Ways in which “I’m with her” as a phrase has maybe not weathered well: as a fading campaign bumper sticker. Ways in which “I’m With Her” has aged exceptionally well: as a harmony-laden string band, minted and active in the mid- to late 2010s and now together again, just when the music world could use these trio of hers more than ever. Aoife O’Donovan, Sara Watkins and Sarah Jarosz (pictured left to right, above) all have brilliant solo careers — or careers with a different band, in the case of Watkins’ Nickel Creek — but fans who’ve clamored to hear them come back together as a roots supergroup are super-excited about the collective’s sophomore album, “Wild and Clear and Blue,” just out on Rounder Records.
After crossing paths for years, these three singer-songwriter-pickers first clicked as a semi-formal unit with a handful of one-off singles, including “Little Lies” in 2017, and solidified their union with the 2018 debut album “See You Around.” A subsequent single, “Call My Name,” won a Grammy in 2020 for best American roots song. (They also gave the world a bluegrassy cover of Sabrina Carpenter’s “Espresso,” on a lark.) But a second album requited some patience, now being rewarded not just with a superlative full-length record but a tour to match, which over the course of 2025 will include Newport and Telluride festival appearance, bookings at halls like the Beacon, Ryman and Wolf Trap, and some co-headlining dates with Iron & WIne.
“Wild and Clear and Blue” solidifies the idea of a chosen sisterhood, both in theme and musical alchemy, and gives life to the old mantra: Make Americana Great Again. Variety spoke with Watkins (who plays fiddle and mandolin) and Jarosz and O’Donovan (guitarists) via Zoom as they prepare to take the new songs on the road.
Is one of the side benefits of having a new I’m With Her album that all three of you don’t have people like me asking every year, “Are you ever going to do another I’m With Her album?”
O’Donovan: Yeah, pretty much every interview, and at every show, somebody comes up to me and says, “When is I’m With Her gonna come back? Wait, what’s going on with I’m With Her?”
Jarosz: It feels like the perfect time. What was so great about this second record is that all three of us were very much on the same page about taking our time with the writing process, and there was a combination of knowing our sound as a band better and taking the time to develop it even more. Over the course of two years, we had three writing sessions, two in L.A. and one in North Carolina. And we found those windows in our otherwise incredibly busy schedules, and even those writing sessions just felt like they were happening at the right time. Personally, I was like, “Yeah, I have ideas that don’t have a place in what I’m doing right now.” We all felt that, so when we would get together to write, and to finally be able to record this album last year, it was a coming home of sorts, all unfolding in the right way, at the right time.
There are some other so-called supergroups where we also nag the members with these questions, like the Highwomen and Our Native Daughters. Those groups also released singular albums in the late 2010s, and haven’t followed them up yet, so compared to them, you’re way ahead of schedule.
O’Donovan: It’s not a race, Chris. [Laughter.]
Excellent point. As far as the writing goes… The songs feel collective but there are some that seem more particular to one of you or another, lyrically or vocally. Do you come in with rough ideas, and then flesh ’em out as a group, or are there some where you pretty much start from scratch collectively, or come in with a piece of writing that’s nearly complete? And was anything about that different from the first time?
Watkins: Do you guys remember how big the writing seeds were on the first album? Because I don’t, really, but I feel like the little chunks of ideas we brought in oftentimes were smaller in this new album’s writing process. We had sometimes a concept and like a melody or something like that. In some cases it was a little bit more developed, and we just needed to see if it was something we all wanted to write about. All of these songs to me feel 100% percent band-y, though. There’s not any song on this where I think, “Oh, this was so-and-so’s song that I’m just playing fiddle on.” They all feel like thatwe fleshed them out conceptually, and we only worked on songs with lyrics and themes that resonated with all three of us, and where we were in that moment. So to answer your question, the seeds or the song starts that each of us brought were relatively small. There was nothing fully fleshed out that we were just like, “Hey, you wanna play this song that I wrote?” That wasn’t a part of this record. These songs grew up together with us.
