featuring the very best of americana, alt.country and roots music
February 4, 2024
Scott Foley, purveyor of dust
The story behind Sarah Jarosz's seventh full-length collection tells of how the Texas-born bluegrass multi-instrumentalist has moved from New York to Nashville, and has released a decidedly non-bluegrass album. Fact is, Jarosz has never toed the 'grass line faithfully, but Polaroid Lovers (Rounder) doesn't fall especially far from the impressive musical tree she's already planted. Collaborating with writer/producer Daniel Tashian, she embraces a touch of contemporary production, and partners with a handful of reliable Nashville writers, but Jarosz's vocal continues to take center stage, surrounded by an impressive cadre of instrumentalists.
Like her friend Chris Thile, Jarosz leaped into the spotlight at an early age, earning a reputation as another string music prodigy with the release of Song Up In Her Head before she turned twenty. Maturing across reliably strong album releases, she proved to be less cerebral than Thile, and drawn to more resonant melodies like her I'm With Her collaborators Sara Watkins and Aoife O'Donovan. Records were nominated for Grammys, AMAs, though perhaps tellingly she has never been formally recognized by the IBMA. While bluegrass is an inherently collaborative genre, Sarah Jarosz has consistently penned her own songs, followed her own muse, been her own artist. When she has recorded covers, she has turned her attention to names like Prince, Radiohead, U2 and Billie Eilish.
For Polaroid Lovers, Jarosz chose to cowrite every song, working with producer Tashian, Jon Randall, Natalie Hemby and others with an established track record in contemporary country. Already tagged as among our favorite songs for 2023 (since it was released in September), "Jealous Moon" certainly must've sounded completely different before Jarosz brought it to the producer's attention. In its final form, the song opens the collection with a shiny, bright pop, glimmering synths and punchy bass, with the singer leaning more heavily into her delivery than we've heard to date. It's as confidently upbeat a choice as the orange suit and green shoes Jarosz wears on the album's jacket photo. While her octave mandolin carries a whoosh-ing solo, Fred Eltringham's driving drums and Tashian's keys punctuate the message that we've left the bluegrass fields far behind.
That lively pulse animates much of the first half of Polaroid Lovers, embodied by husband Jeff Picker's steady bass, or by the programmed percussion of "When the Lights Go Out" (cowritten with Gordie Sampson and Jon Randall). Jarosz sounds almost like Christine McVie on the latter: In a dream, we were Polaroid lovers / In the deep, where the edges don't lie. "Runaway Train" is a midtempo heartland rocker, a singalong chorus and enough jangle in the guitars to pique ears listening for a healthy country hook: No drug store roses / No cheap champagne / Stuff I'd only throw away. For the Colorado-born "Take the High Road" (a Tashian cowrite), Jarosz's ticking mandolin is offset by a pealing electric guitar, echoing off snowy mountains.
I'm tired of being quiet, she sings on "High Road", Time to face up to the fear. While Sarah Jarosz's previous collections have been unafraid to color a little outside the bluegrass lines, she's always kept at least one foot stylistically close to home. As a singer, her delivery has been reliably mannered, even as her voice is atypically soulful for the genre. The second half of Polaroid Lovers favors more atmospheric textures on songs like "Good At What I Do". I don't really know if I'm good at what I do, Jarosz ponders, while acknowledging she is quicker to forgive the shortcomings of others. Those doubts also pervade "The Way It Is Now", a 70s-inspired shuffle laid atop those resonant guitars: Like everyone's figured it out except me. These softer open-sky arrangements recall the producer's work with Musgraves, and Jarosz's delivery has rarely been sweeter.
One of Polaroid Lovers' most lasting impressions comes courtesy of "Columbus & 89th", a stirring number into which Jarosz pours her feelings about leaving her Upper West Side home. Justin Schipper's melancholy pedal steel lingers like a cold fog: Give my regards to Broadway / And tell her that I'm in a good place. Liberated from any earlier expectations, the sessions strike a new balance between electric and acoustic, tradition and personal expression. In this sense, Sarah Jarosz has followed a similar path to the less-established Kacey Musgraves on her Tashian-helmed breakthrough, though her results are an evolution as opposed to a fullscale transformation a'la Golden Hour. Jarosz's songs are more open, her sound more expansive, her future likely brighter for the risks she's taking. Sarah Jarosz has burned no bridges, but has widened her lane.
