SARAH JAROSZ: Build Me Up From Bones
SARAH JAROSZ
Build Me Up From Bones
Sugar Hill 4093
Build Me Up From Bones, Sarah Jarosz’s third album, again shows a quantum leap in growth, ambition and reach as singer, songwriter and player. Jarosz has rapidly become a startlingly original artist.
Again working with producer Gary Paczosa, Sarah has created an album of compelling songs that belie her youth. Indeed she completed this album just as she graduated, at 22, from the prestigious New England Conservatory. One might call this her thesis!
The album is brazenly spare and lean, as Sarah and Paczosa have birthed a deceptively diverse array of sonic approaches to the songs here. Especially so in the two covers tucked into the set: Bob Dylan’s “Simple Twist of Fate” backed only by Nathaniel Smith’s pizzicato cello, and Joanna Newsom’s “The Book Of Right-On” again with the plucked cello with the addition of Alex Hargreaves’ violin and Sarah on mandolin. The clarity this young singer brings to these songs is bracing.
But as a songwriter herself, her growth is almost astonishing. She wrote six of the songs here by herself, revealing a probing mind for lyrics and a thrilling reach for melody. Two more are collaborations with Australian and Nashville denizen Judd Hughes: the opener “Over The Edge” and the haunted “Mile On The Moon.” Hughes adds harmony and guitar to these along with Dan Dugmore on pedal steel and electric guitar, Victor Krauss on bass and Eric Darkenon on percussion, all of them reappearing occasionally throughout. Sarah’s banjo drives “Fuel The Fire” with Hargreaves, Smith, Krauss and Chris Thile on mandolin for a dark, urgent mountain music feel. Darrell Scott adds harmony here and guitar to two others “Dark Road” and “Gone Too Soon,” both also sporting Jerry Douglas’ Dobro and Weissenborn. Kate Rusby sings on “Gone Too Soon.” Truly, time and time again, Sarah’s songs captivate and startle with vivid melody and sharp lyrics. She is already a most potent songwriter!
Indeed Sarah has dialed back the cameo appearances here to keep the tracks as stripped down as possible. Paczosa has again done a masterful job of guiding the ever more confident and daring Jarosz to realize her songs in sound. Her roadmates, Smith and Hargreaves, illuminate seven of the eleven tracks with smart and clever arrangements in which less is much. Much more.
Sarah Jarosz’s debut captivated me, and her second stunned me. #3 is spectacular with the settings dazzlingly apt for songs so filled with wisdom and insight that belie her youth. I see a limitless future. Sarah Jarosz is definitely a major artist forging a path uniquely her own.
— Michael Tearson