I’m With Her: Find My Way to You
photos: Alysse Gafkjen
***
When Sara Watkins, Sarah Jarosz and Aoife O’Donovan met up again in the fall of 2021, three years after the release of See You Around, their debut album as I’m With Her, it wasn’t with the intention of recording a follow-up. The three singer-songwriters, each a prolific artist in her own right, had become close over the past several years, ever since they met and first merged their voices and instruments together backstage at the Telluride Bluegrass Festival in 2014. So much had happened since then, but their busy schedules and active personal lives— and, of course, the pandemic—had kept them out of each other’s orbits. It was good to finally see each other again and catch up.
Once they did, to no one’s surprise, the inevitable happened—new songs were born, recording sessions were booked and now there’s a second I’m With Her album, Wild and Clear and Blue (Rounder Records). The trio has already spent much of 2025 on the road touring behind it—just the three of them, sans accompanists—and will continue into the fall. In some ways, it’s more like a traveling family reunion than a typical band tour.
“When we got together again, we said, ‘If we come away with some songs, great, but let’s not put crazy pressure on ourselves,’” says Jarosz. “It was the first chance that the three of us had had since COVID to physically be together and reconnect and see where each other’s heads and hearts were.”
But, adds O’Donovan, “We’re all very good friends, and it’s just really nice to make music with your friends.”
Wild and Clear and Blue contains 11 brand-new compositions, written over the course of three dedicated songwriting sessions spread out over a two-year period. They came up with the title track first, inspired by the then-recent deaths of two fellow singer-songwriters whose influence was fundamental to the three women— Nanci Griffith and John Prine.
As with all of the original music performed by I’m With Her, “Wild and Clear and Blue” was written by—and credited to—all three members. Its composition gave shape and direction to the other songs that would follow and eventually comprise the album. Several of the new tunes, among them “Ancient Light,” “Sisters of the Night Watch” and “Rhododendron,” address memories of those who’ve passed away, and the attendant emotions generated by loss.
“‘Wild and Clear and Blue,’ being the first that was written, started us thinking of those who have gone on, our musical ancestors,” says Jarosz, the youngest member at 34. “Then fast-forward to the final writing session, which was in the fall of 2023, and Aoife had just lost her dad. The writing sessions almost bookended each other with all of those things happening.”
“A lot of the album touches on this mystical, intuitive, ancient part of ourselves,” says Watkins, who is 44. “And a lot of it talks about more tangible day to-day dealings with the world and with ourselves and those around us. The album title touches on both of those things, both of those realities.”
“There’s three of us, there’s three words, there’s this beautiful idea that something can be wild and clear and blue at the same time,” the 42-year-old O’Donovan adds. “It’s three things at once. It’s not one or the other.”
*
In retrospect, it seems preordained that Aoife (pronounced ee-fuh) O’Donovan, Sara Watkins and Sarah Jarosz would f ind one another and pool their talents. Although they hail from different parts of the country—Jarosz from outside of Austin, O’Donovan from Boston and Watkins from Southern California—each had been ubiquitous in the Americana/ folk scene for years by the time they joined together. Watkins has been a core member of the groundbreaking bluegrass band Nickel Creek since the late ‘80s and has simultaneously worked as both a solo artist and with her brother Sean as part of the Watkins Family Hour for years. Earlier in the century, O’Donovan was the lead singer of the acoustic group Crooked Still and, for the past decade and a half, has focused on her solo career. Jarosz has recorded under her own name since 2009, attracting an ever-expanding fanbase. The late David Crosby was among her most vociferous supporters—the two paired up on a cover of Joni Mitchell’s “For Free,” the title track on Croz’s final studio album in 2021.
The I’m With Her alliance, all three agree, brings out their individual strengths as writers and performers. “It is unique from my other collaborations,” says Watkins. “I think it’s unique in all of our lives, this particular band. At this point, 11 years since we started working together, we’ve experienced a lot of each other’s lives, and that depth of understanding and familiarity comes through on this album. The things that we’re talking about, and singing about, are things that old friends grapple with together. And it’s a privilege to get to grapple with these things, to hold these things, with your friends—these questions and these difficult, but very normal life situations of loss and learning and growth.”
“We really are three equal members, which is very cool and unique,” says O’Donovan. “There’s not a front person. There’s not a lead singer. We all share the same roles, which is unusual in a band. And everything is very collaborative. We have a real synergy; it’s a three-headed monster.”
That bond, they all confirm, has strengthened during the four years since they’ve reconvened their artistic and personal partnership. When they first met and made music together, says Jarosz, “The pieces fell into place quickly and naturally and intuitively, and we all sat back and said, ‘Oh, my goodness, this is really special, and we want to do more.’” See You Around, produced by Ethan Johns, quickly found its audience among aficionados of acoustic music—it received rave reviews and I’m With Her’s first tour was an immediate success. In 2020, the trio dropped “Call My Name,” a co-written number that hadn’t appeared on the album; it won the Grammy for Best American Roots Song in 2020. With the onset of the pandemic, things slowed down and the three weren’t able to get together. But, by the end of 2021, they were actively thinking ahead to the next phase of I’m With Her. Other life events—Jarosz got married in 2023, both O’Donovan and Watkins were busy raising their young children and O’Donovan had to grapple with the loss of her father, who her bandmates were close with as well—have naturally affected the type of songs they were creating.
“The first record was more about capturing the initial spark and magic that the three of us felt when we sang together for the first time. It was more of us discovering, as we were going along, what we could do together. With this one, it felt more focused on the actual material and the songs because we already know what we’re working with,” she says about Wild and Clear and Blue. “We’ve played a lot of gigs together, so we had a much better idea, this go-around, of the sound that we can actually create as just the three of us.”
