Live Review

Sara Watkins, Sarah Jarosz and Aoife O’Donovan – Mitchell Theatre, Glasgow

• 28th Jan 2015

Three of American roots music’s hottest young solo stars came together in Glasgow to play together as part of the city’s Celtic Connections festival. And a capacity crowd was treated to a highly entertaining set full of varied music featuring fine musicianship and exquisite harmony vocals.

The former Nickel Creek singer and fiddler Sara Watkins from California, multi-talented Texas singer and songwriter Sarah Jarosz and ex-Crooked Still vocalist Aoife O’Donovan from Massachusetts are all superb performers in their own right. An impromptu joint performance at the 2014 Telluride Bluegrass Festival in Colorado – playing after a fifteen minute rehearsal in a bathroom – led the trio to realise that they worked well together. A full tour is now on the cards after this first official performance as a three piece act, and if the audience reaction here is anything to go by it will be a huge success.

There was a loose feel to the performance, and some discussions before each song as you might expect from a debut show. But once the music started the three talents merged together very nicely indeed. A couple of instrumental numbers saw O’Donovan’s guitar setting the pace for Watkins’ fiddle and Jarosz’s banjo to pick out melodies that ranged from reels to bluegrass. And the vocal tracks saw well rehearsed switches from solo lead vocals to dazzling three part harmonies that had power, range and sweetness aplenty.

Much of the set was performed as a trio, opening with John Hyatt’s Crossing Muddy Waters and featuring several other fine covers, as well as the original songs Captain’s Clock, with O’Donovan’s passionate lead vocal quite beautiful here, and the uptempo Hornets with its jaunty and melodic country feel. Sara Watkins’ A Hundred Miles Or More was a real highlight, with all three women showing their sublime vocal skills.

Each also took a turn in the spotlight to play a solo song. Aoife O’Donovan began with the country blues Love Sick Red Stick Blues, a drinking song with some darkly humorous touches. Sarah Jarosz’s Fuel The Fire featured a fine powerful vocal and some nice banjo picking while Sara Watkins had the crowd joining in to On A Long Hot Summer Day as well as showing off her fiddle skills.

The closing song was performed without any instruments, allowing those three fine voices to shine one last time, and the trio showed perfect pitch to end the set on a real high. They were soon back on stage for an encore and played the Emmylou Harris song Darkest Hour Is Just Before Dawn, a country gospel track that allowed all three vocals to soar quite beautifully and left the audience with chills.

Sara Watkins, Sarah Jarosz and Aoife O’Donovan are all fine musicians with quite beautiful voices. The three seem to enjoy playing together and the music they produced was of consistently high quality throughout this fine set. Sometimes musical collaborations come together by accident and go on to achieve great things. Watch out for this trio when they return to the UK later in the year – it is something not to be missed.

Venue: Mitchell Theatre, Glasgow
Support Band: none