On March 31, 2015 Nickel Creek founder Sean Watkins will release a limited pressing split 7†featuring two songs – a lovely version of the classic murder ballad “Banks of the Ohio†featuring Fiona Apple (hear it below) and “Dead Flowers†with ex-member of Old Crow Medicine Show Willie Watson. Pre-orders currently available at Bandcamp and come with an immediate download of “Banks of the Ohioâ€. It will also be made available digitally on 3/31/15.
Of the Apple collaboration Watikns told Rolling Stone “Fiona and I met and started playing songs together,” he remembers. “(The L.A. listening room) Largo was still a small place back then, a place you could go try out new things and learn new songs, so we started finding some music we both could identify with. I learned some songs she had grown up singing — mostly jazz standards — and then she learned the equivalent for me, which was bluegrass songs and murder ballads.”