Sean Watkins
Sean Watkins | |
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Sugar Hill Records | |
Website | seanwatkins.com |
Sean Charles Watkins
Career
Nickel Creek
Sean Watkins began his tenure with Nickel Creek playing mandolin, but later switched to guitar. The band has released six albums and a CD composed of their hits (called Reasons Why: The Very Best) and won a
As a solo musician, his early material was contemporary bluegrass, but he has since incorporated other influences into his music (especially indie rock.) Watkins' solo music career seems to reflect Nickel Creek's: turning from traditional bluegrass songs to indie rock with bluegrass instrumentation. He is the oldest member of Nickel Creek. Sean qualified for the National Flatpicking Championship in 1993 at age 16.
"My first instrument was the piano when I was six", Sean recalled. "I took classic instruction for seven years, but three years into that I discovered bluegrass music, through my piano teacher's son, who had a bluegrass band that played every Saturday night at a pizza place in Carlsbad. I really got into it, and when Sara and I met Chris [Thile], we started playing with him on Saturday nights too."[citation needed]
His sister
Current projects
In 2006, Sean and Switchfoot frontman Jon Foreman started a collaborating duo called The Real SeanJon.[3][4] In March 2008, the duo announced that they had changed their band name to Fiction Family. In a spring 2008 interview, Jon Foreman said that the album would have a summer 2008 release and the duo was considering having the album be distributed by Starbucks.[5] However, a September 2008 press release by Nickel Creek confirmed that the album, Fiction Family, is to be released on January 20, 2009, on ATO Records.[6]
In January 2008, it was reported by
Sean and sister Sara play regularly at the Largo nightclub in Los Angeles as "The Watkins Family Hour". Keyboardist Benmont Tench (of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers) and bassist Sebastian Steinberg (formerly of Soul Coughing) are regular participants and other guest musicians from the Largo family generally show up as well, including Jon Brion, Fiona Apple, Don Heffington, Greg Leisz, and former Nickel Creek bandmate Chris Thile when he is in town. The irregular collaboration lead to a 2015 album and tour under the same name.[7]
Sean has also frequently supported his sister Sara on guitar and vocals for her solo dates since the release of her debut album in April 2009.
In addition, Watkins plans to release what he calls "15 minutes of noise" as a digital download on his website. He said that the final product was "very strange",[4] and that there would "be some cool art to go with it".[8]
In October 2013, Sean announced that he had completed a record entitled All I Do Is Lie, which was released in June 2014.[9]
Discography
Solo
- Let It Fall(2001)
- 26 Miles (2003)
- Blinders On (2006)
- All I Do Is Lie(2014)
- What to Fear(2016)
- This Is Who We Are (2020) – with The Bee Eaters[10]
Nickel Creek
Fiction Family
With Watkins Family Hour
Albums
- Watkins Family Hour (2015)
- Brother Sister (2020)
References
- ^ Sean Charles Watkins Writing Credits at ASCAP.com
- ^ Million-selling trio Nickel Creek gives bluegrass a facelift
- ^ Nickel Creek Official Website
- ^ a b Watkins, Sean. "a very long blog about what i'm up to". MySpace. January 5, 2008. Retrieved January 27, 2007.
- ^ "Switchfoot – 02.24.08" Archived December 21, 2008, at the Wayback Machine. Mammoth Press. March 19, 2008. Retrieved March 20, 2008.
- ^ "update on everything Nickel Creek" Archived January 26, 2009, at the Wayback Machine. nickelcreek.com. September 15, 2008. Retrieved September 16, 2008.
- ^ McCue, Lori (September 3, 2015). "Sean and Sara Watkins are taking their Watkins Family Hour on the road, and bringing famous friends". Washington Post. Retrieved July 14, 2016.
- ^ Watkins, Sean. "about the "15 minutes of noise" and my string quartet.". MySpace. January 5, 2008. Retrieved January 27, 2007.
- ^ "New solo record "All I do is Lie" completed. Stay tuned for release info. | | Sean WatkinsSean Watkins". Archived from the original on December 24, 2013. Retrieved December 22, 2013.
- ^ "This is Who We Are, by Sean Watkins & the Bee Eaters".