Drew Emmitt: Press

When two jam bands collide, bluegrass is born on impact
By: KATIE ANDREW
Posted: 10/2/08
For those suffering from a String Cheese Incident withdrawal, Emmitt-Nershi Band is the new rehab.

This soulful quartet is destined for success just by virtue of the acclaimed musicians that compose it.

New Jersey native Bill Nershi is best known as a founding member of the jam band pioneer, The String Cheese Incident.

After becoming interested in guitar at the age of 17, Nershi moved out west to immerse himself in the mid-'90s bluegrass music scene of the Colorado Rockies, eventually meeting up with the other members of his original band.
EMMITT-NERSHI BAND
When: 8 p.m. Saturday
Where: The Melting Point
Cost: $19
More Information: www.meltingpointathens.com

"[We] played music for 14 years before I decided it was time to try some new things in my musical life, go in a different direction," Nershi said.

His post-String Cheese endeavor, Emmitt-Nershi Band, channels an upbeat Rocky Mountain mood with heavy harmonies.

Long before he was successful with String Cheese, however, Nershi remembers admiring the musical stylings of Drew Emmitt, who played in another popular Colorado jam band, Leftover Salmon.

"When I was living in Telluride, I would go out to see them play," Nershi said. "He would pull me on stage from time to time, and I would sit in and play some guitar with them."

"Over the years, String Cheese started doing well and we played some shows together, so I got to know him better. We clicked pretty well. When I decided to leave The String Cheese Incident, we thought it was a good time to go for it."

Guitarist Nershi and mandolinist Emmitt then teamed up with bassist Tyler Grant and banjoist Andy Thorn to create a top shelf musical act.

"I think what's cool about this band is that each of us are leaving our respective 'big bands' to do this," Emmitt said.

"It's kind of taking what we do and bringing it back to a real basic roots level. We definitely get a lot of fire power out of just a four-piece band."

The members of Emmitt-Nershi Band seems to recognize the danger of getting lost in the sea of indistinguishable jam bands, but they don't lose much sleep over it.

"It's definitely an offshoot of the jam band scene because Drew and I have both been in that, but it's very different," Nershi said.

"It's [a] traditional bluegrass lineup, which is a really fun medium to work with because it has its own unique rhythm and sound."

The band members plan to start recording their first album together this December.

The album, not yet named, is scheduled to drop next spring, after which Emmitt-Nershi plans to go on tour.

"I try not to look too far into the future," Emmitt said.

"Right now, we're just enjoying it and making it happen. Who knows what the future may hold."

To all the aspiring jam legends out there, Emmitt-Nershi advises to stick with it.

"If you're a musician, get out and play with as many people as you can. If you're a band, get out and play with as many other bands as you can," Nershi said.

Emmitt agreed.

"It just takes time," he said. "You just gotta keep at it and don't be in a hurry. Just keep working on your craft."

VISITING ACT | Emmitt-Nershi Band

Salmon and Cheese Unplugged: Emmitt-Nershi's grassy new turn

By Stratton Lawrence


The Emmitt-Nershi Band: Pickin' on Mozzarella and Old Fish

Emmitt-Nershi Band
Sun. Oct. 5
9 p.m.
$18, $15/adv.
Pour House
1977 Maybank Hwy.
(843) 571-4343
www.charlestonpourhouse.com
www.myspace.com/emmittnershiband

"Down in a Hollow" from recent sessions
Audio File

"There's a whole culture that is immersed in trance and electronica styles of music. It's a whole world like the Burning Man world, and you know those people really enjoyed the direction that String Cheese was going," says String Cheese guitarist and frontman Bill Nershi. "At the same time, there were a lot of people who were like, 'What is this? What happened to the String Cheese sound?' And a lot of people who were more acoustic music fans didn't go with String Cheese when we started changing our sound. Those people are, I think, excited to hear some of those songs in a different setting, played by basically a straight-ahead bluegrass band."

Both Leftover Salmon and the String Cheese Incident did as much as any band out there to make fiddles and banjos mainstream. But as their crowds grew, the desire to break new musical ground led each group toward a more electrified sound. Although Leftover has regrouped, and is sporadically touring, String Cheese dissolved last year, primarily over concerns among members about the move toward electronica the band was taking.

Nershi initiated the String Cheese breakup, stating that he often felt unsure about his role when a song moved toward trance-like build-ups. In the aftermath, he solidified his friendship with Leftover lead singer and mandolinist Drew Emmitt, and, together with Andy Thorn (banjo) and Tyler Grant (bass), they've stripped down their songs to fit a four-piece, traditional bluegrass outfit.

