Bill Nershi

jam band · bluegrass · folk rock

Bill Nershi is a Colorado-based acoustic guitarist and singer, born William J. Nershi on September 16, 1961 in New Jersey, who co-founded the jam band The String Cheese Incident in 1993. He plays flatpicked acoustic guitar and sings in that six-piece group alongside Michael Kang, Keith Moseley, Michael Travis, Kyle Hollingsworth and Jason Hann, and appears on studio records including Born on the Wrong Planet, 'Round the Wheel, Outside Inside and Untying the Not, as well as live releases such as Carnival '99. He stepped away in the summer of 2007, the band paused, and he returned when it reconvened in 2009. Outside String Cheese, Nershi leads Honkytonk Homeslice with his wife Jilian Nershi and singer-songwriter Scott Law. The trio began informally in the summer of 2004 around a campsite at Horning's Hideout in Oregon during a String Cheese-hosted festival, and played its first billed show at the Acoustic Coffee House in Nederland, Colorado, that September. Its self-titled debut appeared on the band's own SCI Fidelity label in 2006, followed by Just Passin' Thru, cut with Moseley and drummer Christian Teele, and its repertoire draws on old-time music, pre-Nashville country and the Gram Parsons and Emmylou Harris strain of psychedelic country. Nershi also co-leads the Emmitt-Nershi Band with Drew Emmitt of Leftover Salmon, a bluegrass-leaning project whose 2009 album New Country Blues was written largely during a three-day retreat in Estes Park and recorded at Nershi's home studio in Nederland, with Andy Thorn on banjo, Tyler Grant on bass and guests including fiddler Jason Carter and dobro player Rob Ickes. He performs as a duo with Jilian Nershi as well, and works as a visual artist.

Past shows