Nickel Creek fans who are still processing the news that the band will not be performing together much longer can take heart with one bit of news.

Sugar Hill is set to release a special retrospective on the band next month, which will include 12 audio tracks from their previously released projects, 2 live audio tracks and a companion DVD with 7 Nickel Creek music videos.

The pre-released tracks are fairly evenly taken from Nickel Creek’s 3 Sugar Hill projects, and include the songs that got the most chart and video attention – like Smoothie Song, When In Rome, and When You Come Back Down, plus songs like Sara Watkin’s lovely and plaintive Out Of The Woods and Chris Thile’s The Lighthouse’s Tale from their self-titled “debut” from 2000.

The two live audio tracks were recorded at Freight & Salvage in Berkeley, CA in November 2000. They are the band’s take on Keith Whitley’s You Don’t Have To Move That Mountain, a bluesy Gospel song Sara sings, as well as Chris’ tour-de-force performance of The Fox.

Nickel Creek concert goers will recall The Fox as a real show stopper when they performed it live. This cut launches with a mandolin solo, joined shortly by Chris’ voice, with the band drifting in over the first verse and chorus. What starts as a fairly conventional bluegrass treatment of the old folk song eventually expands, including bits of Bill Monroe’s Jerusalem Ridge and Big Mon, Bob Dylan’s Subterranean Homesick Blues, and J.S. Bach’s E Major Partita over the course of a 9 minute romp.

The DVD includes all 7 Nickel Creek videos.

The two disk set will be entitled Reasons Why (The Very Best), and is set for a November 14th release. The full track listings (audio and video) can be found on the Sugar Hill web site. All pre-orders from the Sugar Hill site will also be entered in a drawing for a Nickel Creek prize pack which includes 14 CDs – all of the Nickel Creek releases, plus their various side and solo projects.