My Tuesday Tunes selection comes from a band I was fortunate enough to hear live, gosh, maybe 11 years ago, in a small venue in Cincinnati, Ohio. Nickel Creek had a distinctive sound which was a fusion of progressive blue grass, indie rock, and folk rock.

I’m a sucker for a mandolin and Chris Thile knows how to make it sing. I also love a fiddle, a string bass and pure voices in harmony. Put those together, add the production genius of one of my all time favorite artists, multi-Grammy winning Alison Krauss and you have Nickel Creek.

The trio have ventured out on their own. Sara Watkins has a respectable solo album, Sun Midnight Sun. Thile has collaborated with a few other musicians you may have heard of; Yo-Yo Ma, Edgar Meyer and Stuart Duncan on The Goat Rodeo Sessions, among other endeavors.

I hope they’ll collaborate again. I am happy I got to see them when they were young and new to the music scene. The concert was right around the time they won a Grammy for Best Contemporary Folk Album. I own their first self-titled CD and the one that nabbed a Grammy, This Side. I listened to them a lot and need to dig them out of my closet. Theirs is a concert I remember fondly, so until and if they get back together, I’ll enjoy the memories. Now you can enjoy the sweet harmony and musicianship of Nickel Creek and one of my favorite songs by them, Hanging By a Thread.