"Writing a song like 'Black Clouds' [a String Cheese staple], I kind of heard in my head what it would sound like," says Nershi, on the phone from his home in Colorado. "The beauty of String Cheese is that it's like, 'Wow, you take this song that I thought would sound like this and it becomes a whole different thing.' And that's exciting. But now when I play it with the Emmitt-Nershi Band it's the way it sounded in my head when I was writing it. For me, it's like resetting my musical buttons, getting back to bluegrass and checking back into that sound, because it's one of my favorite styles to play, for sure."

Fans of String Cheese and Leftover can certainly expect to hear plenty of familiar tunes, albeit in new, harmonious arrangements, as well as new takes on traditional bluegrass numbers.

"We don't have setlists. They're a thing of the past," says Nershi. "That's the beauty of playing these smaller gigs. We don't feel the pressure to have all the songs lined up — we just look at each other and I'll say, 'Go ahead and sing one, Drew,' or he'll say, 'What have you got, Billy?' It's really fun that way, real spur of the moment."

Nershi says that the greatest joy of playing with Emmitt is hearing his voice: "I'll be playing and just listening, thinking, 'Man, that is so cool, that sounds so good.'"

Aside from the two frontmen, the other two pickers aren't too shabby themselves. Bass-playing Grant actually won the 2008 National Flat Pickin' championship in Winfield, Kansas last month — "and he's our bass player!" laughs Nershi. Banjo-player Thorn may be the most familiar to the Pour House crowd — he's played there many times as a member of Larry Keel's band, Natural Bridge.

On the road, Nershi says the reaction from bluegrass and String Cheese fans alike has been positive.

Even though the songs are strictly acoustic with Emmitt-Nershi, that doesn't preclude plenty of hot jams. Both lead members come from backgrounds of inciting thousands of revelers into frantic dancing, and Nershi says they're particularly excited for their first tour of the Southeast. In our increasingly bluegrass-friendly town, they'll likely be warmly welcomed at the Pour House.

Leftover Cheese? String Salmon? No, it's the Emmitt-Nershi Band

By Steve Wildsmith
of The Daily Times Staff


When his jam-rock outfit String Cheese Incident called it quits last year, Bill Nershi decided to get back to his roots.

"I think that, with the evolution of String Cheese, we were going more to the trance and electronica side of things," Nershi told The Daily Times during a recent interview. "I like that, but I wasn't really feeling like that was my path necessarily. One of the things that I wanted to do was kind of get back to more of a roots style of music, and to me, bluegrass was something I really enjoy playing, so I wanted to dive into the bluegrass world."

The Emmitt-Nershi Band evolved out of a chance encounter between String Cheese and Drew Emmitt, the mandolin player for Leftover Salmon. The latter band traveled in the same jam-rock circles, blending bluegrass and Cajun/zydeco music for a style the members jokingly described as "polyethnic Cajun slamgrass." At a benefit for former Leftover Salmon member Mark Vann, who later died from cancer, String Cheese and Leftover Salmon, along with a horde of other musicians, came together for a night of roots music that involved a lot of picking.

"Drew and I always felt like there was a really good musical connection, and we played a lot of bluegrass together that night," Nershi said. "We were hanging out together afterward, and we both said this could be a really fun thing to keep rolling on. I was still playing with String Cheese at the time, but that idea was in the back of my head. When it got to the point with String Cheese that we all maybe felt it was time to do something else, I immediately started talking about getting a band together."

With the Emmitt-Nershi Band, he said, fans of both LS and SCI find common ground. The group, which includes Andy Thorn on banjo and Tyler Grant on bass, plays music from the catalogs of both bands, Nershi said, and filters them through a straight-up bluegrass prism. The end result is a hybrid of something old and something new.

"A lot of the music will be familiar, but fans shouldn't expect to hear a sound like those bands," Nershi said. "We're going to have our own sound. It's bluegrass -- high-energy and hard-driving, with some original tunes by Drew and I, along with some traditional bluegrass tunes thrown in there."

The guys hope to go into the studio this winter to record an album of original material, Nershi added. The songs will be a combination of what Nershi and Emmitt have written individually and collaborations that have yet to take place.

In the meantime, they're enjoying one another's musical company. Leftover Salmon reunited last year for a few shows, and Nershi gets asked often when String Cheese Incident might get back together for a reunion show or two.

