SOUNDTRACK: I’M WITH HER-Tiny Desk Concert #722 (March 28, 2018).
I’m with Her is a kind of a folk supergroup comprised of Aoife O’Donovan, Sarah Jarosz and Sara Watkins. As the blurb notes:
The three singers who perform together as I’m With Her sound like sisters. It’s as if they’ve known each other all their lives and share common roots and musical memories… All three are brilliant players with an ever-shifting array of stringed instruments, guitars, ukulele, fiddle, mandolin and banjo. As I’m With Her, they know how to gather round a microphone and sing directly from their heart to yours. Purity is the brilliance behind I’m With Her.
They also share coming to the Tiny Desk:
Sara Watkins was here with Nickel Creek (2014), Watkins Family Hour (2015) and The Decemberists (2011). Sarah Jarosz was here in 2013 and Aoife O’Donovan came along with Yo Yo Ma and Chris Thile as part of the Goat Rodeo project back in 2011.
They play three songs from their debut album.
The first is “See You Around.” Sarah sings this first song. Sarah and Aoife play guitar and Sara is playing an oversized ukulele. At the end of each section their harmonies are wonderful. It’s a really pretty song, with a great melody. Then at around 2 minutes the song switches gears to the “shiny piece of my heart” section which changes the timbre and tone of the song. Aoife takes over a bit and the song grows a bit darker and their voices sound more powerful.
For “Game to Lose” Sara switches to fiddle, Aoife plays Sarah’s guitar and Sarah is on mandolin. I absolutely love the violin part and the way it plays off of the mandolin. After a few measures, when they sing in three-part harmony from the get go…. Wow. I love Aoife’s voice as she sings the end of the chorus, the mandolin is just fantastic and the fiddle trills are exquisite.
As they tune before the final song, Bob asks how many instruments they brought…. The answer is, a lot. And they couldn’t leave without some banjo. Then Aoife asks about the pink lemonade gummy bunny. Bob says people leave random things. You’re welcome to leave something too. Aoife says, “I thought you were going to say I was welcome to eat it.”
Sarah says I feel like we’re just settling in, I wish we could play all day (and so do I!).
For the final song, “Overland” Sarah switches to banjo. Aoife has the same guitar and Sara is on guitar too. Sara sniffs a few times and then deadpans, “Sorry I’ve got a coke problem, it keeps sneaking up on me.” Everyone laughs and Sarah cracks up. Bob says we’ll just have to loop that and Sara says, “we need some scandal.”
The song begins with Sara on lead vocals and Sarah’s banjo. It is the most country sounding of the three (which surprises a bit since I don’t think of Sara’s voice as sounding like that). But again, it’s the harmonies that are huge.
[READ: January 15, 2018] “Chicken Winchell”
This story was published in Vicky Swanky Is a Beauty, although as with most of William’s pieces I don’t remember it at all.
This story, which is half a page long, mentions three women characters and then uses “she” for the rest. So I’m not sure which “she” is being spoken about. There’s a waitress, a daughter and a mother. The waitress wonders why the daughter never returned. But apparently she did.
The mother confides in the waitress. (more…)
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