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Broken Record Podcast - Episode Summary: Sarah Jarosz

Episode Overview In this episode of *Broken Record*, hosts Rick Rubin, Malcolm Gladwell, Bruce Headlam, and Justin Richmond engage in a conversation with Sarah Jarosz, a multi-talented singer-songwriter from Wimberley, Texas. The discussion revolves around her latest album, *Polaroid Lovers*, her musical journey, and her experiences in the music industry.

Key Highlights

Introduction to Sarah Jarosz

  • Background: Sarah Jarosz grew up in Wimberley, Texas, surrounded by a rich musical environment thanks to her parents.
  • Instruments: Jarosz is proficient in banjo, guitar, mandolin, and octave mandolin.
  • Musical Journey: Emphasizes the influence of Friday night bluegrass jams on her musical development.

*Polaroid Lovers* Album

  • Production: Produced by Daniel Tashian, marking her seventh album.
  • Songwriting Focus: The album is noted for highlighting her songwriting skills over her instrumental virtuosity.

Musical Influences and Development

  • Family Influence: Jarosz describes how her parents' love for music shaped her early influences, including Texas singer-songwriters (e.g., Shawn Colvin, Guy Clark).
  • Education: Attended a school where music was taught through the Kodály method, enriching her musical education.

Learning and Collaboration

  • Learning by Ear: Jarosz primarily learned to play instruments by ear, emphasizing the importance of community in her musical growth.
  • Co-Writing Experience: Discusses her reluctance to co-write in her early career and how her approach has changed with more confidence in her musical identity.

Writing Process and Themes

  • Songwriting Approach: Emphasizes the blend of personal experience and collaboration in writing.
  • Key Songs and Themes:
  • "Runaway Train" - A joyful exploration of relationships.
  • "Don't Break Down On Me" - A reflection on perseverance in relationships.
  • "Days Will Turn Around" - A hopeful message inspired by personal experiences during the pandemic.

Performance Insights

  • Live Performance: Jarosz shares her newfound connection with audiences during live shows, feeling more grounded and present.

Musical Philosophy

  • Emphasis on Simplicity: Discusses the importance of creating space for the audience in her music, drawing comparisons to artists like John Prine.
  • Influences: Cites Paul Simon and Joni Mitchell as significant lyrical influences, aiming for depth and imagery in her songwriting.

Personal Reflections

  • Influences on Songwriting: Mentions the impact of her time at the New England Conservatory on her musical style and lyrical complexity.
  • Future Aspirations: Expresses a desire to co-write with Bonnie Raitt, emphasizing admiration for her artistry.

Live Performance Segment

  • Song Performance: Jarosz performs "The Way It Is Now," showcasing her unique blend of lyrics and instrumentation, emphasizing themes of presence and emotional connection.

Conclusion Sarah Jarosz's journey reflects a deep commitment to her craft, a rich musical upbringing, and a willingness to evolve as an artist. This episode of *Broken Record* offers valuable insights into her creative process and the experiences that shaped her into the artist she is today.

Key Takeaways

  • The importance of community and informal learning in music.
  • How personal experiences shape artistic expression.
  • The power of collaboration and vulnerability in songwriting.
  • A commitment to authenticity and emotional connection with audiences.

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*Listen to the full episode [here](https://www.pushkin.fm/podcasts/broken-record) for an in-depth exploration of Sarah Jarosz's musical journey and artistry.*

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Transcript

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0:06Pushkin. This is an iHeart Podcast. In today's super competitive business environment, the edge goes to those who push harder, move faster, and level up every tool in their arsenal. T-Mobile knows all about that. They're now the best network, according to the experts at Ooclas Speedtest. And they're using that network to launch Supermobile, the first and only business plan to combine intelligent performance, built-in security, and seamless satellite coverage. That's your business, Supercharged. Learn more at supermobile.com. Seamless coverage with compatible devices in most outdoor areas in the U.S.

0:48where you can see the sky. Best network based on analysis by Ookla of Speedtest Intelligence Data 1H 2025. Every great music conversation goes beyond the surface. The influence that shaped an artist's sound. The moment that changed their creative direction. The story behind the story that fans never hear. Claude helps you discover those deeper connections. Upload interviews, liner notes, or music journalism, and Claude reveals patterns across an artist's entire journey, showing how influences become innovations. Whether you're a music journalist, passionate fan, or someone who loves understanding creative processes, Claude matches your curiosity about what really drives great artists.

