Warning: The Surgeon General has determined that aspiring
\nguitarists should
\nnot listen to Sean Watkins. You’ll only become hopelessly
\nfrustrated at your own lack
\nof skills. I mean, come on he’s in his early 20s and he
\nalready plays
\nthis<\/i> good? It’s
\nenough to make you take up crocheting. I speak from
\nexperience.<\/p>\n
Sean Watkins, guitarist for Nickel Creek, has released his first
\nsolo album,
\nLet
\nIt Fall<\/i>, and let me tell you, folks, it’s a doozy.
\nWatkins may be the best young
\nflatpicking guitarist out there, and this album is a
\nmasterpiece of guitar styling. And
\nto add insult to injury, Watkins self-produced this CD, and
\nthe production is perfect.<\/p>\n
It’s hard to quantify this CD in a lot of ways. Nickel Creek is
\n(mostly) a
\nbluegrass outfit, and there’s a good deal of traditional
\nbluegrass and newgrass on<\/p>\n
Let It Fall<\/i>. However, Watkins branches out in a lot of ways;
\nthere are discrete
\nmusical influences and accents that show he’s not just a
\nflatpicker. In a lot of ways,
\nWatkins’ work reminds me of Lawrence Juber’s solo CDs; he has
\nthat same plain
\nlove for the guitar and how it sounds, and it makes the CD a
\njoy to listen to.<\/p>\n
Watkins’ brilliance aside, the guest musicians are the “Usual
\nSugar Hill
\nSuspects” with a few surprises. Sean’s sister, Sara Watkins,
\nshows up playing
\nelegant fiddle on three tracks; Chris Thile contributes
\nmandolin to two tracks; six-time
\nInternational Bluegrass Music Award winner Jerry Douglas
\nplays dobro on three
\ntracks; and Bluegrass Etc.’s Dennis Caplinger chimes in with
\nbanjo on two. All are
\nwonderful. Even weirder, and just as wonderful, is former
\nToad The Wet Sprocket
\nlead vocalist Glen Phillips, who sings lead vocals on the
\ntitle track, the only
\nnon-instrumental piece on the CD.<\/p>\n
Wonderful is, indeed, the word. “Let It Fall” is, simply, one of
\nthe most beautiful
\nsongs I’ve ever heard, and Phillips nails the vocals
\nperfectly. Other tracks worth
\nspecial notice: “Neo’s Song”, “January Second”, “Ferdinand
\nThe Bull”, “The Orange
\nAutumn Days”…oh, heck, it’s all good. Even the hidden track
\nat the end, a device
\nwhich sometimes annoys me, is a lot of fun.<\/p>\n
Yes, Watkins is young. Yes, it’s aggravating sometimes that he’s
\nthis good,
\nthough only for a little while and with a smile on one’s
\nface. But there’s one
\nadvantage to that; if he’s this good already, think how much
\nbetter he’ll get. I, for
\none, can hardly wait.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":28137,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[6832],"rating":[5646],"class_list":["post-39532","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-sean-watkins","rating-rating-a"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/39532","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39532"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/39532\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28137"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39532"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39532"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=39532"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=39532"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}