Celebrants

Rolling Stone announced the album under the headline "Nickel Creek Return With First New Music in Nine Years". Eric Valentine produced and engineered it, with Mike Elizondo on bass, over four weeks at RCA Studio A in Nashville. The process began with the early 2021 livestreams, and the band said it was a record about embracing the friction inherent in real human connection. After the A Dotted Line tour, Thile had hosted Live From Here until 2020 and played with Punch Brothers, Sean Watkins made a solo album and recorded as Watkins Family Hour, and Sara Watkins played with I'm With Her and played fiddle on albums by Phoebe Bridgers and The Killers.

The first single, Strangers, has a lead vocal by Sean Watkins about the awkwardness of meeting a long-lost friend after time apart, with his sister and Thile answering in harmony. The album reached 196 on the Billboard 200 and number one on the bluegrass chart, with 7 on folk and 23 on country. In the UK it reached 4 on the country chart and 5 on the Americana chart. It was nominated for the Grammy for Best Folk Album at the 66th Annual Grammy Awards. The tour included three nights at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville and appearances at the Railbird and Telluride Bluegrass festivals.