Fiddle player and singer/songwriter Sara Watkins was born on June 8, 1981, in Santa Monica, CA, and first began performing professionally in 1989 in an early version of the group that became Nickel Creek with her brother, guitarist Sean Watkins, and mandolin player Chris Thile, at That Pizza Place in Carlsbad, CA. Released in 2000, Nickel Creek's self-titled debut album, produced by Alison Krauss, peaked in the Top 20 of the Billboard country chart and remained in the list for more than a year. The group's second album, 2002's This Side, reached number two. In 2004, the bandmembers formed an ad hoc group called Mutual Admiration Society with Glen Phillips of Toad the Wet Sprocket and John Paul Jones, formerly of Led Zeppelin; they made a self-titled album and toured. Jones encouraged Watkins to make a solo album, which she prepared for by playing dates at the Los Angeles club Largo. She also played on recording sessions as a fiddle player and/or harmony singer with Hank Williams, Jr., the Chieftains, Béla Fleck, Darol Anger, Switchfoot, Jonny Lang, Dan Wilson, Ben Lee, Richard Thompson, Mandy Moore, and Alex Woodard, among others. Developing as a songwriter, she contributed to five songs on the Nickel Creek album Why Should the Fire Die? The group went on indefinite hiatus after the disc's release, and Watkins signed to Nonesuch Records and contacted Jones about producing her debut album. Sara Watkins was released April 7, 2009.