O’Donovan: Yeah, even with some of the ones where the ideas were maybe even as big as a chorus… When you brought in the concept for “Sisters of the Night Watch,” you told us the story that you were thinking about, and you maybe had the first two lines of the chorus. All of these songs went into the same door and, like you said, grew up in the same house, surrounded and nurtured by the same three voices. And I think that’s what definitely sets our band apart in many ways. When I bring an idea, I feel how you guys are receptive to the idea and then add to it in this very specific way that feels super organic and natural. It’s something I personally haven’t experienced in other co-writing situations.
When you’ve had an idea where you immediately think, “This is not as suited for a solo album as it is for the group project,” and you set it aside for that, does it have something to do with the need for harmonies, or is more to do with more universal or sisterhood-like themes that you would recognize it as a nugget for I’m With Her?
Jarosz: Our sisterhood themes on this album kind of slowly unfolded. Other than, like Aoife said, Sara (Watkins) having those couple lines of that idea for “Sisters of the Night Watch,” we didn’t go into this being like, “We want to write about sisters.” It was a nice, slow unveiling that happened to be reoccurring across different songs.
Is it pretty easy, or does it take a little work, to figure out who’s gonna sing lead and where the harmonies are gonna come in? Does that happen really intuitively, or…
Watkins: I think “easy” is a word I don’t like for the songwriting process, because I don’t think it paints the picture of what I experience. Some things feel natural or intuitive or kind of immediate. But a lot of the process is just reworking, reworking, reworking, and playing through what you have and deciding and figuring out together what you need or what’s missing, and then how to fill what’s missing, and finding the things that that resonate and following the stream of collective thought. Lots of trial and error is satisfying to all of us… There are a lot of things that feel really intuitive about this band. We work really, really well together, but it still takes time to do it, and still takes a lot of persistence — and it’s a really enjoyable environment to be persistent in. I really love the process, but “easy” is too simple of a word for it. It is work, but it’s a really healthy, lovely environment to work in.
Jarosz: Totally. I was thinking about the “Standing on the Fault Line” bridge. That started out with just Aoife singing that, in one of the original demos. And oftentimes, I feel like we’ll all have the same thought around the same time, and I had felt like it doesn’t want to just go to one voice there, narratively — this doesn’t feel like that’s one person, to be shifting to this one vocal. And so that’s when we decided that Aoife and I now sing that in unison.
O’Donovan: That’s the part that feels very rewarding to me, that we’re operating on this really common plane. Even when we’re not speaking, our minds are on the same wavelength.
What does this group mean most to you, as participants? Because we can say what fans get out of it — starting with three of their favorite heroes for the price of one…
O’Donovan: I never thought about it like that! Never.
Watkins: We’re giving people an economic deal in this economy. [Laughter.] That’s a new angle for us to exploit.
O’Donovan: I don’t want to speak for you guys, but I guess I will in this instance, because I do feel like we share this: We love to collaborate and we love to make music with people who inspire us. I remember so often in 2017 and 2018 and 2019 when we were working on “See You Around,” we would have these moments musically where we would just all have that sort of like zapping feeling, where it’s like: This is why you’re alive. This is why we’re existing in the world … making music with our dear friends.
Watkins: Any time the art and the process are satisfying, and also, the off-stage time is life-giving, that’s something you want to hold onto. When you’re on tour, what the audience sees is two hours of your 24-hour day living with people — and for a lot of bands, that can be the only time that they enjoy being together. But I think we get to have, more than the average musician, this connection where we really love what we get to make on stage every night and we have common goals and work ethics. The connection that we now have really quickly developed offstage, as friends and colleagues. The holistic picture is something I value so much, and I want to protect it and just live it for so long, because it’s a really special thing to get to connect with people in a deep way, in any context.
Anything to say about your tour plans or what you have lined up?
Jarosz: I think part of the reason for the whatever — seven or eight years — between albums is so that when we do finally put an album together, we can really commit to it. We’d all talked about waiting until we can really focus our full energy on this, so that when we are in it, we are fully in it. And obviously we’re all still doing other things, staying busy on the side, but more so than in other years, we’re really being able to focus on it. We just played Cayamo and Merle Fest, and at the end of May we really pick up and get going. It’s been really nice, actually, to kind of have a slow unfolding for the live aspect of it. We have put so much energy and time into making sure that we can be present for it when we are doing it, and after the work that we’ve put into the writing process for these last almost three years, to have the shows be the celebration of that.
