Excellence at the Sage - I'm With Her

Finally.... we have been to an event at the Sage! A friend visiting Durham noticed that the exceptionally talented Sarah Jarosz, Sara Watkins and Aoife O'Donovan, aka I'm With Her, were playing Hall 2 on Friday, 24th April. Sold! We have one of Sarah Jarosz' albums and like her sound, but were less familiar with Watkins and O'Donovan.

Right up near the ceiling, we could see down onto the stage and onto the wildly enthusiastic audience below. After a short support set (so-so, I have forgotten the guy's name but he notably played a few songs sat with his acoustic guitar held horizontal), the I'm With Her trio produced an outstanding set of around 90 minutes.

Mixing solo songs from each of their respective careers with traditional songs and instrumental interludes, they wove a super spell of folk/country/bluegrass/Americana tunes. I had lots of goosebumps!

Notable tracks: Sarah Jarosz - ' Run Away', 'Build Me Up From Bones' and 'Fuel the Fire'; Aoife O'Donovan - 'Red & White & Blue & Gold'; Sara Watkins - 'Give me Jesus' and 'Long Hot Summer Days'. We were also treated to the 'Crossing Muddy Waters' collaboration featuring all 3 on this live version (there is a video of this track on Aoife's website). 'Crossing Muddy Waters' is released on 7th May; very well recommended! The final track was an a capella version of 'Be My Husband' which will be the B-side to 'Crossing Muddy Waters'.

All 3 shared the lead roles as well as instruments - they had one each of mandolin, octave mandolin, banjo, guitar, ukulele, violin and swapped when required. Fantastic musicianship. Wish I was that good.....

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Pigeon Funk

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