Fresh off the release of her new album, Polaroid Lovers —her seventh solo studio project, which showcases her beautiful vocals and songs of life and love — I caught up with Sarah Jarosz in advance of her performance at the Lobero Theatre on Thursday, February 29.
“I’m really, really excited to see how these songs sort of translate to the live setting,” said Jarosz, who co-wrote the album’s 11 songs with producer Daniel Tashian and musicians Jon Randall, Ruston Kelly, and Natalie Hemby. As to what we can expect in Santa Barbara, she said, “I’ll definitely be playing a bunch of my older songs as well. And some covers, as always, so it’s gonna be fun. I love playing in Santa Barbara.”
Part of her affection for our town comes from her relationship with the late David Crosby, who she first met when playing at the Lobero. “He came to my show; I want to say it was in 2017 was the first time I met him, and I didn’t know that he was there. He just came backstage and totally blew our minds by being there. I definitely will be thinking about him at that show,” said Jarosz.
“It’s hard to believe it’s been over a year now since we lost him, but he wound up being an incredibly special person in my life. And I’m just so, so grateful that I got to spend some time with him and then make some music with him.”
This time around, the four-time Grammy winner — who has appeared on local stages with fellow singer/songwriters Sara Watkins and Aoife O’Donovan to form the Grammy Award–winning trio I’m with Her — will have Tashian on guitar, Fred Eltringham on drums, and Daniel Kimbro on bass (her husband, Jeff Picker, also appears frequently on tour, but will be on the road with Nickel Creek on the Santa Barbara dates), as well as her own instruments, which include her trademark electric octave mandolin.
Jarosz has sung for as long as she can remember and took piano lessons as a young girl, but it was really the mandolin that solidified her passion for music. “I started playing when I was 9, almost 10. And just became completely obsessed,” she said.” And that’s really when it all got going. And I became very obsessed and all I wanted to do was play.”
Most kids don’t naturally gravitate to a mandolin, but Jarosz said her parents are huge music lovers and she has early memories of first hearing Tim O’Brien play the instrument on a Hot Rize record. A woman at their church had a mandolin she let Jarosz play with, and the woman eventually sold it to the family as a Christmas gift for young Sarah. “Then shortly thereafter, we stopped going to church,” she laughed. “But really, the thing was every Friday night, in my hometown of Wimberley, Texas, there was a bluegrass jam. And that was totally just pure luck that it wound up being a jam of wonderful people led by a guy named Mike Bond. And he played the mandolin as well. And so that’s how I really fell in love with it and learned in the very beginning.”
She started playing gigs around Austin, Texas, when she was 12, “so it’s been 20 years that I’ve been playing shows and doing this thing. And always my hope is to do it as long as possible. So the fact that I’m here, you know, 20 years after I started this was the dream — so I just hope to continue being able to make music.”She’ll be doing just that at the Lobero, about which Jarosz said: “I’m not just saying it because this is for Santa Barbara, but the Lobero is one of my favorite theaters to play in. … I’m so glad that you mentioned Cros, because he’s such a big part of why that space is special for me. And we get to play a lot of music venues in our line of work. So it’s a special one that is really great and there’s a lot of care.”
Sarah Jarosz: Polaroid Lovers Tour with special guests The Ballroom Thieves takes place on February 29. See lobero.org for more information.
