My admiration for the roots music supergroup I’m With Her is no secret. I first saw the singer/songwriters Sarah Jarosz, Aoife O’Donovan, and Sara Watkins live ten years ago at the Red Wing Roots Music Festival and they were also involved in my first and only case of celebrity stalking. Over the past decade I’ve seen the band several times at various musical events.

For a band that has been around—off and on—for more than a decade, I’m With Her is only now getting around to putting out their second album, titled Wild and Clear and Blue. The title comes from a song “written after the passing of two of their most beloved musical forebearers, Nanci Griffith and John Prine.”

The band takes up the story from there.

“’When I was nine my mom took me to see Nanci Griffith and I sent a note backstage requesting ‘Ford Econoline,’ and she played it at the show,’ says O’Donovan. ‘We wrote ‘Wild and Clear and Blue’ thinking about growing up so in love with music and then actually making music ourselves—it’s very specific to our own lives, but I think there’s something universal about having those childhood memories tied up in the music your parents played for you.’ The first song written for Wild and Clear and Blue, the exquisitely wistful track soon catalyzed I’m With Her’s album-wide reflection on generational bonds and self-realization. ‘So much of this record is about connecting with your past and figuring out what you want for your future, finding yourself and finding the people you love,’ says Watkins. ‘It’s a journey that everybody takes, and this is our way of singing through it.’”

The references in the chorus to the Griffith song Love at the Five and Dime and Prine’s Paradise are lovely tributes within the larger tune. It reminds me of similar musical memories in my own life, although they aren’t recaptured in such a beautiful way.

“Ooh when I was nine | Heard you singing ‘bout the five and dime | What’s that I asked | And my mama said | They were everywhere when I was a kid | I hear the fiddle and bow | Still playing long after the show | Your voice runs like the Brazos through me | Wild and clear and blue

Ooh when I was nine | Heard you singing ‘bout paradise | What’s that I asked | And my mama said | That was everywhere when I was a kid | I hear the fiddle and bow . . .”

And then in the bridge comes sadness with the realization of the fading of memories.

“Now I’m rolling down all my windows | While the wild birds cut lines across the sky | Your voices are swirling around me | Driving into the west Texas night

Breathing in the scent of the sage brush | Tears cutting lines ‘cross my face | Now the static is slowly replacing | The sounds of my childhood days”

I cry at the strangest things. This one brought on a few tears.

All three women are exceptional multi-instrumentalists, so it may seem difficult to highlight one particular aspect of the group’s work. However, what most come away with after hearing the band are their luminous harmonies. Chris Thile once introduced them with the description: “When you go to heaven and hear singing, it will sound like these three women.”

In an interview with Variety, the band talked about the writing process and how these songs for the second album came together. Wild and Clear and Blue explores themes of “ancestry, lineage, and the collective human experience.” It is “a soul-searching body of work about reaching into the past, navigating a chaotic present, and bravely moving forward into the unknown.”

O’Donovan is quoted in the Variety piece as saying . . .

“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.”

Mother Eagle (Sing Me Alive) begins simply with just the trio playing and singing. It differs in that way from the rest of the album, which has bigger production values. But even with just the three of them, the sound is luscious, building throughout the song as the chorus becomes “mantra like” in O’Donovan’s words.

The lyrics of Ancient Light speak to those themes of ancestry, lineage, and the collective human experience.

“Thinking of who came before | I hear them knock at the door | They’ve been a long time comin’

Mmmm when I let ‘em in | I feel their breath on my skin | They’ve been a long time gone

We’ll be dancing | Oh what a sight | When they get here I’ll be swimming in the ancient light”

Standing on the Fault Line speaks to the path each of us has to take as we move into the future we want.

“Is it when the reservoir dries out | And the birds stop flying south | How we gonna know it’s time to flee?

If we wait for a rainy day | When the opening sky just seems to say ‘stay’ | We’ll never leave

Standing on the fault line | Waiting for the ground to crack | Just put one foot in front of the other | Don’t look back”

All three members of I’m With Her came out of the roots, folk, and progressive bluegrass worlds. Find My Way to You let’s the band open up those chops and remind us that while they do sing beautiful harmonies, they are also terrific instrumentalists.

I’m With Her is touring this year to promote the new album. Catch them when they come to your part of the country.

More to come . . .

DJB