So many of these songs are about bonding in some way where it could represent family, it could represent the group, it could represent chosen family, Do you feel like there’s a signature song or a theme song in this record, that stands either for what the group is about or what the record is about?
Watkins: I think there are three main themes that we have on the record. We’ve got this mystical sister thing that kind of came out. And then we have this the more tangible, day-to-day kind of picture of things. And then we have this generational kind of topic. I feel like all the songs might dip into any of those fields. I feel like when we were writing the record, “Sisters” was one of the first ones we did that (incorporated all) those themes. Listening to the album now, though, “Mother Eagle” is the one that kind of encapsulates all of that stuff to me.
O’Donovan: Yeah, I was gonna say that too.
Watkins: And it’s kind of smack-dab in the middle of the record, too, in the sequencing, and it just became more and more of this central engine or central hub. Even as we were recording it, little tweaks and things that we were adding made the song feel more like this hub of thematic content from the record. So that would be the one that I choose.
Jarosz: Same, yeah. Also, in addition to the thematic stuff being there, that one also feels like just the perfect example of who we are as a band musically, especially the outro. Maybe this is a funny thing to say, but I almost feel like that song is like “Little Lies 2.0.” We did that song “Little Lies” as a single a long time ago (in 2017), and for me, almost more than the first album, that song was like: “This is our sound; this is who we are as a band.” We cracked something open with that song. And “Mother Eagle” in my mind is related to that somehow, where it’s the epitome of the sound that we can create with just our three instruments. I think because there’s nothing else on that track either — is that right?
O’Donovan: Oh, Josh (Kaufman, the producer) plays a little bass on it.
Jarosz: A little bit of bass. But I think that’s also why it feels just like a pinpoint moment in the record. Because there have been these other sounds, with bigger production, and then in the middle of the record it kind of goes and focuses on that (trio core), and then it blossoms at the end, in the second half of the track. I love it so much.
O’Donovan: Playing it live, which we’ve only really done now a couple of times… the other night we did it at Merle Fest, and we were experimenting with opening it up a little bit and just really getting into the essence of that sort of mantra-like chorus and the concept of “Mother Eagle,” with “Sing me alive” and these phrases that feel very deep and heavy when you’re on stage doing it. I can’t wait to play another show so we can do that again. You know what I mean? We’re just getting started with this live process, and I, for one, am really excited to see where all of these songs go and where they’re gonna be in a couple of months on the June tour and July tour. One of my favorite things about playing live music is that you make a record and it’s one thing, and then these songs just continue to ebb and flow. That’s my favorite part of being a musician, I guess.
As much as some of these songs speak to or for the collective, it’s fun to pick out parts that are individual to one of you. Like, in “Year After Year,” when we hear about going “up to L.A.,” we know that’s Sara in San Diego — the other two are definitely not approaching Los Angeles from the south.
O’Donovan: One of my favorite things about that line and about that song “Year After Year” is the fact that, just going back to our deep friendship as a band… When we do that song, Sarah (Jarosz) and I, we’ve both been to Sara Watkins’ parents’ property, and we’ve seen in action the beauty of that family vibe. I just get such a deep, warm feeling when I’m performing that song, because I can picture it so clearly. We were there for (Sara’s brother) Sean’s wedding, and that is very special, with all these specific references that your bandmates might have, to really feel like you were there and you were sharing in it.
All three of you have had wonderful projects within the last couple years, with the solo albums from Aoife and Sarah and the Nickel Creek album that Sara was part of two years ago. Is there anything to say about what you’ve kind of enjoyed just from the sidelines about each other’s individual work?
Jarosz: You know, personally, this band is so full-circle in that, when I first started playing music, Crooked Still and Nickel Creek were my two favorite bands. So it’s crazy to now be here and fast-forward and we’re in a band together making music. That feeling of being a fan of Aoife and Sara has been there for me from the very beginning, and it just continues, you know? I’s so special to still feel that, and then to just bring that excitement and that respect to the project… to the band. I don’t like calling it a “project,” actually.
Yeah, calling everything a “project” is a very millennial word.
Jarosz: Yeah, we’ll say the band.
O’Donovan: We are all millennials, technically. But it’s true.
