SEAN WATKINS "Blinders On" Sugar Hill CHRIS THILE "Live Duets" Sugar Hill

Sean Watkins mixes influences on his solo CD. (By Brent Hedgecock)

SEAN WATKINS"Blinders On"Sugar HillCHRIS THILE"Live Duets"Sugar Hill

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THE INITIAL impression left by "Blinders On," by Nickel Creek's Sean Watkins, is that it's yet another mildly ironic take on being depressed under the dazzling California sun. Watkins is too smart to fall into cliche, though; on tracks such as "Summer's Coming" he does more with that ol' ball of gas than just play Beach Boy. It opens the album with a tangle of synthesized flute like someone's strangling the bluebird of happiness. "Summer's coming, winter's running," Watkins's smooth tenor intones. Then, ominously: "Keep her near you, don't kill the fear."

This 28-year-old bluegrass star's press-kit admission "I love the confines of Nickel Creek" suggests why he's also making electronica-enhanced pop. He doesn't sound confined here but quite comfortable with mixing his influences. He's a Radiohead fan: You can hear it in the one-man-band overdubs of guitars and pianos and melancholy crooning in "Happy New Year." The shifting tempos, buzzy keyboard and deep, downward swoops of Watkins's bowed bass on "I Say Nothing" are nearly psychedelic. And "Starve Them to Death," a melodic motif reminiscent of Todd Rundgren's "In My Eyes," is chased by a seven-note, minor-key Appalachian hook.

Mandolin virtuoso Chris Thile was a co-founder of Nickel Creek at age 8 and recorded his first solo album at 12, and therefore he has even more of a wunderkind rep to uphold than the slightly older Watkins. On "Live Duets," he teams with another former teen mandolin phenom, Mike Marshall (Modern Mandolin Quartet, David Grisman Quartet), for a concert recording made while they toured their 2003 collaboration, "Into the Cauldron." That album melded a number of original compositions with newgrassed readings of J.S. Bach, Charlie Parker and folk melodies from Ireland and Brazil; on "Live Duets," the world beat influence shifts to Bulgaria via "Sedi Donka" and the wryly dubbed "Carpathian Mt. Breakdown." No matter the source, all the tracks showcase interaction that's intimate and technically brilliant without being merely showy. Still, sometimes it's difficult to believe no overdubs are involved as Thile and Marshall pick and pluck away with abandon, mostly on their mandolins, with occasional mandola and mandocello for added depth and coloration.

-- Pamela Murray Winters

Appearing Friday at the 9:30 club.