FICTION FAMILY Fiction Family (2009 UK 12-track CD album - Fiction Family are Switchfoot guitarist & founding member Jon Foreman and Nickel Creek guitarist & lead singer Sean Watkins. Though their bands have followed somewhat divergent paths, these fellow San Diegans have known each other casually since high school, when both began exploring the California music scene. Mutual friends spent years telling both men they should try writing songs together, an idea they continually brushed off until they began running into each other at a local coffee shop near both their homes in San Diego's North County. Convenience [and caffeine] being the mother of inspiration, the two decided to see what might result from their unlikely collaboration. The pace of work was deliberately slow, wedged in between Nickel Creek's and Switchfoot's considerable touring and recording commitments. You can hear the effects of that relaxed attitude throughout the album, Fiction Family's eclectic [if nonetheless irresistible] 12-track debut. Simply put, this kind of record could not have existed ten, five, even three years ago. It's the reassuring sound of two professional musicians tapping into the creativity that flows when limits and expectations, the old engines of a record business we're in the midst of reinventing, are removed from the artistic process. Talk about a silver lining.).