A magical three-part harmony performance at the Telluride Bluegrass Festival in 2014 sparked what became the band I’m With Her, featuring Sara Watkins, Aoife O’Donovan and Sarah Jarosz. Eventually, they recorded their debut album in 2016, winning a Grammy for “Call My Name” in 2020.
WPR’s “BETA” wanted to discover how these three talented performers found time to have solo careers and maintain a band together. We sat down with Jarosz, who emphasized the importance of harmony and the band’s progressive bluegrass sound, which blends traditional elements with modern influences.
They are excited about their upcoming tour and new album, “Wild and Clear and Blue.”
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The following was edited for brevity and clarity.
Steve Gotcher: Sarah, you’ve had a successful solo career since your first album in 2009. What was it that made you decide you wanted to join a band?
Sarah Jarosz: I’ve been friends with Aoife O’Donovan and Sara Watkins for a long time. I met Sara when I was 9 years old at the Old Settlers Music Festival in central Texas, where I’m from. And I met Aoife not long after, when I was about 14. They were musical heroes of mine, and it was amazing to get to know them early on and be influenced by them.
Fast forward to 2014. We were all at the Telluride Bluegrass Festival, booked separately under our own projects, and wound up getting together at a workshop stage, and we sang together for the first time in three-part harmony. It was magical. It was one of those moments where it couldn’t be denied. We said to each other, we should be a band. We should make music together.
Later, we had a writing retreat in Vermont, and that was when we decided we wanted to make an album together. We wanted it to be its own standalone thing, so we went into the studio in January 2016. We recorded that first record with Ethan Johns producing, and it was an amazing experience.
SG: All three of you are gifted songwriters and musicians. What’s it like to gather in a room and make music together?
SJ: It’s about as close to magic as anything I’ve experienced, truly. I know that might sound cheesy to some, but you know, I love getting to sing lead on songs. I love playing my instruments.
But in many ways, the most intangible thing you can do as a musician is sing in harmony with others. There’s something that you can’t put into words about it. It’s the vibrations and this connection with another human voice. We’ve always felt that, with our three voices, from the beginning. We try to honor it and keep doing it because it feels like when you get lucky to have that sort of blend with people, you should try to do it as much as possible.
SG: The magic comes through, for sure. When I heard the first record, I just sat back and listened, and I was taken in by it because there’s so much genuine emotion in those songs.
SJ: Thank you. Yeah, yeah.
SG: You started out playing the mandolin when you were quite young, I believe 9 or 10 years old. And then you went on to learn to play the guitar, the octave mandolin and the banjo. What made you go in the direction of playing acoustic music?
SJ: I was drawn to it from the beginning. My parents are two of the biggest music lovers that you’ll come across. And so there was always music in the house. My dad would play records all the time. My mom sang and played acoustic guitar and wrote some of her own songs. They were a very early influence and exposed me to a lot of music very early on. A lot of that music was in the Texas singer-songwriter tradition, with people like Nancy Griffith, Guy Clark, Shawn Colvin and Lyle Lovett and that incredibly rich music world. A lot of that music is acoustically grounded, and that rubbed off on me.
I remember hearing a mandolin on a Hot Rise recording and a Nickel Creek music video on CMT. I just loved the sound of the instrument and eventually started playing one. The mandolin was the way into playing this acoustic bluegrass folk music.
SG: I’m With Her’s music has been called progressive bluegrass. What do you think of that moniker?
SJ: Sometimes, it’s helpful to be able to categorize things. I get that. But I guess in terms of when you’re creating, when I’m making music, or when Sara, Aoife and I are in the process, I don’t think we’re thinking about genre. I think we’re just writing the music.
I could see how people would call it that because we’re playing acoustic instruments. And all three of us had a bluegrass upbringing and that’s such a strong tradition, but we’re bringing some newer sounds to the table. So that makes sense to me.
SG: The first song on the new record, “Wild and Clear and Blue,” is “Ancient Light.” It’s a good example of what this progressive sound might be like. How do you all work out the arrangements for the songs in the studio?
SJ: Many of the songs’ arrangements are very much born during the writing process. I think arranging for the three of us is woven into the writing process. We’re arranging things as we write. Because we tour without a backup band, we like to create arrangements that can stand on their own with just the three of us.
Going into the studio, we had a pretty good sense of the arrangements we liked, and the producer of this album, Josh Kaufman, was so amazing to work with, especially with a song like “Ancient Light.” You can hear it blossom and open up in the middle.
There are several of those moments on this album. He encouraged us to let instrumental moments breathe, last longer and become more expansive.
For instance, that song has drums on it. The great J.T. Bates overdubbed drums on a couple of the tracks on this record. So there is a combination of our trio arrangements plus Josh’s wonderful production style. He calls it “sprinkling magic dust” on the song.
SG: I think folk music is in an evolutionary period right now, and I think I’m With Her Is one of the bands on the cutting edge of that evolution. Your music stands with people like Kris Delmhorst, Jake Blount, Sam Amidon, Lisa Hannigan and a band like This is the Kit. All of you are shaping the sound of the future of acoustic music. What do you think?
SJ: I’m honored. I think it has much to do with the fact that we all listen to many different styles. I believe we honor tradition and embrace expanding sound. And even just the decision to work with someone like Josh Kaufman, who’s going to bring in these other textures that might not typically be associated with roots or folk music, like synths, electric guitars and keyboardsand things that might not usually be in a bluegrass setup. I think it’s our openness to whatever sound will make the song sound better.
SG: I’m With Her will be touring this summer. I’m curious about the plans for the band going forward.
SJ: It’s our plan always to be a band. It has been so long since our last record, which came out in 2018, so many folks are saying, “Oh, you’re back, you’ve returned.” I think in our minds, we never went away.
We’ve always thought this band was very special to all three of us, and I think we all feel that it feeds into what we do outside the band. And so even if there are long gaps between records, I believe that we all think this band will have a special place in our lives, hopefully for the rest of our lives. And that, I believe, we will always be drawn to making music together.
