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SXSW review: Sarah Jarosz at Momo’s
If you’re a teenage girl in most households in America, perhaps you grow up wanting to be Miley Cyrus or Taylor Swift. Or, if your tastes are a little more sophisticated, perhaps Lady Gaga or Beyonce.
If, however, you grow up in the Jarosz household in the small Hill Country town of Wimberley outside Austin, you debut onstage playing the mandolin at age 12 in bluegrass festivals, then move on to guitar and banjo. You write a fistful of songs that are wise beyond your years, sign with Sugar Hill Records, record with the likes of Jerry Douglas, Tim O’Brien and Ben Sollee, and see your first album nominated for a Grammy. All before you get out of high school.
And then, just to put a cherry on the year, you get to play SXSW and see yourself voted Female Vocalist of the Year, Country/Bluegrass Band of the Year and Folk Band of the Year at the annual Austin Music Awards, to be presented Saturday night.
No doubt about it, it’s good to be Sarah Jarosz.
Jarosz played for a packed room of adoring hometown fans, recent converts and acoustic music aficionados who were just getting the word at Momo’s on Friday. Such a crush of expectations might have wilted any other young woman within shouting distance of 20, but she seemed to take it all in stride. Coolly taking the stage by herself, Jarosz moved through a set that included original material from her first (and so far only) album, “Song Up In Her Head” and cannily chosen covers.
Patty Griffin’s wry yet poignant “Long Ride Home” kicked off her show, followed by a new tune, “Gypsy,” and a lesser-known Bob Dylan song, “Ring Them Bells.”
Jarosz’s confident demeanor and penetrating voice cut through the club chatter with ease, but you could still see the young girl within the assured. “How fun is this?!” she exclaimed at one point, sounding incongruously like a young girl who’d just won a shopping trip to the mall. To a grumpy and dyspeptic old music critic (think the old guy in “Up” with a notebook), it was an endearing moment.
After a solo turn mandolin, performing her Grammy-nominated song “Mansinneedof,” Jarosz brought up her backing band, Black Prairie, which included members of the Decembrists. A cover of Shel Silverstein’s “Queen of the Silver Dollar” preceded the grisly “Shankill Butchers,” a Decembrists song that Jarosz covered to chilling effect on her album.
This writer had to depart at that moment, making a note to check out Jarosz again soon, after the tourists had all gone home. He’s a sour old crank, and he doesn’t play well with others.
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Permalink | Comments (1) | Categories: SXSW 2010
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By Lawrence Mark
March 20, 2010 2:45 PM | Link to this
I remember seeing Sarah at the Old Settler’s Festival when I was there in 2005. I was impressed and I knew she would not give up the stage anytime soon! heh heh I am thinking I should have stayed in Austin myself! Cheers to you Sarah!!