This is not your grandpa’s bluegrass.

After a seven-year hiatus, bluegrass darling Nickel Creek has gotten the band back together just in time for their 25th anniversary. Their sixth album, “A Dotted Line,” marks a triumphant return to the classic mountain music that put them on the map.

Nickel Creek landed on the mainstream country music scene in 2000 with their self-titled album. Their music was what country purists had been looking for during a time when country radio had started to sound closer to pop.

It was surprising, then, when they released an album in 2005, titled “Why Should the Fire Die?” The record features their signature bluegrass instrumentation — Chris Thile on mandolin, Sara Watkins on violin and Sean Watkins on acoustic guitar — but the music was much more influenced by rock and pop than previous releases.

Despite the album’s poppy sound, Nickel Creek managed to hold on to the fans who loved them for their bluegrass musicianship while scooping up fans of more progressive indie music as well. Their Farewell (For Now) Tour in 2007 featured guest appearances from the likes of Fiona Apple and Béla Fleck, among others, and a cover of Britney Spears’ “Toxic.”

What sets Nickel Creek apart is their fearless experimentation with various genres and styles. “A Dotted Line” does not suffer from its lack of surprises. The trio still manages to create radio-friendly tunes by marrying pop and bluegrass. It just doesn’t sound like they’re trying too hard to push the envelope. Instead, “A Dotted Line” sounds like three extraordinary musicians having a blast playing their instruments together again.

“Elephant in the Corn,” one of two instrumental tracks on the album, is the best example of this radiating joy. Even after the music has been captured by microphones, mixed, mastered, downloaded to a computer and transmitted through a wire to your ears, it can’t diminish the energy, chemistry and jubilation these three exude in their playing.

While “A Dotted Line” is a return to form, generally speaking, Sara Watkins exhibits real growth in her vocal delivery. She sings with a little bit of grit where there was once only timid purity.

On the lead single, “Destination,” Sara Watkins sings about deciding to leave an indecisive man behind to pursue her own dreams. The track works perfectly as a single; it’s the best example of the group’s ability to blend pop, rock and bluegrass into something catchy.

Sean Watkins wrote more of his signature understated, acoustic guitar-driven tracks for the album. The most compelling track is “21st of May,” a classic country tune written from the perspective of Harold Camping, a Bay Area pastor who predicted the rapture would take place on May 21, 2011.

Thile is still writing some of the most poignant lyrics out of the group, and certainly out of the mainstream country music pool at large.

The best track on the record is “Love of Mine,” a delicate ballad that Thile sweetly sings to love itself. It’s a song about the realization that sometimes we fall in love with the feeling rather than the actual person.

“Now I’m stuck here trying to not remember, for all these pretty words, it wasn’t her but love that I adored. It’s my love I adored,” Thile sings.

Songs like “Love of Mine” are what set Nickel Creek apart from most artists on country radio, and it’s part of why they’re considered to go beyond the bluegrass and country music genres.

Nickel Creek brings depth to their music by exploring real human emotion. Rather than writing a typical “I love her and I lost her” song, Thile wrote about the nature of love itself. That complexity is indicative of an indie or rock influence just as much as their progressive music is.

It’s OK that “A Dotted Line” isn’t riddled with special effects. It’s OK that not every song sounds like rock ‘n roll with bluegrass instruments. It’s an album that doesn’t try too hard, but succeeds anyway. A return to form that’s only appropriate and welcome after all this time.

Published on April 8, 2014 at 2:00 am

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