Speaking of Crooked Still, Aoife, you got back together with your old band to appear in the first episode of this season of “The Last of Us,” after having a song in the videogame. Looking at your Wikipedia entry it says you are “best known for Crooked Still.” Which doesn’t really seem true, but it must be for videogame fans, at least.
O’Donovan: You know, it’s funny because Crooked Still hasn’t even performed many shows since 2011. And now I’m like, all right, now I’m basically an HBO TV star! I’m just exactly like everybody on “The White Lotus.” People (on that show) are like, “Oh yeah, you’re also on HBO.” When I walk down the street, people are like, “Were you on ‘The Last of Us’?” And I’m like, “Yeah, I was”… [She lets down the facade, starts laughing.] I’m just joking!
I’m With Her 2025 tour dates:
5/26 – Amsterdam, NL – Paradiso +
5/28 – London, UK – Rough Trade
5/29 – London, UK – Barbican +
6/5 – St. Louis, MO – The Pageant ~
6/6 – Bloomington, IN – Buskirk-Chumley Theater ~
6/7 – Ann Arbor, MI – Michigan Theater ~
6/8 – Grand Rapids, MI – Frederik Meijer Gardens ~
6/10 – Madison, WI – Capitol Theater ~
6/11 – Goshen, IN – Sauder Concert Hall ~
6/13 – Chicago, IL – Thalia Hall ~
6/14 – St. Paul, MN – The Fitzgerald Theater ~
6/15 – Iowa City, IA – The Englert Theatre ~
6/17 – Kansas City, MO – Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts ~
6/19 – Telluride, CO – Telluride Bluegrass Festival
6/20 – Telluride, CO – Telluride Bluegrass Festival (NightGrass) SOLD OUT
7/10 – Interlochen, MI – Interlochen Center for the Arts *^
7/11 – Cincinnati, OH – Taft Theatre *^
7/12 – Asheville, NC – Asheville Yards Amphitheater *^
7/13 – Cary, NC – Koka Booth Amphitheatre *^
7/15 – Vienna, VA – Wolf Trap *
7/16 – Westport, CT – Levitt Pavilion^
7/18 – Oak Hill, NY – Grey Fox Bluegrass Festival
7/19 – Portland, ME – Thompson’s Point *^
7/20 – Burlington, VT – The Green at Shelburne Museum *^
7/21 – Northampton, MA – The Pines Theater *^
7/23 – Richmond, VA – Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden *^
7/24 – Glenside, PA – Keswick Theatre *^
7/25 – Lafayette, NY – Beak and Skiff Apple Orchards *^
7/26 – Newport, RI – Newport Folk Festival
9/25 – Oklahoma City, OK – Tower Theatre
9/26 – Dallas, TX – The Majestic Theatre
9/27 – Austin, TX – Paramount Theatre
9/29 – Santa Fe, NM – The Lensic Performing Arts Center
10/1 – San Diego, CA – Epstein Family Amphitheater at UC San Diego
10/2 – Los Angeles, CA – Venue TBA
10/3 – Santa Barbara, CA – Campbell Hall
10/6 – Davis, CA – Mondavi Center for the Performing Arts
10/8 – Seattle, WA – Moore Theatre
10/9 – Bellingham, WA – Mount Baker Theatre
10/10 – Portland, OR – Revolution Hall SOLD OUT
10/11 – Boise, ID – Egyptian Theatre
10/13 – Jackson, WY – Center for the Arts
10/14 – Aspen, CO – Harris Concert Hall
10/15 – Denver, CO – Paramount Theatre
11/4 – Buffalo, NY – Asbury Hall
11/5 – Toronto, ON – Koerner Hall
11/7 – Princeton, NJ – McCarter Theatre Center
11/8 – Boston, MA – Boch Center Shubert Theatre
11/9 – York, PA – Venue TBA
11/11 – New York, NY – Beacon Theatre
11/12 – Rocky Mount, VA – Harvester Performance Center
11/14 – Charleston, SC – Charleston Music Hall
11/15 – Atlanta, GA – The Tabernacle
11/16 – Nashville, TN – Ryman Auditorium
*co-headline with Iron & Wine
^ support from Ken Pomeroy
- support from Keenan O’Meara
~ support from Mason Via