There are two main musical pedestals upon which youngsters can be placed that have been deemed mostly acceptable within our cultural world.
The first pedestal is that of the classical music prodigy — the precocious little ones who show off talent that surpasses many professional adults on the strings or piano well before they can take a driver's license test. The other pedestal is that of the teen pop star — the youths with great singing (and sometimes dancing) acumen who catch on with a group or as a solo act and find radio-charting success (sometimes singing about that aforementioned driver's license).
But both of these paths have a tendency to not always work out for the best. Turns out the ideal situation for young developing brains might not be throwing them into nomadic touring lifestyles with massive levels of fame, expectations and performance pressure. The stress all that involves has led to more than a few distressing tales of kids who end up bitter and burned out by their childhood success.
Sarah Jarosz sort of split the difference between those polarities. And maybe that's why she's still thriving.
When Jarosz was a teen she became a standout youth performer of a much less typical breed: a bluegrass prodigy. Before she was even out of high school, she'd already built a reputation as a bluegrass singer-songwriter and a mandolin, banjo and guitar ace. Within a month of turning 18 and graduating from high school in 2009, she dropped her debut album Song Up in Her Head, which also garnered her first Grammy nomination — Best Country Instrumental Performance for the fleetly picked "Mansinneedof." What would've been the pinnacle of many musicians' careers was just Jarosz getting her feet wet.
Part of what made Jarosz stand out was a songwriting voice that belied her age — calm, composed and continually finding beauty in the melancholy. This knack served her well as she spread her wings beyond just traditional bluegrass sounds into more folk and Americana soundscapes. By the time she reached her fourth and fifth albums she was a bonafide standard bearer for roots music — 2016's Undercurrent won the Best Folk Album Grammy and 2020's World on the Ground won the Best Americana Album Grammy.
So how did Sarah Jarosz avoid the pitfalls of young musical success? For her, the answer is simple: it's having good people around you.
"I think I owe all of that to the musicians that I get to play with," says Jarosz. "I've been so fortunate from the very beginning in my teens to have incredible mentors and teachers — people who really believed in me and championed me. That is what keeps me going. Because that's the best part — to get to make music with people that make me want to keep making music. It'd be really easy if I didn't get to be surrounded by other amazing musicians to burn out."
It's helped that Jarsoz's musical family — both in the literal and figurative sense — has expanded over the years. Just last year she married a fellow musician, bassist Jeff Picker (Nickel Creek), which is great because not only do they collaborate, but having someone who truly understands the plight of a musician's life is certainly a comfort.
A big boost to her figurative musical family came years prior with the formation of the Americana supergroup I'm With Her, which features Jarosz, Nickel Creek's Sara Watkins and Crooked Still's Aoife O'Donovan. The collaboration provided the musical zest Jarosz needed when it felt like she was in danger of hitting the proverbial wall.
"I think my collaboration with I'm With Her — with Aoife and Sara — came at a really good time for me, because I had made four solo albums, and I was maybe on the verge of some sort of burnout," says Jarosz. "And getting to have the freshness of making music with them, was definitely a major blessing for me."
Now it's time for Jarosz's latest sonic evolution. In January, Jarosz released her seventh album, Polaroid Lovers. Produced by Daniel Tashian (who also helmed Kacey Musgraves' instant classic Golden Hour), the record finds Jarosz dipping her toes into more pop and rock realms — expanding beyond basic bluegrass structure without abandoning her rootsy songwriting roots. While many might paint it as Jarosz striving intentionally for a more crossover mainstream audience, the truth is probably closer to someone who's made rather serious traditional music since before she could legally vote finally allowing herself to let her hair down.
"It almost feels a bit more playful and not so heavy on every song," Jarosz explains. "A song like 'Runaway Train,' for instance, has just been a bit more full-band, upbeat, kind of raucous songs to get to play live. Even just having just the nature of having drums... for a long time, I never toured with drums. So that's just kind of taken it to this other sonic level that feels bigger."
Despite being a musical veteran at this point, the now 32-year-old Jarosz was drawn to the studio moments that felt unfamiliar, a touch risky and totally exhilarating.
"There were certain musical moments when they were happening in the studio that almost shocked me. The most obvious one being the very beginning of 'Jealous Moon,' which is the first track," say Jarsoz. "When Daniel [Tashian] played the piano intro, and then the band came in with that downbeat — with the drums and the guitar and the bass and just everything — and it's almost full-on rock band, I was kind of like, 'Whoa! This is happening.' [laughs] And as a musician you're kind of almost searching for those moments that allow you to know that you're onto something. Because if you're just kind of comfortable all the time, it sort of maybe means that you're not searching or you're not sort of seeking new territory. And so that was a moment for me that put me on the edge of my seat a bit. But it was also emotional, because I wanted it so badly and it was actually finally happening. It was a special kind of turning point moment."
Notably, Polaroid Lover was the first album Jarosz says she wrote while envisioning what it might be like to play these songs live. She'll be on the road most of the year to see if reality lives up to her imagination, but the early returns have her in a generally joyous mood. For someone who has been doing this since she was a child, still finding thrills in the totality of her artistic output carries deep significance — one that she can actively feel resonating with her loyal fans.
"This tour has been so cool in that everything feels so good alongside each other. And I wasn't sure of that going into this tour. But the setlist that I've been working on is very much a mixture of a bunch of songs on the new album, but a lot of my older stuff, too," says Jarosz. "And I just love how it all feels like me, and it all feels like it should be in the same show. It's kind of like a nice up and down roller coaster — the older moodier stuff into like the more higher energy stuff with the new record. And audiences seem to be coming along for the ride." ♦
Sarah Jarosz, the Ballroom Thieves • Fri, Feb. 23 at 8 pm • $25-$80 • All ages • Knitting Factory • 919 W. Sprague Ave. • sp.knittingfactory.com
