World on the Ground

Sarah Jarosz's fifth studio release is the product of a new collaboration with musician, songwriter and producer Josh Leventhal. Known for his Grammy-winning work with Elvis Costello and The Blind Boys of Alabama, Leventhal has steered Jarosz more toward the singer-storyteller side rather than the multi-instrumentalist side of her prodigious talent.

A gifted lyricist with a penchant for introspective themes, here Jarosz mostly focuses on observations based on her upbringing in Wimberley (pop 2,626) on the outskirts of Austin. ‘A long, long time ago in a little Texas town,’ Jarosz sings in ‘Eve’; the title character embarks on a quest for the source of the inspirational sound(s) in her head. In ‘Orange and Blue’, accompanied by jazz-inflected piano, bass drums and guitar, Jarosz evokes an idyllic creek-side landscape from her hometown where mysteries of the heart lie just beneath the surface: ‘I kept digging underground/Tried to figure out just what it means/To find a thing that can't be found.’ Recorded in Leventhal's home studio in Manhattan, Jarosz's musical sketches vividly illuminate a young (29-year-old) woman's extraordinary journey.