1:29Try Claude for free at Claude.ai slash brokenrecord. Lexus is a company that believes in the importance of setting a standard, which I can appreciate as someone who holds themselves to lofty if not ridiculous standards, especially with the car I drive. The standard Lexus has set for themselves is to experience amazing. Lexus measures success by the feeling and emotions evoked in a driver, like exhilaration and joy. Amazing can only be achieved by knowing people on a deeper level. The standard of amazing results in a feeling in drivers that their car was built in anticipation of them. Machines that make you feel more human.

2:06Because a car that doesn't make you feel something is a car that stops short of amazing. Experience amazing at your Lexus dealer. Sarah Dross very naturally grew interested in music as a youngster through listening to her parents' tunes. That her interest was matched with an equal level of innate talent and a wonderful musical community in Wimberley, Texas turned her into a child prodigy. Sarah is a killer player, banjo, guitar, mandolin, octave mandolin, and a keen songwriter steeped in the Texas tradition. But what's even more impressive than all of that is her growth as an artist. Sarah's latest album, Polaroid Lovers, was produced by former Broken Record guest Daniel Tashian.

2:48It's her seventh album and so far the best at highlighting the power of Sarah's songwriting over her virtuosity. In this episode, you'll hear Sarah Jarosz tell Bruce Hedlum about the Friday night bluegrass jams that shaped her playing, why she's turned down co-writing songs with artists she respects before, and you'll get to hear her dabble with some of her instruments and maybe even perform a song or two. This is Broken Record, liner notes for the digital age. I'm Justin Richman. Here's Bruce Hedlum's conversation with Sarah Jarosz. Can we talk about how you started out? Everybody describes you as a prodigy.

3:26What were you before you were a prodigy? Well, you know, I really just don't ever, I don't have memories of my life without music being a part of it. It was just always there and it was always a very positive thing. You know, from the time that I was a little kid, I don't really ever remember a car ride with my parents where an album wasn't playing, where we were just sitting in silence as a family. It was just in the air. It was in the ether always for as long as I can remember. And so singing came first, I think, because of that. My parents are really two of the biggest music lovers you could ever come across.

4:14My mom sings and plays guitar and writes songs, but always as a hobby, never professionally. And my dad is just the biggest music lover and album collector and just always playing records, always introducing me to new things. And so I would just, it started with me just singing along to whatever he would put on and, you know, hearing my mom strum on her guitar and seeing her typewritten lyrics kind of strewn around the house and thinking this is normal, you know, like people just, oh, people write songs. So eventually when I was, you know, in my early teens, I started trying my hand at songwriting.

5:01But I was really lucky growing up in Wimberley, Texas. I had an amazing music teacher at the school that I went to named Diana Riepe, and she taught using the Kodai method, which is basically Zoltan Kodai, a Hungarian composer who believed that every kid should have a form of music education in their life. And so developed this method of teaching children music through solfege and hand symbols, connecting the notes to the hand symbols in that way. And that really just felt like, you know, I already had a natural interest in music. That was just like a lucky thing that I happened to go to a school that had this incredible music teacher.

5:44and took piano lessons when I was about six. But it wasn't until I turned 10 and got a mandolin that I started really taking my own initiative of wanting to practice and just became obsessed with working on music. The music your family played, you mentioned Texas. Was it Texas music? Was it country? Was it Western swing? What were they interested in? They were really into the Texas singer-songwriter tradition. So they both went to UT, and that's where they met, and would go see Sean Colvin and Nancy Griffith at the Cactus Cafe before anybody knew who they were. And so I was hearing a lot of Sean and Nancy, a lot of Guy Clark, Lyle Lovett.

6:34Really, that Texas, it's a strong, it feels like its own genre. Those are a lot of my early musical memories. And it feels really connected to my childhood and to just the landscape of the Texas Hill country in Wimberley. But also, alongside all that, it was Paul Simon and Joni Mitchell and Bob Dylan and Chicago and, you know, like a bunch of other stuff as well. Billy Joel. So it was a lot all at once. But definitely those Texas singer-songwriters were a big part of it. And then when you played mandolin, were you learning by ear? Almost exclusively learning by ear. Yeah. So around this same time when I was 10, And, you know, my parents could kind of tell that I was really interested in this and in the mandolin.

