I’m With Her return with lush folk meditation on family and time

After years of individual successes and a Grammy-winning single, I’m With Her, composed of Sara Watkins, Sarah Jarosz and Aoife O’Donovan, return with their first album since 2018’s See You Around. Wild and Clear and Blue is a journey through memories, lineage and an honest reckoning with the present, delivered with the trio’s signature vocal blend and an expanded instrumental palette.

The genesis of the album was rooted not in ambition but in connection. “We knew that the first album wasn’t going to be just this one-off novelty,” Watkins says. “We felt connected as a band. We knew there was more we wanted to make together.” That realisation led them to retreat to rented houses for long weekends, spaces filled with music, meals and catching up, which gradually transformed into songwriting sanctuaries. Their first post-pandemic gathering wasn’t even meant to be productive. “We just wanted to reconnect,” says Watkins, “but we ended up writing the first few songs that set the tone for the album.”

The record’s themes of ancestry, motherhood and generational connection emerged organically through this process. One standout track, ‘Only Daughter’, began with just a melody and blossomed into a shared narrative. “Aoife and I both have only daughters, and the song speaks to our different perspectives as daughters and as mothers”, Watkins says. As the songs took shape, so did a deeper narrative, one that wove its way through time. “We talk a lot about life cycle on this album”, she adds. “Reaching back to the strengths passed down to us so we can pass them forward.”

Wild and Clear and Blue was recorded in New York, split between The Outlier Inn in the Catskills and The Clubhouse in Rhinebeck. Produced by Josh Kaufman (Bonny Light Horseman, Bob Weir, The National) and mixed by D James Goodwin, the album represents an evolution in both sonic depth and emotional texture. Where their debut was defined by stripped-back intimacy, this new project expands their sound, giving space for solos and experimentation. “You know how a little stream of water just finds its way around a roadblock?” Watkins enquires. “That’s what we do. We keep moving until something rings a bell in each of us.”

The title-track anchors the album in remembrance, paying homage to folk legends Nanci Griffith and John Prine. Both deeply influenced the band members, particularly Jarosz and O’Donovan, who grew up listening to Griffith with their families. “We’re singing specifically about them, but also about this physical experience we all had with music growing up”, says Watkins.

Throughout, the album bridges private emotion and communal understanding. “So much of this record is about connecting with your past and figuring out what you want for your future,” Watkins says. “It’s a journey that everybody takes, and this is our way of singing through it.”

Despite the individuality of its members, I’m With Her is, as Watkins describes it, “a three-headed creature.” There’s no ego in the songwriting room, just a shared sense of purpose. That dynamic makes the trio’s music feel cohesive, even when pulling from different emotional or melodic threads. Watkins notes: “What each of us does in the band, the others can’t do. It feels like the only way to get a certain sound is to have each of us.”

I’m With Her will tour Wild and Clear and Blue internationally this spring and summer, including dates in the UK and North America. During the US element of the tour, they will be supporting a cause close to their hearts through a partnership with PLUS1, with $1 from every US ticket sold going to Conscious Alliance, a nonprofit working to fight hunger across the country. Live shows are central to I’m With Her’s identity, not just as musicians, but as friends. “There’s a place for everyone in this band, each of us”, says Watkins. “And I just love standing next to them and getting to hear them play every night and sing with them.”

That closeness, both musical and personal, is what makes this tour feel especially meaningful. “I’m really excited to get all of these songs out live,” Watkins adds. “I think it’s going to be a tour that I remember for a long time.”