Follow Me Down

Audio Mixer: Gary Paczosa.
Recording information: Minutia Studio; MIx One Studios, Boston, MA; Ocean Way Studios, Nashville, TN; Sear Sound, New York, NY; The Metal Building, Nolensville, TN.
Photographer: Scott Simontacchi.
Recorded at the ripe old age of 19, Follow Me Down, multi-instrumentalist singer/songwriter Sarah Jarosz's second studio album feels like a veteran affair, due in part to a rotating pit band that includes such bluegrass, country, and folk luminaries as Jerry Douglas, Viktor Krauss, Chris Thile, and the Punch Brothers, Béla Fleck, Dan Tyminski, Stuart Duncan, and Shawn Colvin. Her playing throughout Follow Me Down, which includes stints on mandolin, octave mandolin, clawhammer banjo, and acoustic guitar, is equally impressive, and her careful straddling of the traditional and indie music scenes feels genuine, rather than shrewdly pieced together by producers and promoters. Voices rarely come into this world as pure as Jarosz's (comparisons to Alison Krauss are indeed apt), and whether she's tackling Dylan ("Ring Them Bells"), Radiohead ("The Tourist"), or the pages of her own diary ("My Muse"), that voice rings true. ~ James Christopher Monger