Part of the charm of
I'm With Her
's 2018 debut album,
See You Around
, was the sense of spontaneity and discovery that filled the music. The acoustic supergroup trio of
Sarah Jarosz
,
Aoife O'Donovan
, and
Sara Watkins
sounded as if they were still exploring the possibilities of working together in the studio, and they were having fun seeing how their talents and ideas could fit together. After
became a critical and commercial success,
played to legions of enthusiastic fans on tour, and they won a Grammy Award for the song "Call My Name," so their second album was destined to be something different, and in that, 2025's
Wild and Clear and Blue
does not disappoint.
's effectiveness was in large part a product of its simplicity, and while
is similarly spare in its presentation, the feel and the mood take this in different directions. Nuance plays a much larger role here, and the sound is artful in its layers as the canny instrumental overdubs add aural underpainting to the performances. The trio's roots in folk and bluegrass are audible here, but they often use them as a jumping-off point for music that aims for a greater sophistication in terms of melodies and studio technique; they also embrace pop influences without watering down the soul of the songs.
is the work of three women who don't see any need to allow the conventions of genre to rein them in, and without abandoning the virtues of their best-known music, they push themselves forward and appear to be enjoying it. They also clearly like working together, and the superb vocal harmonies and the generous give-and-take of the arrangements are a delight. Few collaborations between artists of this level of accomplishment sound as blissfully ego-free as
do here, and as they expand their instrumental palettes, they find a welcome variety of new colors and textures, more so than one might expect. The songwriting is intelligent without pretense and emotionally powerful without histrionics;
clearly believe this music can contain as much as they can put into this and then some, and the guitars, fiddles, and voices join together to create something impressive and moving.
is the best sort of collaborative project, one that's decisively more than the sum of its parts, and
is smart, beautifully crafted music that will please those who liked the group's debut (and should impress people who think they don't enjoy acoustic roots music). ~ Mark Deming