*
Wild And Clear And Blue was produced by Josh Kaufman, a member of the folk trio Bonny Light Horseman. His résumé, as producer and co-producer, is extensive, running the gamut from Bob Weir’s 2016 solo album Blue Mountain to projects by The Hold Steady, Josh Ritter and many others; he’s also a prolific musician and composer. After discussing the possibility of producing their sophomore album with Kaufman, the members of I’m With Her agreed that he was the person for the job.
“He was so perfect for this album,” says Watkins. “When we were in Brevard, N.C., to finish up the writing, we had a short list of people that we were considering working with. And when we got off the phone with him, it felt obvious to us that he would be the right choice. There aren’t a ton of producers who are also in a band and are supportive musicians. He elevates everything, without drawing a ton of attention to himself; he supports in this incredibly musical way. And that’s what he did on this album. He respected the band and didn’t want to affect us or the music in a way that wouldn’t be beneficial. So he had to first get to know us as a band, and then, quickly, we started asking him to play nylon strings on this or play a bass part on that.”
By the time the album was completed, Kaufman had also contributed other guitar parts, lap steel, vibraphone, percussion and a slew of keyboards. “He added so much, but I don’t feel that we were masked in the process,” says Jarosz. “He enhanced what was already happening in a recorded setting. I wasn’t sure how that would feel when we f inally got to the stage after making this record or if it would feel like things were lacking or empty. And it hasn’t felt like that once. That’s partially a huge credit to Josh.”
Wild and Clear and Blue was recorded in two different studios in upstate New York, not far from Kaufman’s home. O’Donovan describes both locations as “live-in studios where you camp out, you sleep and you have somebody bringing you food, a real retreat environment; it’s a really fun way to make a record.”
Several of the songs, says O’Donovan, “are people going on a journey, people climbing up a mountain, people seeing what’s going to be at the clearing when they get there.” She adds, “All of these songs are very related. ‘Ancient Light’ feels very related to ‘Find My Way to You.’ It’s a different person, maybe a different stage of the journey. And then that same person comes back in ‘Sisters of the Night Watch,’ when she gets to a clearing and sees these wise old women.”
Other tracks, among them “Rhododendron” and “Different Rocks, Different Hills,” inhabit what might be described as an outdoorsy vibe. “Only Daughter,” “Standing on the Fault Line” and “Mother Eagle (Sing Me Alive)” tell poignant tales that reach deep into both personal and universal experiences for their inspiration. “The whole thing is connected,” O’Donovan says.
“All of these songs are 100% co-writes,” adds Jarosz. “Even when someone does bring a seed or a nugget, which is often how a lot of these songs start, they wind up becoming all of ours. It’s often the first couple lines and maybe a melodic idea or something. It’s amazing how naturally the writing process winds up being and how we’re all contributing ideas. And the arrangement process is almost equally a part of the songwriting process with this band, figuring out how we can just make it work with just the three of us. A record reveals itself to you over the course of the writing process, and that was very much the case with this. It wasn’t until the end that we were like, ‘Oh, my gosh, there are these themes that are emerging.’”
“Every writing session starts with a trip to the grocery store,” adds Watkins. “We make some meals together, start catching up, get our instruments out and show a couple ideas. And then things develop. The three of us really respect each other’s individual careers and individual points of view. It’s neat to have these three different speeds on the bike that can work together. When we find our rhythm, which doesn’t take long at the beginning of a project, it can do some exciting things. I just love being in this band. But it’s very important that you love each other off the stage too, especially at this stage in life. Life’s too short to be with people that you don’t love. And we love living life together.”
******
I’M WITH HER ON I’M WITH HER
Sara on Sarah: “Sarah Jarosz is an oak tree; she’s a very anchored, solid person whose music is tapped into a deep well. I really appreciate how she considers things. She’s very wise.”
Sarah on Sara: “Sara has so much strength and is powerful, in a good way—raw power with her vocals that catches me off guard night after night. She’s such a solid musician. Nickel Creek was a huge part of why I even wanted to start playing music in the first place, so it’s full circle to be in a band with her.”
Aoife on Sarah: “Sarah Jarosz is one of the most solid, dependable human beings and musicians that I’ve ever known. She’s so consistent. She is the center of the band and always has her two feet firmly planted; she’s holding it down. She’s such a deeply feeling musician. When she opens her mouth, the sonorous quality of her voice is just so beautiful. It slays me every single time.”
Sara on Aoife: “Her reflexes are totally different from mine, and I love it. It’s so surprising, especially when writing; she goes places that I would never think, harmonically and chordally. She’s very fast and reflexive. It’s delightful.”
Aoife on Sara: “Sara Watkins is so wild. Her musicianship is so free; it’s almost indescribable what she does, where she takes you. It’s always on the edge. She’s always pushing vocally, instrumentally, like she’s running around with a net trying to catch fireflies and she’s catching so many every single night.”
Sarah on Aoife: “Aoife has one of the fastest moving brains of anyone I’ve ever met. She is able to retain an immense amount of information. It’s truly mind boggling at times. We were recently headed to the airport. We said that we’re not going to have time to get coffee. Aoife devised this whole plan where she added an extra stop in the Uber, and she made sure to order the coffee 15 minutes before we got there so that it would be the right temperature when we got there. It’s pretty fun to be in a band with someone like that. In a musical sense, she has so many ideas and is able to retain a lot of musical information.”
