I’m With Her - Wild and Clear and Blue (2025)

What a rare treat to get a second album from I'm With Her, the folky supergroup of Sarah Jarosz, Aoife O'Donovan and Sara Watkins—who all have thriving, busy careers as recording and touring musicians. It's been seven years since the trio's excellent See You Around, and Wild and Clear and Blue was worth the wait. In fact, it might even top their debut. Opener "Ancient Light" gets right under your skin, with Jarosz taking the vocal lead before the others join in to harmonize and trade verses. Watkins' fiddle is pleasantly sharp, and the song's spirit evokes moody '90s-style folk—the era of Indigo Girls and Sarah McLachlan—but also the otherworldly vocal blending of the McGarrigle Sisters. The title track, though, pays homage to a different pair of musical ancestors: angelic Nanci Griffith and rapscallion John Prine. ("When I was nine my mom took me to see Nanci Griffith and I sent a note backstage requesting 'Ford Econoline,' and she played it at the show," O'Donovan has said.) Lyrically referencing Griffith's "Love at the Five & Dime" and Prine's "Paradise," the three are as clear as a mountain creek. "Different Rocks, Different Hills"—about making life more difficult by not embracing teamwork—feels like it could be a long-lost Griffith track, and Jarosz's banjo is rich without being florid or showy. With Watkins taking the lead, "Standing on the Fault Line" hits the perfect balance of delicate but not fragile. She has said it was inspired by the idea of "Los Angeles as a very transient place where many people feel a tension between whether to stick it out and stay or pack up and move on"—be it because of financial instability or the constant vulnerability to natural disaster. "Is it when the reservoir dries out/ And the birds stop flying south/ How we gonna know it's time to flee?" the lyrics wonder. "Sisters of the Night Watch" is witchy in the best way, with the three first harmonizing a cappella—sounding as if in a cavern—and then playfully overlapping, even stepping on each other a bit. "Find My Way to You," indirectly inspired by Bruce Springsteen's "Open All Night," serves up mountain fiddle and bluegrass joy. "Mother Eagle (Sing Me Alive)" unfurls a tricky minor-key melody and ends on an exclamatory rallying cry. But the showstopper is the light, spry, and a little wild "Year After Year." The trio bend, twist, and turn the words "If not now, when?"—as good a mantra as any.

TRACKLIST

1. I’m With Her - Ancient Light
2. I’m With Her - Wild and Clear and Blue
3. I’m With Her - Sisters of the Night Watch
4. I’m With Her - Different Rocks, Different Hills
5. I’m With Her - Standing on the Fault Line
6. I’m With Her - Mother Eagle (Sing Me Alive)
7. I’m With Her - Only Daughter
8. I’m With Her - Find My Way to You
9. I’m With Her - Strawberry Moonrise
10. I’m With Her - Year After Year
11. I’m With Her - Rhododendron