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Mutual Admiration Society are Glen Phillips (singer for Toad the Wet Sprocket) and the prodigious kids from Nickel Creek coming together to make bluegrass-tinged folk songs that thrive in the beauty of sparse moods, subtle textures and traditional acoustic musicianship. Listening to Sara and Sean Watkins and Chris Thile back up Phillips' introspective inflections with heavenly harmonies makes you wonder if he's getting something musically from them that his former band couldn't give him. Thile admits that in his youth he would listen to (and sing along with) Toad the Wet Sprocket CDs while mowing the lawn. His bandmates say they also grew up with an adolescent adoration for Toad the Wet Sprocket and that before Nickel Creek concerts they would jam out T.T.W.S. songs just for fun. During one of these pre-show warm-ups, a friend of Phillips' heard Nickel Creek playing his songs and consequently put them all in touch. The quartet recorded what became the Mutual Admiration Society sessions in Phillips' garage without any pre-production.
- Eric Shea
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