A Routes & Branches Guide To Feeding Your Monster supports your commitment to keep aware of what's new in our kind of music. Since our last Episode, we've added a new announcement from Martha Scanlan and Jon Neufeld. Following a few singles, they're planning a March 1 date for Save It For Later (Jealous Butcher). Ben Tanner and John Paul White will coproduce the next chapter in the Secret Sisters' story. Named Mind, Man, Medicine, the collection will reach stores on March 29, via New West Records. Multi-instrumentalist Leyla McCalla reportedly draws from jazz, Haitian Twoubadou, American blues, folk, and Brazilian Tropicalismo for her next release. Courtesy of Anti Records, Sun Without the Heat is set for an April 12 drop. The next project for Oh Boy Records celebrates the music of overlooked Black songwriter Alice Randall. My Black Country will feature tributes from Allison Russell, Valerie June, Sunny War and more (April 12). Finally, nearly left for dead, Lost Dog Street Band have announced at least one more project. Survived has been added to our calendar for an April 26 debut.
ROUTES-cast February 4, 2024
- Trummors, "Hey Babe" 5 (Ernest Jenning, Apr 12) D
- Six Parts Seven & Goodmorning Valentine, "Instrumental 2" Kissing Distance (Suicide Squeeze, Feb 16)
- Jerry David DeCicca, "Forty Years In the Wilderness (ft Bill Callahan)" Imaginational Anthem XIII: Songs of Bruce Cockburn (Tompkins Square, Apr 5) D
- Merce Lemon, "I See a Darkness (ft Colin Miller)" single (Darling, 24) D
- Glass Hours, "Same Old You" Glass Hours (Cornelius Chapel, Mar 1)
- Martha Scanlan & Jon Neufeld, "Save It For Later" Save It For Later (Jealous Butcher, Mar 1) D
- Hurray For the Riff Raff, "Snake Plant" Past Is Still Alive (Nonesuch, Feb 23)
- Frontier Ruckus, "I'm Not the Boy" On the Northline (Loose, Feb 16)
- Britti, "Still Gone" Hello I'm Britti (Easy Eye, 24) D
- JJ Grey & Mofro, "Wonderland" Olustee (Alligator, Feb 23)
- Adia Victoria, "Went For a Ride" My Black Country: Songs of Alice Randall (Oh Boy, Apr 12) D
- Esther Rose, "Chet Baker (ft Bella White)" Safe 2 Run (Versions) EP (New West, 24)
- Wilder Woods, "Be Yourself (ft War & Treaty)" single (Dualtone, 24) D
- Caleb Caudle, "Monte Carlo" Live From Cash Cabin EP (Caudle, Feb 29) D
- Brit Taylor, "Church Bus" Kentucky Bluegrassed EP (Cut a Shine, 24)
- Willi Carlisle, "Great Depression" Critterland (Signature Sounds, 24)
- William Elliott Whitmore, "Dance With Me" Silently the Mind Breaks (Whitmore, 24)
^ Sarah Jarosz, "Dying Ember" Polaroid Lovers (Rounder, 24)
- Leyla McCalla, "Scaled To Survive" Sun Without the Heat (Anti, Apr 12) D
- Corb Lund, "I Had It All" El Viejo (New West, Feb 23)
- Silverada, "Wallflower" single (Prairie Rose, 24) D
- Lost Dog Street Band, "Brighter Shade" Survived (LDSB, Apr 26) D
- Kevn Kinney, "Brand New Key (ft Tom Clark)" single (Kinney, 24) D
- Holly Macve, "Time Is Forever" Time Is Forever EP (Loving Memory, 24)
- Lawrence Rothman, "Poster Child" Plow That Broke the Plains (KRO, Apr 26)
- Lucy Rose, "Could You Help Me" This Ain't the Way You Go Out (Communion, Apr 19)
- Aaron West & Roaring Twenties, "Paying Bills At the End of the World" In Lieu Of Flowers (Hopeless, Apr 12)
- Mama Zu, "Make a Joke" Quilt Floor (Cosmic Twin, Feb 23)
- Daniel Romano, "Chatter" Too Hot To Sleep (You've Changed, Mar 1)
- Stephie James, "Five & Dimer" As Night Fades (James, Mar 1)
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