Featured Artist
January 15-21, 2001

The "Artist of the Week" web site feature highlights a new flatpicking guitarist each week. This weeks featured artist is Sean Watkins.

	Sean Watkins
	Reprinted from Flatpicking Guitar Magazine, Volume 2, Number 3 (March/April 1998) By Bryan Kimsey
To view products by this artist, Click Here.

When the results from the 1997 Wickenburg, AZ flatpicking contest were posted on the Internet's Flatpick-L, "Sean Somebody" was reported as having beat Gary Cook (FGM V.1, No.6) and your fearless reporter to take 1st place. I quickly posted back that "Sean Somebody" was none other than Sean Watkins, guitar player for the outstanding band "Nickel Creek", which also features mandolin prodigy Chris Thile and Sean's sister Sara Watkins. "Tell us more!" was a common reply, "Who is this Sean Watkins guy and how did he beat two-time National Champ Gary Cook?". I interviewed Sean at Winfield '96 and have bumped into him several times since, but have just been lazy at writing this article. However, with the release of Nickel Creek's latest CD, "Here to There", the time is ripe to expose Sean Watkins to readers of Flatpicking Guitar Magazine for what he is: one heck of a fine flatpicker.

Watkins started playing the piano at age 6 and the mandolin at age 9. Soon after he began to learn the mandolin he was taking lessons from John Moore (John played mandolin in the band California with Dan Crary, John Hickman, and Byron Berline and now plays in the band Bluegrass, Etc.) "I took lessons from him for awhile, and pretty soon he had us on-stage. Then I met Chris [Thile]. I was playing mandolin and he was playing guitar, but soon I switched to guitar because it was a little bit easier for me and Chris likes to play mandolin more, so... I switched about 4 years ago for good. I still play mandolin for fun, though". Bluegrass appealed to Sean because "it seemed like more of a challenge. Compared to other types of music, it's faster, harder, and just seemed like more fun. My first exposure to bluegrass music was John Moore. We'd go down to hear them play and Dan Crary would come on sometimes, or John Hickman, or Byron Berline. Those guys were really encouraging to us." Sean was 14 when he first started to learn how to play the guitar.

Sean's right hand attack is loose and smooth. He uses his little and ring fingers as depth gauges, but doesn't anchor them. "When I first started playing, I'd anchor my hand, resting the wrist on the bridge pins. But now what I do is raise it off the bridge pins. It's still touching just a bit, but it's not anchored anymore. I don't use my wrist as much as I use my arm and fingers for movement. My pinky will sometimes wrap around the high string when I'm playing lower strings, too." Sean uses a triangle Clayton Ultem ("Gold") in 1.20 mm. "I used to use tortoiseshell, but then I found these and I just like them better for some reason. They don't get scratchy and they feel great. Plus, you can find them!"

After playing a '48 Martin D-18 for years, Sean recently bought a Collings D2H. "I really like this guitar", he said, ripping off a string of syncopated, slurred licks in between words. "It sounds great, plays great, and I just really like it". At Winfield, Sean was using medium gauge strings, but said . "I don't really like medium gauge... well, I like the volume, but I don't like the stiffness. But my action is so low that lights just rattle and buzz, so I use mediums". At Wickenburg, though, he'd switched to light gauge strings in his regular Gibson J200 phosphor bronze. On-stage, Sean plugs in with an LR Baggs ribbon/transducer set-up. "The Baggs has a sliding balance and control and I can really control my sound onstage". He will sometimes use a microphone for leads, but prefers to use a volume pedal instead, relying entirely on the Baggs for sound. "I don't want to sound pickup-y at all, and the Baggs does a great job of making my guitar sound right."

Nickel Creek plays largely original material, and I was curious to see how Watkins developed his own style. "I learned a lot of songs that John Moore did. He'd write 'em out for me and I'd learn them. I copied Tony Rice a lot when I was first starting, but over time I just learned to develop my own style. Tony's my idol, but it's a lot more fun to be creative and original than to copy someone all the time." Sean also mentioned how important it is to listen to other instruments. "If you only listen to guitar players, you'll only hear certain patterns. I think it's important to listen to other instruments just for their styles, even if you don't directly copy things. I listen to Bela Fleck, and piano players like Chick Corea, and all kinds of stuff. I listen to Joe Pass a lot and I like classical music."

As for practice, Sean says "I just work on whatever I'm not good at. At first, I did a lot of right hand exercises [demonstrates a cross-picking roll] to get my right hand loose. Now, I'm always practicing a tune we're learning or practicing for a recording session or something like that. I've also been practicing chords and licks that stretch my hands." Sean is also fairly active in contests, having made the final in both guitar and mandolin at Winfield, and placing in both instruments at Wickenburg (1st on guitar and 3rd on mandolin) and other local contests. He's working on a solo album, but until then, his recording output is Nickel Creek.

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