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A gifted singer/songwriter who has also won widespread acclaim as an acoustic instrumentalist,
Sarah Jarosz initially built her reputation in bluegrass circles, but her ambitious body of work extends well beyond the conventions of roots music. Singing in a strong, clear voice and weaving elements of folk, country, jazz, and pop into her melodies, the former child prodigy released her debut, 2009's
Song up in Her Head, while still in high school. Over the next decade, she established herself alongside similarly progressive peers like
Sara Watkins and
Aoife O'Donovan, with whom she formed the acclaimed band
I'm with Her in 2018. In addition to serving as part of the house band (on mandolin, guitar, and banjo) for
Chris Thile's radio program Live from Here,
Jarosz has amassed an impressive and critically lauded canon of albums including 2020's Grammy-winning
World on the Ground and 2021's heartfelt
Blue Heron Suite.
Jarosz was born in Austin, Texas, on May 23, 1991, where her parents were teachers. She first picked up the mandolin when she was ten years old, and by the time she was 12, she was jamming with the likes of
David Grisman and
Ricky Skaggs on-stage. As her gifts as a songwriter became better known, she developed a buzz as a next-generation version of
Gillian Welch, and
Jarosz signed a deal with Sugar Hill Records when she was just 16. A debut album,
Song up in Her Head, appeared from the label in 2009 and quickly garnered tremendous critical acclaim. That same year,
Jarosz began work on a major in contemporary voice improvisation at the New England Conservatory of Music, hardly the province of a typical bluegrass musician. A second long-player,
Follow Me Down, appeared from Sugar Hill in the spring of 2011.
Jarosz recorded her third album,
Build Me Up from Bones, during her final semester in school. It contained nine originals and a pair of covers:
Bob Dylan's "A Simple Twist of Fate" and
Joanna Newsom's "Book of Right-On." The set was issued by Sugar Hill in September 2013.
After extensive international touring,
Jarosz was selected by
Garrison Keillor to act as an occasional guest host for his successful radio program A Prairie Home Companion.
Jarosz relocated to New York City, a transition readily reflected in her work. She reentered the studio in 2015 with co-producer
Gary Paczosa. Playing guitar, octave mandolin, and banjo, she was accompanied by
Jedd Hughes,
Luke Reynolds, and
Mark Schatz.
Sara Watkins and
Aoife O'Donovan (her bandmates in the trio
I'm with Her) appeared on the track "Still Life." The completed album,
Undercurrent, was released in June 2016 by Sugar Hill. Later that summer,
Jarosz and
O'Donovan were named to the newly formed house band for A Prairie Home Companion under host
Chris Thile, who took over for
Keillor in October; they remained part of the show when it was rebranded as Live from Here in late 2017.
The following year,
Jarosz joined
Watkins and
O'Donovan in the studio to record
I'm with Her's debut album,
See You Around, for Rounder Records. A critical success, the release won a Grammy Award for Folk Album of the Year. Returning to solo work,
Jarosz earned similar honors for her fifth album, 2020's
World on the Ground, which won the Grammy for Best Americana Album. Inspired by childhood visits to the Gulf Coast town of Port Aransas, Texas,
Jarosz released the poignant, Grammy-nominated
Blue Heron Suite in May 2021. ~ Steve Leggett & Mark Deming