Photo By Nickel Creek

Inspired by advice from several non-Bluegrass producers and Toad the Wet Sprocket's Glen Phillips, Nickel Creek's lastest, Why Should The Fire Die?, trascends the boundaries of Bluegrass.

Rick Rubin would seem like one of the most unlikely producers for a group like Nickel Creek. While Rubin gained acclaim in recent years for his work with the late Johnny Cash and, more recently, the Dixie Chicks, he is best known for producing a variety of heavy Rock bands and Rap acts, including System Of A Down, Slayer and the Beastie Boys.

Nickel Creek, meanwhile, came up through the Bluegrass scene, after the three San Diego natives -- guitarist Sean Watkins, mandolin player Chris Thile and Watkins' sister, fiddle player Sara Watkins -- met in 1989 at a local eatery, That Pizza Place, which sponsored a weekly Bluegrass night. And while the trio's music has since branched far beyond that style, their melodic acoustic sound is about as far as one can get from the pulverizing Metal of Slayer.

In the end, Rubin did not produce the new Nickel Creek CD, Why Should The Fire Die? Still, Sean Watkins credits him with spurring the group to take steps that played a critical role in improving the final results on the CD.

"Rick Rubin told us he listened to a bunch of songs one time, but he's like, 'They're really great, but I think you should co-write, and then you should also be each other's critics,' " says Watkins, who, at 28, is four years older than his bandmates. "We'd never done that before. That really helped a lot. That was the main factor in the songwriting getting better."

The group, as it turned out, had more time than planned to consider Rubin's suggestion.

"We tried to make the record for like two years," the guitarist says. "And there were a bunch of hang-ups with producers and situations just kind of didn't pan out. The good thing is it gave us a lot more time to write some extra songs and talk to more people, to write together more. Most of the songs came about a few months prior (to recording). There is a whole batch of songs that we had a year before, and I don't think any of them made it on the record. So it was really good, a blessing in disguise."

In the end, five songs co-written in various combinations of the three members of Nickel Creek made Why Should the Fire Die?, while six of the remaining eight were written individually by one of the group members. The internal critiquing, Watkins says, also represented a shift from previous practices within Nickel Creek.

"Actually a lot of that has to do with Glen Phillips, too," Watkins says, mentioning the former Toad The Wet Sprocket frontman who in 2004 joined forces with Nickel Creek to tour and record under the band name Mutual Admiration Society. "We showed him a bunch of songs one time to see what he thought. He said, 'You know you guys are allowed to critique your songs.'

"Before, if more of (a song) was good than bad, then it was something we did," Watkins says. "It was never like the chorus needs a lot of work. So it was really natural the way it started. We just got with each other and said, 'OK, we're all on the same page here. Nobody's going to get their feelings hurt. We're just going to talk about how could we (make the songs better).' Everybody was open-minded and nobody was defensive about stuff. You kind of get used to it as a good thing. Then it's really easy to be creative together."

The production on Why Should The Fire Die? also plays a key part in the quality of the CD. The conversations with Rubin show that the members of Nickel Creek were thinking outside of the box, after having had Bluegrass star Alison Krauss produce their first two albums -- 2000's Nickel Creek and 2002's This Side. The latter disc won a Grammy for Best Contemporary Folk Album.

Like Rubin, the man chosen to produce, Eric Valentine, arrived without any production projects that resembled Nickel Creek: He's best known for producing Rock acts Queens Of The Stone Age and Smash Mouth. Valentine, in turn, also recruited Tony Berg, whose eclectic résumé includes producing Michael Penn, X, Squeeze and Edie Brickell, as well as serving as an A&R representative for Geffen Records. Berg especially made his presence felt in song arranging and suggestions to further improve the material. Valentine, meanwhile, took the lead on the sonic end of the project, focusing some of his efforts on ways to bring out a bigger sound in Nickel Creek than the band had attained on the first two CDs.

"That's the beauty of having a producer that comes from a different side of music than you," Watkins says. "He's used to making things rock, so he looked for ways to make us rock in a way that would satisfy him. That takes a lot. It took some creativity and some trying new things. We did tons of experimenting."

The efforts of the band, Valentine and Berg pay off handsomely on Why Should the Fire Die? Song for song, it is Nickel Creek's strongest effort, one that expands the scope of the group's music without betraying their Bluegrass roots.

The Bluegrass influence shows up in tunes like "Scotch & Chocolate" and "Stumptown," which both feature some frisky soloing. But, mostly, the songs fall somewhere between acoustic Pop and Folk. Ballads like "Somebody More Like You," "Jealous of the Moon" (co-written by Thile and Jayhawks' frontman Gary Louris) and the title track all boast especially graceful melodies. Meanwhile, peppier songs like "Best Of Luck" and "When In Rome" capture the potent sound Nickel Creek are known to generate in their live shows.

Watkins says all three members of Nickel Creek tried to be open-minded in their songwriting and take whatever stylistic paths best served the songs, without worrying about expectations of others.

"A lot of people think it's a conscious effort to move away (from Bluegrass)," Watkins says. "It's not that at all. We love Bluegrass. It's just not the only thing we love.

"We're definitely the same band," he continues. "We're never going to be able to help that. We're going to sound a certain way. But we really want to keep our minds open about what we can do."