7:30And they, again, just kind of a fortunate timing. And just in Wimberley, they found this Friday night bluegrass jam that, you know, there'd be the Friday night football games. And then while that was going on at the Catfish restaurant. Everybody else. Everybody else was at the football game. But at the Catfish restaurant down the street called Charlie's, there was a bluegrass jam every Friday night. And it just, it was this magical thing where, you know, in retrospect, it was so special that all of those adults that wanted to just clear their head and like blow off some steam at the end of a long week were cool with me, a little 10 year old girl coming and kind of crashing, crashing the party.

8:20and sitting in the circle. And yeah, like you said, learning by ear, just hearing the songs week after week, slowly picking things up, slowly starting to improvise solos when my turn would come around the circle. And that was really a huge turning point for me in terms of soaking in the music and really getting to play a lot with other people. You're describing something that doesn't even sound real, I have to say. This is what, the early 2000s? Yeah, this would have been 2001. I was 10. Yeah. Yeah. So you're describing something like it happened in 1945 on Doc Watson's porch. Totally. But instead, everybody who doesn't play football pulls up an instrument.

9:14Amazing. Yeah, no, it does. It feels like that even to me now. It just feels like it was this out of time, magical experience. And it happened in my life. And I was just so lucky to get to that that was my way in. because, you know, I think I have a lot of friends who their way in was music competitions and fiddle contests. And I think, you know, those can be great, but it also, along with that comes this sort of pressure and competitive nature. And so there was none of that. For me, it was all just sharing the song, sharing the community, sharing the feeling and the love of the music with these other people.

10:03And, you know, it could have been adults that were, like, not cool with it, and they were cool, and it was magical, yeah. You could have learned how to play cards or something, something that's completely different. Do you remember the first couple songs you played? Do you remember what the repertoire was? Yeah, well, I remember... I realize even using the word repertoire, I'm totally killing the buzz on Friday night at the Catfish Cafe. No, but there's something to that. I think that a lot of the times you would play the same songs week after week. And that's kind of how I learned. And people don't want to reinvent the wheel every time they sit down to just play music for fun.

10:42So they just want to play songs that they love. So it would be a lot of the same songs every week. And one of the ones that comes to mind, I actually recorded on the album that I made with John Leventhal, Rolled on the Ground. The last track is called Little Satchel. and um that was a song that the the leader of the jam is this guy mike bond um who's just the most wonderful guy just so warm and kind and um he would sing that every week and i just have i just have this memory of it just lit me up like i was just hearing him sing that song was a turning point and I would ask him to sing it every week.

11:27And then just through hearing him sing it every week, I learned it. And, you know, simultaneously to that, Bernard Malberg, who was the banjo player, would sometimes just hand his banjo over to me and kind of show me how to play Clawhammer banjo and just those little moments. You know, and then other people would sing John Prine songs or Jerry Jeff Walker songs. I would sing, you know, Blue Night and Blue Moon of Kentucky and Rocky Road Blues. Every song has blues or blue in the title. Can I totally put you on the spot and ask for a couple of bars of Little Satchel? Yeah, that's totally fine. All right.

12:06That would be magical.

12:23Under my bed You can set your little satchel And on my head Come lay your little hand If you will be My own true lover I will be your loving little man Run to the house and ask your papa Bride of mine you'll ever be If he says no, come back and tell me And I will wait for you to be free When you get free, then we'll get married Look how happy we will be Oh, we'll go to California Or any place you want to go

13:57Oh, we'll go to Louisiana

14:07Settle down when we get home

14:14And it kind of goes on like that for a while. Oh, it's beautiful. Now, so you played the mandolin, and then you got the octave mandolin. Can you tell me a bit about that? Yeah, so I played, I really, mandolin was my focus for most of my teens and just initially kind of like finding my way into music on my own. And then actually before the octave mandolin, I played a lot of guitar and a lot of banjo. So those were the three that were in rotation when I was first starting to write songs. But I just, I, again, to Tim O 'Brien, I had heard some of his recordings with the sound of this bouzouki or octave mandolin.

