Showbiz Sessions

Nickel Creek performs 'When You Come Back Down'

Nickel Creek performs "When you Come Back Down"

NEW YORK (CNN) -- Take two families, twist them together, have them meet up at a California pizza joint with their instruments and what do you get? Nickel Creek, an eclectic mixing of mandolin, acoustic guitar and violin with solid bluegrass underpinnings.

The members of the trio -- guitarist Sean Watkins, his violinist sister Sara and mandolinist Chris Thile -- met 14 years ago in that fated pizza restaurant in Carlsbad, California. Their early jam sessions were held in an unlikely spot, Sean Watkins told Michael Okwu of "Showbiz Today Reports."

"We just started playing together in the hall that leads to the bathroom, because that was the only place you wouldn't be bothered by the band that was playing," he said.

	VIDEO
Nickel Creek performs 'When You Come Back Down' Play video (QuickTime, Real or Windows Media)

"Sometimes people would come in on their way to the bathroom and apparently they wouldn't have to go bad enough that they wouldn't stop and listen. We obstructed the traffic to the bathroom a bunch, but it was the only place to go."

Nickel Creek has been pigeonholed as a bluegrass group, but the band claims a variety of influences: Celtic music, rock, even a little jazz. Regardless of its source, the music has certainly been noticed. Time magazine called the trio one of five musical innovators of the millennium.

Heady stuff, indeed.

Nickel Creek performed "When You Come Back Down," a track off its self-titled debut album. The three tuned up and got down on the rooftop of Manhattan's Hotel Giraffe as a part of this week's "Showbiz Sessions."

Nickel Creek official Web site

Note: Pages will open in a new browser window

External sites are not endorsed by CNN Interactive.