Sean Watkins to play The Belfry

Sean Watkins of "Nickel Creek" will perform in Sisters at The Belfry on Tuesday, May 17.

Doors open at 6 p.m. with the show starting at 7 p.m. Tickets: $15 in advance at http://seanwatkinsbelfry.bpt.me or $20 at the door.

Singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Sean Watkins has long been known for his work as one-third of the Grammy Award-winning Nickel Creek and, more recently, for helming, with sister Sara, the itinerant, genre-hopping Watkins Family Hour ensemble. But in the last year he has more assertively - and impressively - taken on the role of solo artist. 

His recent CD "What To Fear" is a follow-up to 2014's acclaimed "All I Do Is Lie," which was Watkins' first solo effort in nearly a decade, 10 years that had been jammed with collaborative projects and a herculean amount of touring. 

On his own, Watkins displays tremendous warmth and soulfulness as a singer, a refreshing candor and humor as a lyricist, and prodigious skill as an arranger.

As a writer, Watkins deftly juggles the observational and the autobiographical, convincingly taking on the personalities of others - a stalker, a preacher, a cynical newscaster - and then juxtaposing them with a voice that is clearly his own. Watkins' singing unites disparate narrative threads; he's disarmingly honest and sympathetic, no matter whom the character he is channeling might be.

The Belfry is located at 302 E. Main Ave.