15:03The names are kind of interchangeable. I've always said octave mandolin because mine is always tuned a true octave lower than a mandolin, whereas bouzoukis sometimes have different tunings. so when I was 16 I had kind of been keeping my eye out for one but they're they're kind of rare instruments to come across and when I was 16 I was at the IBMA the International Bluegrass Music Association conference and they have a trade show as part of the conference and I have a vivid memory of walking onto the trade show floor and seeing a booth with the Fletcher Brock octave mandolin and playing. I sat down, I played it for a minute and it was like lights were going off, bells were ringing.

15:56It was a magical moment. And I just knew this is my instrument. This is going to change my life and bought it. I had been saving up from shows that I had played around Austin, you know, as a teen and bought it. And it just, it did, it changed, it changed my life. I started, all these songs started pouring out of me and it was like, it was the instrument that unlocked me finding my own musical voice. Now, mandolins are tuned in fifths, right? They're tuned like violins. Correct, yeah. So it's G-D-A-E. Yep. And yours is tuned an octave lower. What do you think it was about that instrument? I think there's something about the range in relation to my voice that was kind of the magical combination.

16:49You know, I had just spent so much time playing mandolin and gotten really proficient at taking solos and things. But first, I was just never, anything that I wrote on the mandolin was usually instrumental. I wasn't really, when I wanted to sing and play and kind of write and sing and play, I would go to the guitar to do that because there was something about the lower range of the guitar or even the banjo that just lent itself to me singing on top of it. and so yeah I think also you know it's a bigger the octave mandolin is a bigger body it kind of has more tonality similar to that of a guitar and you can capo it and kind of have all these more ringy sounds than you would with just closed chords on a mandolin and it just yeah it just felt like it supported my voice in a rounder, more whole way than when I was just accompanying myself on the regular mandolin.

17:53You don't play it the way I've seen a lot of people play mandolin. Are you even finger picking it at times? I have. I have occasionally. Usually I'm using a pick though, but there's been a, I've started to experiment with. So you've done some patterns on it like almost like travis picking um well it's different it really is more like cross travis picking i don't actually know how to travis pick um i would say it's more like cross picking where you're using one pick and i can demonstrate it if you want sure why not okay it's probably easier to do it then um and yeah this to you know to your question that this cross picking motion actually felt like it unlocked something for me.

18:44So what I will say about the tuning of my particular octave mandolin is that, I'll take this capo off for a second. So we talked about how it's G, D, A, E, but when I got the Fletcher Rock octave, he had it tuned in, the Gs and the Ds are also in octave, so. But then the As and the Es are unison. So there's something about that when you put the cross-picking motion in there, you can kind of grab the higher octave. So as opposed to just on if they were all tuned unison, it would sound like, for instance, my song Build Me Up From Bones.

19:33It has this.

19:39Where that higher octave comes into play, it's a part of the lick. It wouldn't sound the same if it was...

19:52It's... Nice.

19:57Yeah. And so you're getting the higher one doing an up-pick. An up-stroke, yeah. An up-stroke, wow. Fast-forwarding a little bit to the new record, There's a song, the way it is now, that feels, I realized, like a sister song to Build Me Up from Bones. It's almost, it's kind of an inverted lick.

20:23Utilizing that upstroke of the higher. So yeah, that just feels like a songwriting thing that got unlocked by the specificity of this instrument. I mean, you hear those kind of sounds with guitar and you hear people, it's on the high E string. Right. Using the upstroke. But that's amazing. Yeah. I mean, it really, I mean it when I say it feels like my soulmate of an instrument. I feel, I love, I still love playing mandolin. I love playing guitar, love playing banjo. But this is the instrument that I feel really at home and myself on. And do you, does it help? you're a writer who puts often a lot of unusual chords in her work and other people have commented on that some of your co-writers have commented on that uh does does writing on the octave mandolin does that help with that does it help you get to different sounds or different harmonies i think so i think that also is maybe just related maybe more to my early playing on the mandolin and And almost playing chromatic, not ever using a capo, you know, on the mandolin and learning how to play chromatically and just listening to a lot of different music and being curious about a lot of different sounds and wanting to kind of incorporate, you know, different chord movement and just being curious about that in my own songs and exploring.

