Following the February release of their debut LP “See You Around,” folk trio I’m With Her has embarked upon a 38-city tour, including two sold-out shows in Boulder and Denver this past week with opener Jonny Fritz.
I’m With Her, a name that predates Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign, was formed after members Sara Watkins, Sarah Jarosz and Aoife O’Donovan gave an impromptu performance during the 2014 Telluride Bluegrass Festival. Each with their own critically acclaimed solo albums and other collaborative efforts, such as O’Donovan’s Crooked Still and Watkins’s Nickel Creek, the trio is a veritable supergroup. They effortlessly produce ethereal harmonies and possess consummate instrumental skills. Jarosz leads the pack playing mandolin, guitar, mandoguitar and banjo onstage.
Given these impressive credentials, it was rather surprising to see Jonny Fritz, a self-proclaimed “sweet creep” donned in a silver suit and shiny gold cowboy boots, walk onstage. Fritz played robust acoustic guitar to back his humorous lyrics about some of the banal or unsavory aspects of life, such as “Stadium Inn,” detailing a one star hotel in Nashville, “Brokeback Mountain playing on a TV screen/ Brokeback reenactment: room two-thirteen.” Well aware that he’s not for everyone, Fritz joked, “Just to be clear, [I’m With Her] did know I was going to be up here.” He did, however, decide to close with a song he deemed appropriate for everybody: “Trash Day,” a song quite literally about taking out the trash.
From the first note played, I’m With Her was utterly captivating. They operated seamlessly, swapping instruments and blending vocals with ease and incredible accuracy—you could close your eyes and believe you were listening to a studio recording. Primarily playing songs off of “See You Around,” such as the sweet, pacifying “Ryland (Under The Apple Tree)” and the resilient and unapologetic “Game To Lose,” their vast capabilities as songwriters and performers were undeniable. They unite modern and traditional bluegrass and folk, doing so most impressively with the Guthrie-esque “Overland,” “Goodbye brother, hello railroad / So long, Chicago / All these years, thought I was where I ought to be / But times are changing / This country’s growing / And I’m bound for San Francisco.”
The group also performed a selection of covers from the likes of Jim Croce, Gillian Welch and John Hiatt, as well as the song “Hornets,” penned by O’Donovan and Jarosz for O’Donovan’s 2016 solo album. Their most notable covers weren’t their usual roots-based go-tos; they began the encore with Vampire Weekend’s “Hannah Hunt,” starting with haunting acapella and ending in a crescendo of fiddle, mandolin and guitar. The most striking cover of the night was Adele’s “Send My Love (To Your New Lover),” stripped down to dynamic harmonies and Jarosz’s mandoguitar.
I’m With Her will be returning to Colorado this June for the Telluride Bluegrass Festival, a show in Breckenridge on August 7, and opening for Old Crow Medicine show at Red Rocks on August 17.
