{"id":4137,"date":"2011-11-03T21:58:20","date_gmt":"2011-11-04T04:58:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/?p=4137"},"modified":"2011-11-03T21:58:20","modified_gmt":"2011-11-04T04:58:20","slug":"sarah-jarosz-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/2011\/11\/sarah-jarosz-3\/","title":{"rendered":"SARAH JAROSZ"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>SARAH JAROSZ
\nStretching bluegrass boundaries\u2014and shrugging off the \u2018child prodigy\u2019 tag<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Sarah Jarosz is enjoying\u00a0a moment of rare respite in the midst of an extensive summer tour. \u201cIt\u2019s been pretty rigorous, but it\u2019s been good,\u201d says the Texas native with a sigh. The fresh-faced 20-year-old\u00a0is clearly more than up to the demands of the road\u2014but as evidenced on Follow Me Down<\/em>, her new sophomore album, Jarosz\u2019s abilities on guitar, banjo, piano, mandolin and vocals belie her years. Touted as a child prodigy since her early teens, Jarosz shrugs off the label. \u201cI don\u2019t know if I am or not,\u201d she says. \u201cI think it had more to do with being surrounded by so many of my heroes and being able to learn from\u00a0them at an early age.\u201d<\/p>\n

Indeed, Jarosz\u2019s Grammy-nominated 2009 debut Song Up in Her Head<\/em> featured a veritable who\u2019s who of the bluegrass world. Though she is quick to note, \u201cI don\u2019t consider the songs I write bluegrass, necessarily. I started in that world and love it, but I\u2019ve always looked up to those who pay tribute to their roots while still pushing the boundaries.\u201d Follow Me Down<\/em> expands her musical world further with guest appearances by Punch Brothers, Shawn Colvin, B\u00e9la Fleck and\u00a0Jerry Douglas, among others.<\/p>\n

With her time divided between touring and studies at Boston\u2019s New England Conservatory of Music, Jarosz concedes that finding opportunities to write new material has been a challenge\u2014and has accordingly seen fit to express herself through an eclectic choice of covers. Follow Me Down<\/em> finds her tackling Bob Dylan\u2019s \u201cRing Them Bells\u201d and Radiohead\u2019s \u201cThe Tourist,\u201d the latter of which evolved out of an impromptu jam with\u00a0Punch Brothers mandolinist Chris Thile. \u201cI feel lucky to have grown up listening to different styles and not being closed off to any\u00a0particular genre,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

Jarosz has come a long way since\u00a0her breakthrough performance at the 2007 Telluride Bluegrass Festival. It was there she met Sugar Hill Records A&R man Gary Paczosa, who signed her to the label and has co-produced both her albums. \u201cWe had a good dynamic in the studio, and I was given the freedom to bring my ideas to the table,\u201d she recalls. \u201cI had such a sense that he was open to anything.\u201d Since then her musical palette has expanded right along with her career. \u201cIt all evolved very naturally,\u201d she says. \u201cIt makes me think I\u2019m where I should be.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2013Lee Zimmerman<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cI don\u2019t consider the songs I write bluegrass, necessarily. I started in that world and love it, but I\u2019ve always looked up to those who pay tribute to their roots while still pushing the boundaries.\u201d<\/h2>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

SARAH JAROSZ Stretching bluegrass boundaries\u2014and shrugging off the \u2018child prodigy\u2019 tag Sarah Jarosz is enjoying\u00a0a moment of rare respite in the midst of an extensive summer tour. \u201cIt\u2019s been pretty rigorous, but it\u2019s been good,\u201d says the Texas native with a sigh. The fresh-faced 20-year-old\u00a0is clearly more than up to the demands of the road\u2014but […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[6],"tags":[2682,1974,10156],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4137"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4137"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4137\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4139,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4137\/revisions\/4139"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4137"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4137"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4137"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}