Give or take, I have approximately the time it takes for I’m With Her to pile into a sprinter van backstage at Colorado’s Telluride Bluegrass Festival and drive to their late-night show at the Sheridan Opera House to conduct a fast-paced interview.
But, in truth, three and a half minutes of listening to songs like “Ancient Light,” “Year After Year,” or “Mother Eagle (Sing Me Alive)” is all you need to grasp the appeal of the supergroup trio. Their innate gifts for harmony, melody, and songwriting make their songs, especially those on the new album Wild and Clear and Blue, all but irresistible.
“We’ve just lived so much life together, much more life together than we had on our first record,” the band’s Sarah Jarosz tells Rolling Stone. “This [album], we know what our sound is, and now what do we want to say?”
At 11:30 p.m., the group emerged behind a lone microphone at the intimate 1913 opera house on North Oak Street. The gorgeous “Year After Year” hushed the audience, focusing them squarely on members Jarosz, Aoife O’Donovan, and Sara Watkins.
“Things will never be the same/as they were when we were young,” Watkins sang. “Let’s welcome the change/no song unsung.”
“I love singing with them so much,” Watkins says of her bandmates. “One of the main things I remember from that first meetup was just how easy it was to communicate.”
The initial meetup occurred right around the corner from the opera house in nearby Elks Park. It was during the 2014 Telluride Bluegrass Festival. The three musicians were each performing at the gathering with various projects and were asked to host a workshop in the park.
“It just happened that the three of us were the ones who could work something up beforehand,” Jarosz recalls. “We met up behind the main stage earlier that day and that was the first time we sang together. That harmony was so magical.”
“The thing I like most about our band is that it’s not always the same blend. Who’s singing high? Who’s singing low? Who’s singing harmony?” O’Donovan says. “So, you end up having all these color combinations. It’s like we have this whole box of paints and we’re constantly thinking of new colors to make.”
The seamless blend of ancient tones and soaring voices is what elevates I’m With Her, and Wild and Clear and Blue, in the roots-music world. The members are well-aware of their chemistry.
“There’s this ease of working together,” Watkins says. “It’s just a very natural working environment.”
While I’m With Her may have some elements in common with other harmony-based bands, like Crosby, Stills & Nash, there’s none of the rock & roll baggage and expectations that plagued some of the greats.
“Once we decided to become a band, it’s kind of what we always hoped it could be,” Jarosz says. “This band we could return to when we wanted to, and not something we had to do. I think that’s why it’s so enjoyable, because it’s this bonus musical experience.”
The day before the opera house gig, O’Donovan is sitting in the lobby of the Camel’s Garden Hotel in downtown Telluride. Later that afternoon, the trio will hop onto the festival’s large main stage, their melodies radiating out into the towering box canyon surrounding the town. But, for now, O’Donovan is reflecting on the origins of the group.
“We’d all been friends for many years,” O’Donovan says. “We sang through a couple of songs and it was so cool. And right after the workshop, Chris Thile texted.”
Thile, frontman for the Punch Brothers, asked the group if they wanted to open for him at the opera house that night. It was the Sunday evening sendoff for the festival, a tradition Thile and his bandmates have held for several years. (To note, Watkins is part of Nickel Creek with Thile, and O’Donovan and Jarosz were regular performers on Thile’s radio variety show Live From Here.)
“We didn’t have any repertoire,” O’Donovan chuckles. “We got to the gig early. We went into the bathroom and worked up a bunch of songs.” Among them, Bill Monroe’s “Blue Moon of Kentucky” and Watkin’s “Long Hot Summer Days.”
“It was electric,” O’Donovan says. “The next day, Sara Watkins texted, ‘I feel like this should be a thing.’”
The group released their debut album, See You Around, in 2018. They won the Grammy Award for Best American Roots Song for “Call My Name” in 2020. All the while, they played strings of rapturous gigs.
“I’m constantly surprised by how it still feels so creative,” O’Donovan says. “And we’re still thinking of new ways to change up older songs, play with dynamics, add little sections, little fills here and there.”
Back in the lobby, O’Donovan’s cell phone vibrates. Jarosz and Watkins are in front of the hotel, ready to go for a quick hike together before their set. Exiting the hotel, the group disappears down San Juan Avenue toward the mountains cradling the community.
“People have passed on. New lives have come into this world. Families have grown,” Jarosz says. “And we’ve all kind of experienced that together. That richness of life and grief and all of the above — all of that fed these songs.”