21:51There's even a couple of songs, and I can't think of the titles right now, that almost have, well, I think of them as Beatles moves. A couple of minor fourths, middle eights that move chromatically, and things you don't often hear as much in country music. Yeah, well, and I think part of that, too, was affected by my time at New England Conservatory, where I went to college. And that was like, you know, I had spent all this time in my childhood and my teens really just playing folk and bluegrass and singer-songwriter. And then I got to college and I was thrust into this world of, you know, jazz and klezmer music and free jazz and all this stuff that I had.

22:44That was really what I hadn't ever spent time exploring. And I think it just heightened my ear in a way that made me probably throw some of that stuff in. And you graduated with your degree in improvisation. How did it change your improvising? It's funny because the degree is called, I think it's actually called something different now. But when I was there, it was called contemporary improvisation was like the program. but it it's almost more it it never felt focused on improvisation so much as as focused on finding your own lane and kind of finding your own sound and so yes we there was a lot of work that i did in terms of practicing soloing over crazy chord changes um but you know if i threw too much of that into my own music, then it started to not feel like me.

23:42And it felt like I'm just doing this because I want to show you that I can, you know, and that's something that I've worked on getting away from in terms of my songwriting is just because I can play something on the instrument doesn't mean that it serves the song. We'll be right back with more after the break. In today's super competitive business environment, the edge goes to those who push harder, move faster, and level up every tool in their arsenal. T-Mobile knows all about that. They're now the best network, according to the experts at Oocla Speedtest, and they're using that network to launch Supermobile, the first and only business plan to combine intelligent performance, built-in security, and seamless satellite coverage.

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25:11where you can see the sky. Best network based on analysis by Ookla of Speedtest Intelligence Data 1H 2025. The greatest music stories aren't always in the songs themselves. They're in the late night studio sessions, the chance encounters, and the cultural moments that shaped entire movements. For music lovers who find themselves going down rabbit holes about their favorite artists, Claude, an AI thinking partner, helps you explore those deeper questions. Whether you're wondering about the connections between different scenes, trying to understand what drove a particular creative period, or exploring how social movements influenced sound, Claude works through these complex cultural puzzles with you.

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26:29This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp. One of the things I think is universal to nearly everyone is that warm feeling you get when you find someone you feel comfortable sharing parts of your life with that otherwise you might just keep to yourself. Often it's a friend, sometimes it's a loved one, but in those moments you really take a load off. That's one of the things I've enjoyed most about therapy, that there's someone regularly in my life that I'm able to talk to about things I'd probably keep to myself for longer than I really needed to. And they're clinically trained and licensed to help.

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27:30Our listeners get 10 % off their first month at BetterHelp.com slash broken. That's BetterHelp.com slash broken. We're back with more from Sarah Juros. Now, you had put out your first album, was it before you went to college or around the same time? Yep. I signed my first record deal at 16, which seems crazy now in retro. How did that come about? It came about, so, you know, I had really started playing a lot of shows around in Austin and around Hill Country. And when I was 11, my parents were both teachers. So they had the summers off and they could take me to music camps and things. So we started going to this festival in Colorado.

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28:21We would drive up from Texas, a festival called Rocky Grass, and another one called Telluride, Telluride Bluegrass Festival. And I just became very, those festivals were very important to me as well in terms of meeting other people my own age and just realizing that there was more music life outside of my little Texas hill country home. home. And so because of the time that I had spent going to camps there, I wound up getting the, I got my own set at the Telluride Bluegrass Festival in the summer of 2007. So I was 16. And that is where Gary Pachosa heard me for the first time. And he was with, at the time it was Sugar Hill Records.

29:07And he had engineered and produced a lot of my favorite music, you know, Alison Krauss and Nickel Creek. And so I knew who he was and he invited me to come to Nashville and make some demos. And that was how I wound up signing with Sugar Hill at 16 and started working on my first album my senior year of high school. I would just fly back and forth to Nashville in my winter break and spring break. And it came out a few weeks after I graduated high school. Wow. That's really intense. It was, yes. But there must have been people, speaking of choosing Elaine, who said, you should go to New England Conservatory or you should record more albums.

