Record of the Month

I figured I'd do a monthly 'what I'm listening to' kind of thing. This could be viewed as a lame placeholder kind of post. And probably it is. But it's my blog! So there!  

I did not know of this collaboration, but apparently Wild and Clear and Blue is the sophomore effort by I'm With Her. 

The group is a collaboration of two fairly established Americana artists and the third being more of a newcomer. 

Sarah Jarosz has been around for about a decade building a name for herself. Aoife O'Donovan grew up singing mostly Irish folk songs. Sara Watkins is the best known for her work over the last two decades by being a member of Nickel Creek, The Watkins Family Hour, collaborating with the Decemberists and a number of solo records to her name as well. 

I like Americana music enough and had tentative high hopes for this. 

More in line with bluegrass, as there are no drums on this disk. Barely any percussion that aren't taps on the guitar or fiddle. 

The harmonies are pretty incredible. They do a great job with these. While they don't quite lose me when things become too solo-y, the thing on this disk is all about the harmonies. 

The songs themselves - cowritten by all three - are good, but I think the cowriting ends up homogenizing the tunes. Too many songs end up sounding like some of the others. 

Watkins didn't have that trouble with Nickel Creek or Family Hour, as some of the vocalists were also male. The women's lead vocals don't greatly diverge from any of the others here, so while a similar sounding song can take a different life with a great range of vocalists, that's not happening here. 

Musicianship is A+, as are the vocal arrangements....and again, harmonies. All songs are very good, but almost none are great. Or standouts, I should say. 

It still makes me want to go sample their debut though.