I'm With Her's newest release: Wild and Clear and Blue

Available May 9

To PurchaseWILD and CLEAR and BLUE (album, CD, merchandise). Preorder now. Available May 9th.

With the 2014 formation of I’m With Her, singer/songwriters Sarah Jarosz, Aoife O’Donovan, and Sara Watkins introduced an essential new force into the world of folk music: a close-knit alliance of highly esteemed musicians, each graced with a deep understanding of folk tradition and unbridled passion for expanding its possibilities. Since delivering their critically lauded debut See You Around and standalone singles like “Call My Name” (winner of the 2020 Grammy for Best American Roots Song), the trio have routinely taken time out from their individual careers to dream up songs together—eventually arriving at a new album exploring themes of ancestry, lineage, and the collective human experience. On their long-awaited sophomore LP, Wild and Clear and Blue, I’m With Her now bring their luminous harmonies to a soul-searching body of work about reaching into the past, navigating a chaotic present, and bravely moving forward into the unknown.

All multi-Grammy-winners with deep roots in the folk scene, Watkins, Jarosz, and O’Donovan first discovered their near-telepathic chemistry during an impromptu performance at the 2014 Telluride Bluegrass Festival and quickly co-founded I’m With Her. Over the years, their profound sense of kinship has only intensified, often allowing for a certain charmed fluidity in the creative process. “There were so many wonderful moments in the studio where we noticed commonalities between the songs that we sometimes hadn’t intended, either melodically or harmonically or even lyrically, with a line in one song almost responding to another song,” says Watkins. “It all feels very cyclical in a way that adds another dimension to the meaning of the songs, and shows the sincerity of feeling we all brought to the album.” In a particularly brilliant moment on Wild and Clear and Blue, the bridge to “Ancient Light” includes a reference to “Mother Eagle (Sing Me Alive)”—a sublimely moving track that opens the LP’s second side and ends with a lovely intertwining of the trio’s singular voices. “To me those last 30 seconds of ‘Mother Eagle’ are like a thesis statement for what this band is about,” says Jarosz. “Our voices weaving around each other and making the song feel so full without a lot of different sounds going on—that feels so quintessentially us.”

With Jarosz, O’Donovan, and Watkins sharing writing credits on all 11 songs, Wild and Clear and Blue owes much of its beauty and power to the generosity of spirit embraced by each member. “When we write together it’s almost like we’re a three-headed creature—there’s never any need to take ownership of ideas, and always an ease of letting go when something isn’t working,” says O’Donovan. And for I’m With Her, that sense of musical communion has proven endlessly rewarding on multiple levels. “One of my favorite things about being in this band is actually listening to my bandmates,” says Watkins. “I’m such a fan of these two people, and it’s a huge pleasure to listen back to this album and remember how amazing it is that I got to make it with them.”

To PurchaseWILD and CLEAR and BLUE (album, CD, merchandise). Preorder now. Available May 9th.

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