"Right now, I think we're all just enjoying having a break from the project," he said. "We had a lot of fun, but we also busted our asses for a long time. We've gotten together and hung out, and we talk once in a while about the possibility of that happening in the future. I would say we'll probably get together and play again; we just don't know when yet. As far as us getting along, there are no major interpersonal problems that would keep us from standing on the same stage together."

No doubt, more than a few SCI fans will be in attendance at tonight's Bijou show. String Cheese and Leftover Salmon both have enjoyed loyal followings in East Tennessee, Nershi said, and when the two planned the band's current tour, they wanted to make sure a Knoxville stop was on the itinerary.

"Over the last couple of years of touring around, I have people from Knoxville coming up at shows all over the country and saying, 'When are you coming back to Tennessee?'" Nershi said. "Or, they'll hit the Myspace page and say, 'Knoxville wants you!' That was one of the reasons that Drew and I needed to make a Southeast run and make sure Knoxville was a part of it. The people from Knoxville are really into the music and make us feel really welcome."

No Leftovers: Emmitt-Nershi Band pick fresh bluegrass

By Wayne Bledsoe
Friday, October 3, 2008
The Emmitt- Nershi Band concentrates on bluegrass rather than rock-oriented music of the members’ previous acts. The group is, from left, Andy Thorn, Drew Emmitt, Billy Nershi and Tyler Grant

The Emmitt- Nershi Band concentrates on bluegrass rather than rock-oriented music of the members’ previous acts. The group is, from left, Andy Thorn, Drew Emmitt, Billy Nershi and Tyler Grant
EMMITT-NERSHI BAND

* Where: Bijou Theatre
* When: 8 tonight
* Tickets: $18; available at all Tickets Unlimited outlets, 865-656-4444.


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Leftover Salmon and String Cheese created two musical flavors that fared well in the jam band musical palette. However, Drew Emmitt of Leftover Salmon and Billy Nershi of String Cheese Incident needed something new. The two are currently touring together in the Emmitt-Nershi Band.

"I really needed a freshness in my life after 18 years with Leftover Salmon," says Emmitt. "I know Billy needed it, too.

Billy was getting to the point where he wasn't playing his music as much in String Cheese and the band wasn't as bluegrass oriented as it was when it started out. Now he's able to get his bluegrass ya-yas out and people are really digging that."

Leftover Salmon and String Cheese Incident are two of the most successful groups from the jam band movement. Both groups are based in Boulder, Colo., and both have recently been on hiatus. The groups regularly encountered each other at concerts and festivals.

Emmit and Nershi first met in the early 1990s when Leftover Salmon would perform in Telluride, where Nershi was then living and working in a duo. The group would sometimes invite Nershi to sit in on the Salmon shows.

The duo first got together as the Emmitt-Nershi Band at the Boulder Theater at a benefit for the Mark Vann Foundation. (Vann was a founding member of the Leftover Salmon who died in 2002.)

"At the time String Cheese was still going strong," says Emmitt. "Billy and I went out and did a little tour to the West Coast and it went really, really well. Then we went back to our respective bands."

However, in 2007, Nershi decided it was time to take a break from String Cheese and called Emmitt.

With Emmitt on mandolin and Nershi on guitar, the two recruited banjoist Andy Thorn and bassist Tyler Grant and began touring.

Emmitt says the group's audience includes fans from his and Nershi's previous bands, but, so far, they've been accepting of the project.

"By and large people are really excited about it," says Emmitt. "Some people obviously miss the rock 'n' roll aspect of it and they'll call out songs that we can't pull off. But I think most people realize they can see us in other configurations where we're doing more rock 'n' roll. I think people are really embracing that it's a new direction for us."

The group is also gaining some fans drawn specifically to the group's bluegrass, although Emmitt admits the group is not as pure as some would like.

"It definitely makes a difference when you grow up with a bluegrass background," says Emmitt. "I grew up in Tennessee (near Nashville), so I was definitely steeped in the tradition as a kid. If they realize you're steeped in this bluegrass stuff then it's easier for them to accept you going out an a limb a little bit."

Although Leftover Salmon took a three-year break, Emmitt says the group is not defunct.

"It's going great. We get together and do a festival and go home," he says. "But we're definitely keeping it on an occasional basis."

Any reunion of String Cheese Incident, though, seems more tenuous.

At the moment, though, Emmitt is excited about upcoming projects with Nershi, including performing with the Del McCoury Band at the Ryman on New Year's Eve.

"We've been sort of accepted into the McCoury Family," he says. "That's one of the greatest honors of my life!"