The haunting, ethereal sounds of the three-piece all-female folk trio I’m With Her won them a Grammy Award in 2020 for Best American Roots Song.
"It's unique with this band, especially in our live show, because it's just the three of us," explains member Sarah Jarosz. "We don't have a backing band or side musicians. We're just making the sound just with the three of us, and we kind of switch around a lot of different instruments. And then obviously our voices running together."
Jarosz, along with Aoife O'Donovan and Sara Watkins, makes up the trio.
I'm With Her took their name before it was used in a 2016 political campaign, by the way.
"We formed the band in 2014 and named the band the following year. It was before that was the slogan. So it's just a coincidence," said Jarosz.
"I think back at the beginning when we named the band, it was almost kind of a joke of imagining trying to get into a club or a bar or something and saying, 'I'm with her.' Part of the reason that we wanted to have a band name at all and not just how to be our individual names is because we wanted it to feel like a collective and feel like we were writing music as a band and, yeah, have that togetherness, that sisterhood, and be writing music that we all believe in. The writing process of this band is extremely collaborative."
Their intertwined voices bring harmony and storytelling to their music, which is marked by a heavy Celtic influence.
"Aoifa's dad was from Ireland, and she certainly has those influences," noted Jarosz. "And even Sara and I, just growing up in sort of a bluegrass world, obviously, there's a very strong Celtic influence on bluegrass music. I mean, there's a huge connection there. So it makes sense that you would hear that in the music."
The group is on tour with a new album called Wild and Clear and Blue. They'll play in Santa Barbara on Friday, October 3, at UCSB's Campbell Hall. The show starts at 8 p.m.
"So many of the themes of this record have to do with nature and with family and loss and grief and also joy and kind of connecting all of those things and sort of the beautiful mess of life," said Jarosz. "The chaos of life, moments of clarity, and then moments of sadness, and how they all intertwine, and make a life."
"And that's really what we're singing about," she continued. "It feels like a healing kind of soul-searching. It's kind of this optimistic persistence despite hardships, I would say. And ultimately, through sisterhood and through beauty in the world, and taking the time to notice those things amidst the craziness of everyday life. And finding healing in that."
