Sarah Jarosz, Sara Watkins and Aoife O’Donovan met each other when Jarosz was still in her early teens, and the other two barely in their twenties. By 2014 they were singing together in no less a venue than Telluride’s bluegrass festival. In 2018 they released an album, See You Around, and received a collective Grammy in 2020, both under the moniker of I’m With Her. That’s a pretty auspicious start, but with all three having stellar solo careers you’d be forgiven if you thought that was the end of it. Turns out they really enjoy each other’s company (and incredible talent) so in the fall of 2022 they got together and started writing more songs that are being released as their sophomore record, Wild And Clear And Blue.
In hindsight, you could characterize that first album as a gentle melding of three artists where each contributed parts that played well together. With this record, they’re a band now, provoking each other to try new things, knowing the collective foundation is rock solid. You get that in CD opener, and first single, Ancient Light. Although they all sing and play on every song, Jarosz leads the vocals on this one with multi-instrumentalist and producer Josh Kaufman filling in the pieces for a fuller sound, as he does throughout. The theme of ancestral musical ties, or standing on the shoulders of giants if you prefer, is woven through several other tunes. Sisters of the Night Watch begins with a sort-of tinny, reverb-enhanced chorus before Watkins takes over primary voice duty looking for guidance from native forebears. The title track takes inspiration from, and pays homage to, musical predecessors John Prine and Nanci Griffith.
Credit for all the songs is shared among the trio, but there are still bits of individuality that poke through. Find My Way To You features O’Donovan on lead vocals, with Celtic-toned riffs from Jarosz on mandolin and Watkins on fiddle before becoming a full-throated Irish jig. Year After Year verses note Sara’s life in LA while her parents are in San Diego, in a simpler ballad about the value of family. Sarah steps out in front on Only Daughter (although I think maybe all of them are only daughters) and becomes, for my money, the sound of homesickness. Her banjo and Aoife’s voice are the contrasts for Different Rocks, Different Hills, about the challenges of a dual career household.
Listening to the tightly-coupled harmonies and instrumental interplay of I’m With Her, I was struggling to find the right words to describe them. Then I realized there was a visual metaphor that tells the story. You’ve undoubtedly seen the videos, if not observed them live, of the flocks of grackles where hundreds, perhaps thousands, of birds fly in perfect formation with instant changes in direction and speed, never leaving a single one behind. That is the exact sense of musical performance you get on Wild And Clear And Blue.
About the author: I've actually driven from Tehatchapee to Tonopah. And I've seen Dallas from a DC-9 at night.