Has anyone else noticed that Nickel Creek is breaking up (at least for now)? I probably wouldn’t have noticed if Nickel Creek’s “Farewell (For Now)” Tour weren’t making a stop at the University of Kentucky’s Singletary Center, which I bike past every morning on the way to work. According to the band members, Nickel Creek grew tired of trying to produce new albums when the material to support such an endeavor simply did not exist.
In my youth, I fell in love with the traditional bluegrass stylings on Nickel Creek’s self-titled album. At the time, I savored songs like, “Sweet Afton” and “When You Come Back Down,” and I even appreciated “The Hand Song,” a not-so-discreet sign that the Nickel Creek trio might be Christians. In that song, the band draws an elaborate analogy between a curious boy, military service, and Christ’s blood sacrifice. The boy, who questions his mother about about the logic of sacrifice, later grows up and finds himself called upon by “Uncle Sam” to “give to a friend what he learned from the cross.”
In retrospect, Nickel Creek’s comparison between serving in military conflicts and blood sacrifice is repugnant. It is just the first moment of gratuitous conservatisim from this band. So farewell Nickel Creek. Your great music will be missed, but your theology won’t be!
