NICKEL CREEK Why Should The Fire Die (CD)

(Sugar Hill Records) 14 tracks, digipack with 20 page booklet.

Nickel Creek's first album without Alison Krauss in the producer's chair, and on it, the trio's genre-expanding acoustic music has shifted even farther away from it's bluegrass origins. The opening 'When in Rome' perfectly encapsulates the aggressive approach the band favors, and features poetic lyrics far more obtuse than those of most groups with similar roots. The disc's first half stays rooted in a fairly conventional folk mode, with a lovely cover of Bob Dylan's 'Tomorrow Is a Long Time' (one of the few solo vocal turns from fiddler Sara Watkins) and 'Jealous of the Moon' (co written with the Jayhawks' Gary Louris).