MUSIC

McGonigel's Mucky Duck presents Sarah Jarosz.  

The best and brightest in the acoustic world move the music forward with an awareness of what came before them; that is certainly true of Sarah Jarosz. On her second album for Sugar Hill Records, Follow Me Down, she pays homage to her musical roots while pushing beyond those sometimes limited boundaries, taking us on a journey both dark and mystical.

For this, Jarosz has a simple yet telling explanation: “I’m influenced by the older, and the contemporary, and the new.” Her approach to acoustic music is invigorating; she gives equal attention to playing, singing, and writing, choosing songs that embrace both old timey and modern sounds.

Jarosz’s taste in covers is hardly confined to British rock bands, but neither does it lean toward traditional material. The other cover on Follow Me Down is a sanguine reading of Bob Dylan’s folk hymn “Ring Them Bells”. On Song Up In Her Head she mined the Decemberists’ and Tom Waits’ catalogs. Live, she’s been known to cover Gnarls Barkley and Bill Withers. She gives each of the songs imaginative and tasteful acoustic treatments—a new way of hearing them.

Jarosz’s repertoire is one of many reasons her music has caught on with audiences across the age spectrum—from those who heard Dylan all over the radio when they were in high school, to those who tune in to Gnarls Barkley now, and who like to digitally download her songs (a rarity among roots acts).

She has more ways than ever of connecting with all manner of ears, along with a highly developed sense of what she’s about. “What’s most important,” she emphasizes, “is just trying to stay true to myself as an artist and be as original as I can.” On Follow Me Down, she has done exactly that.