What makes Nickel Creek is the mandolin player, plain and simple. The brother sister guitar and fiddle team are fine musicians, don't get me wrong, but where neither of them are the "next big thing" on their instruments, the mando player actually is (Chris Thiel... I think that's right; don't have it handy). He is to the mandolin what Jerry Douglas was to the dobro or Tony Rice to the bluegrass lead guitar. I can't imagine what he'll be like by the time he hits 30.