Bill Nershi: Salmon & Cheese, Unplugged

By: Stratton Lawrence

Bill Nershi by Duffy

The String Cheese Incident did as much as any band out there to break fiddle and mandolin into the jam band scene, but as their following grew, the desire to break new musical ground led them toward an increasingly electrified sound. When the band dissolved last year, guitarist-singer Bill Nershi initiated the breakup, citing concerns about the move toward electronica that the music was taking. He’s said that he often felt unsure about his role when a song moved toward trance-like build-ups. In the aftermath, Nershi solidified his friendship with Leftover Salmon singer and mandolinist Drew Emmitt. And between their Emmitt-Nershi Band and Honkytonk Homeslice, (Nershi’s acoustic project with his wife Jilian and Scott Law), he appears to have regained his stride.

JamBase recently caught up with Nershi to hear his thoughts on returning to bluegrass, playing the small-club circuit and the possibility of any future Incidents.

JamBase: Just a few years ago, you were leading one of the biggest bands on the jam band circuit. Heading out on the road with the Emmitt-Nershi Band last fall, you played a lot of smaller, intimate venues. What’s the transition been like for you?

Bill Nershi: It’s nice just to take a little pressure off the situation sometimes. Some of those shows with String Cheese in the last couple years, there was a lot of expectation – a lot of pressure for a big performance. You know, it’s still fun to play and everything, but right now, getting back into some of the smaller rooms, playing with Honkytonk Homeslice and the Emmitt-Nershi Band, you feel like you can let it fly a little bit more and you’re not as tensed up about having to have a perfect performance.

JamBase: With Emmitt-Nershi, you’re playing songs that String Cheese fans will be familiar with, like “Restless Wind” and “Black Clouds,” in a traditional bluegrass style. How has it been reworking them without elements like drums, keys and electric mandolin?

Bill Nershi – SCI Press Shot By C. Taylor Crothers

Nershi: Well, a song like “Black Clouds,” when I was writing that I kind of heard in my head what it would sound like. The beauty of String Cheese is that it’s like, “Oh! 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 like, “Oh! That’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.

I was a String Cheese fan back in the ’90s when bluegrass still seemed to be the band’s focus, and I think some of my tastes evolving and turning to more appreciation for electronic music definitely coincided with String Cheese’s transition. What’s been the response from some of those old-school fans, maybe out in Colorado, to hearing these songs played the way you originally wrote them to sound?

I would say there are people that really went with that development of the sound of String Cheese and they really enjoyed that. 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. 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, with Drew and I getting together with all our original songs and playing them in basically a straight ahead bluegrass band.

I’d expect that at a lot of shows you probably get a mixed crowd of folks, bluegrass fans and Cheese fans.

It’s starting to change because people are starting to hear what the Emmitt-Nershi Band sounds like. At first, there were people all over who were maybe fans of String Cheese and saw my name and expected it to be like a String Cheese show. And they were confused when it was more of like rocking bluegrass, but I think now people kind of know what to expect. It’s going to be a bluegrass band, but we’ve got a lot of energy behind it.

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We’re still talking. Eventually I’m sure we’re going to play some more music. It’s just like “when” we don’t know yet. –Bill Nershi on The String Cheese Incident

Photo of SCI at Red Rocks Final Run by T. Voggesser

What’s your favorite thing about playing with Drew?

Man, I love listening to him sing. He’s always had a great voice, but in the last five years or so he’s been playing and recording with a lot of top notch people like the folks from New Grass Revival – Sam Bush and John Cowan – and his singing has really developed. Sometimes we’ll be doing one of his tunes and he’ll just kind of go for it singing and I’ll be playing and just listening, thinking, “Man, that is so cool. That sounds so good.”

How about Andy Thorn and Tyler Grant, the other two guys in the band?

Drew Emmitt & Bill Nershi by Polly Gray

Tyler’s been playing with Drew for a while now – he’s a really great guitar player. We got him and Drew to come out to Costa Rica and play at a Honkytonk Homeslice Hoedown we had a couple years ago. He played bass in the Honkytonk show one night, and we just started getting to know him and hanging out, and he’s just a great player. He was Drew’s right hand man for a while, so when I left String Cheese we immediately said, “Okay, this is our chance. Let’s start doing something here,” and the way it worked out, Tyler became the bass player. And it’s funny because Tyler just won Winfield, the biggest guitar flatpicking contest in the country, so he’s the National Flatpicking Champion for 2008, and he’s our bass player!

You might have to trade him instruments for a song on the tour, huh?

I’ve done that. I play a little bit of bass as well. He’ll be riding high when we get out on tour, I’m sure.

I know Andy toured with Larry Keel’s Natural Bridge for a while, so he’s not an unfamiliar face either. Are all four of you sharing songwriting duties or is it mostly yours and Drew’s songs?

Andy’s got some instrumental tunes on the banjo and Tyler’s got some he’s written, but the bulk of the material is Drew’s songs and my songs and some traditional bluegrass stuff.

Are the setlists pretty fluid night to night?

We don’t have setlists. Setlists are a thing of the past, and 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.

Bill Nershi by V. Kamenitzer

You recently played with Kang as part of the Everyone Orchestra, and he sits in with EOTO pretty regularly. How much are you maintaining those ties with your String Cheese bandmates?

We’ve done a couple of things. There was a Conscious Alliance jam, the Rebel Alliance band. Kyle played for a little while and then he had baby duty – he’s got a little one. Travis played drums and I played guitar and Mike played electric mando. Keith was going to play but he got a bug of some sort. We almost played all of us together. Jason was there also. We played down at Camp Zoe in Missouri and the first night was bluegrass and the lineup was Michael Kang, Scott Law, Keith Moseley and myself. Then the second night was a big electric show and Drew came up, with Jeff Sipe on drums, Keith on the bass, Mike on electric mando, Scott on electric guitar and me on electric guitar. And that was really fun, really cool.

Keith has been playing bass on this Honkytonk Homeslice recording that we’re doing. So yeah, everybody’s cool and you know, we’re not against playing together [but] we haven’t all played together on stage since Red Rocks [read the review here].

The video of that last show just toured the country with a sound system and a projection screen in clubs. I hear the turnout was pretty good.

Cool, yeah, I have the DVD, but I haven’t checked it out. That’s good, and you know, we’re still talking. Eventually I’m sure we’re going to play some more music. It’s just like “when” we don’t know yet.

The Emmitt-Nershi Band will perform on December 6 as part of the Mark Vann Holiday Benefit as well as on New Year’s Eve at the Ryman Auditorium with Del McCoury Band. They will then set sail on Jam Cruise 7.

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