Since ‘I’m With Her’ released their last album ‘See You Around’ in 2018 the trend for all-female supergroups has blossomed with others like Our Native Daughters, The Highwomen, Wonder Women of Country and boygenius coming together to great success. More recently Mary Chapin Carpenter, Julie Fowlis & Karine Polwart impressed with their collaborative album ‘Looking for the Thread’.
The dream for fans is to see these projects become a regular feature in a solo artist’s career (like the Pistol Annies for example). So I was delighted to hear this second album from Sarah Jarosz, Aoife O’Donovan and Sara Watkins and am equally thrilled to report that ‘Wild & Clear & Blue’ surpasses their debut, with exquisite harmonies and sensitive songwriting throughout.
On ‘Ancient Light’ as the world unravels at an alarming rate the trio head towards the hills, looking to catch the ancient light which gloriously shines behind them on the cover of the album. As the song builds you feel their quiet defiance against the prevailing winds, their wish to get to the other side of sadness towards something more sustaining, more spiritual even.
The most beautiful and poignant song on the album is title track ‘Wild & Clear & Blue’ sung by Aoife, in tribute to the much missed heroes Nanci Griffith and John Prine. Sarah has already spoken of Nanci’s influence on her career and covered her on the recent tribute album. Aoife too was a Nanci fan as a child, describing going to see her play live as a formative moment in her life. The song is drenched in a gorgeous musical nostalgia, with Sara’s violin underlying the emotional connection to these artists whose music lives on in the bones of this album.
‘Sisters of the Night Watch’ is a strange, otherworldly folk song, slightly witchy sounding before the trio of voices come together in the chorus. You could see this one performed on a heath, in the rain, an eeriely enchanting beauty.
We come back down to earth with ‘Different Rocks, Different Hills’ a song which could be about the difficulties of being in a relationship, the struggles of co-parenting or how hard it is to be a band even. Everyone has their own agenda in life, their own Sisyphean struggle.
Sara begins ‘Standing on the Fault Line’ quietly, and when the other voices come in you feel the collective power of their united vocal instrument. And the song too seems to be about those natural forces beneath us, beyond our control, the power of nature and fate. We are lucky these three found each other, bringing these forces towards something beautiful. ‘Just put one foot in front of the other/ don’t look back,’ they sing, a reminder that the ground underneath is always unpredictable, but together we can move forward.
Originally beginning as an instrumental ‘Mother Eagle (Sing Me Alive)’ becomes a glorious example of the musicianship of the trio with the mantra of ‘sing me alive’ being a statement of the power of their voices, of music itself. ‘Find My Way Back to You’ builds to a bluegrass inspired refrain and both of these songs will no doubt be brilliant to hear played live.
‘Years and Years’ is a tribute to the past but an acknowledgement of the present. ‘Things will never be the same as when we were young’ they sing, before repeating the refrain ‘if not now, when’ with an almost delirious urgency.
Final song ‘Rhododendron’ has them looking out across the expansive world, before quietly dreaming of laying their head down on the forest floor, intertwining with the earth, growing, blossoming, becoming like the flower: a spectacular force of colour.
‘Wild & Clear & Blue’ is a triumph of beauty, friendship, togetherness, harmony, music: everything that matters in life. Let the ancient light flood in.
BUY: https://imwithher.bandcamp.com/album/wild-and-clear-and-blue
Highway Queens 
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