. Nickel Creek is on some sort of a farewell tour and their friend Fiona is along for a genre-bending experience as she turns her angst-ridden tunes into angst-ridden bluegrass. In some ways, it makes perfect sense. Nickel Creek uses the lighter than air sound to convey serious and sometimes morbid thoughts and Fiona is sometimes just plain morbidly serious. On the surface, you'd think it wouldn't work, but in actuality, it works just fine. Nickel Creek's Chris Thile said, "I think people get confused about what makes a good collaboration." One would tend to want to put bluegrass bands with bluegrass bands and pop acts with pop acts, when in actuality it's the kind of musician, not the kind of music [that matters...