With her captivating voice and richly detailed songwriting, Sarah Jarosz has emerged as one of the most compelling musicians of her generation. A three-time Grammy Award-winner at the age of 28, the Texas native started singing as a young girl and became an accomplished multi-instrumentalist by her early teens. Jarosz was born in Austin,Texas and raised in Wimberley, Texas. Her parents were teachers. Her last name is Polish. She began learning the mandolin at age 10 and later began learning to play the guitar, clawhammer banjo, and octave mandolin. During her senior year of high school, Jarosz signed a recording contract with Sugar Hill Records and released her debut album Song Up in Her Head in June 2009; it was produced by Jarosz and Gary Paczosa. Guest musicians on the album included Chris Thile, Darrell Scott, Stuart Duncan, and Jerry Douglas. Jarosz enrolled in the New England Conservatory of Music in 2009, and graduated with honors in 2013 with a degree in Contemporary Improvisation.
In 2010 Jarosz recorded the album Follow Me Down and again shared production duties with Gary Paczosa. The album was recorded in Nashville and features guest musicians Bela Fleck, Jerry Douglas, Stuart Duncan, Viktor Krauss, Dan Tyminski, Shawn Colvin, Darrell Scott, and bandmates Alex Hargreaves and Nathaniel Smith. A session with the Punch Brothers in New York produced a cover of the Radiohead song “The Tourist”. An American Songwriter reviewer wrote that “Jarosz invites us along with her into a growing sonic space of collaboration and artistry at this the second step in what will surely be a long and productive musical journey.” In 2011 Jarosz performed at Jerry Douglas’ the Transatlantic Sessions in Scotland. She performed Bob Dylan’s “Ring Them Bells.”
In 2012, Jarosz appeared on Kate Rusby’s album 20, collaborating with Rusby on the song “Planets”. Her 2013 release, Build Me Up from Bones has already been dubbed by Stereo Subversion as an “organic masterwork…a warm, nuanced collection that wraps and enchants the listener”, as well as “her boldest work yet” by WNYC Soundcheck.
In 2015, Jarosz toured extensively with Sara Watkins (a founding member of Nickel Creek) and Aoife O’Donovan (of Crooked Still fame) as well as going on tour with Garrison Keillor on The America the Beautiful Tour – A Prairie Home Companion. Together with Watkins and O’Donovan, Jarosz became a founding member of the progressive-folk trio I’m With Her. They released their debut album, See You Around, in 2018.
Her fourth studio album, Undercurrent, was released on June 17, 2016.It won the Grammy for Best Folk Album along with the song “House of Mercy” winning the Grammy for Best American Roots Performance at the 2017 Grammy Awards.
In 2020 she announced her fifth studio album World on the Ground.
Jarosz has been called “a songwriter of uncommon wisdom” by the Austin Chronicle. Jarosz has been interviewed by NPR and Rolling Stone and described as a contemporary-bluegrass prodigy.
A New York Times reviewer wrote that Jarosz is “widely regarded as one of acoustic music’s most promising young talents: a singer-songwriter and mandolin and banjo prodigy with the taste and poise to strike that rare balance of commercial and critical success.”
Discography:
Song Up in Her Head (2009)
Follow Me Down (2011)
Build Me Up from Bones (2013)
Undercurrent(2016)
World on the Ground (2020)
Sacramento’s K-ZAP 93.3 FM plays Sarah Jarosz. All part of 50 years of Rock, Blues and More, 24-7 on our station’s stream at K-ZAP.ORG/LISTEN/
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