29:52What made you do, well, you could do both. You showed that. But what made you want to go to the conservatory? Well, it was a couple of things. I was musically just very curious. And I had this feeling like there was more to explore before I really committed to being out on the road. and then also a lot of the friends that I had made at music camps in high school were all going to Boston whether it was NEC or Berkeley so this friend group that I sort of had I was I was following that a bit and then also you know I mentioned my parents were teachers so it was really important to them that I go to college and have that experience and I'm so grateful for it if I had gone straight out, been a road dog at 18, I don't know if I'd have burned out.

30:43Or I think it did kind of serve as a little barrier to then being ready to... I say that, and I was touring and making records all through college. So it was very intense, and there was never a moment off. It wasn't a typical undergraduate experience. No, no. But I really missed very, very little school. I think I missed one, the most I ever missed was one week. I went and did this show called the Transatlantic Sessions. I flew to Scotland and taped that. And yeah, so it was hard work, but it really, I think it set me up in a good way to just had those four years in Boston. Well, so you were a prodigy and life can be very hard for prodigies.

31:34There's lots of prodigies who don't get better, don't get better, don't round out their experience and keep doing the thing that made them successful very, very young. It sounds like you consciously tried to change what you were doing. yeah or or just surround I was consciously trying to surround myself with other people that were doing it at a very high level you know that were my age you know because a lot of my musical experience early on was me playing with people that were much older than me so I think it was healthy coming from a small town of 2 ,000 people yes there was a lot of energy focused on on me and And this cool thing that I was, this cool music thing that I was doing.

32:19And it was good for me to get to Boston and be like, oh, I'm not the only one that's good at this. These people that I'm around are incredible. And they're going to lift me up and kind of keep raising the bar. And I just wanted to follow that. You talked about how your earlier experiences were so generous and forgiving. Did you find the competition at music school daunting? or did you not find it a competitive place? I didn't find it a competitive place, but I do think even my experience at NEC was unique because almost all of my friends were at Berkeley. So my social life was kind of, except for a few people, my social life was kind of removed from NEC because I had this whole scene of people that we would have jams like every night in someone's apartment.

33:17And there was a lot of music being made in this. It felt like a continuation of the fun part of it, where music was connected to fun and not this competitive thing. So I think because I had that simultaneously alongside the school conservatory part of it, that kept it not feeling competitive to me. And now you probably get a lot of mail from them asking for donations. Yes. Well, you're a famous alumni now. You and Coretta Scott King. That's right. People forget that, that she was a music, she was a singer. Yes. So you mentioned you studied some harmony as well. your new album is very much more in a kind of

34:14anything I say is going to sound I don't mean any of this to sound pejorative but it's much closer to that kind of three chords and the truth ideal of country music so tell me a bit about how you how you ended up doing this album yeah I think Well, you know, it feels very related to my move to Nashville. I moved, I was, so after Boston, I moved here to New York and lived here for seven years. Had the best time. And when the pandemic came, I, my now husband had moved to Nashville ahead of me. We met here in New York and. He's a musician as well. Yes, he plays bass on the new album. And so, you know, when the pandemic, the first week of the pandemic, he was already in Nashville.

35:12I thought, I'm just going to get out of the city and, you know, ride this out thinking, you know, it's going to be three weeks maybe at the most. And then, you know, fast forward, never left. and that's all very much captured in the song Columbus in 89th on the album kind of realizing in the rear view that that was like turning the page to full-on adulthood and my youth felt very connected to living here in New York and then it was just all of a sudden I was living in Nashville and so I think the beginnings of this record were me wanting to just really feel a part of, kind of explore the parts of the Nashville community that I kind of hadn't.

36:06And, you know, I made my first four records there. So I've spent a ton of time there, but it's different when you actually live in a place, you know? And so I was curious, there was just a handful of writers that I really wanted to get together with. And I think there was also some stagnation that was happening, you know, at the end of, you know, a year and a half into the pandemic of feeling like I'm kind of tired of my own thoughts and I want to get in a room with someone else and just make music and feel that creative excitement with someone else and kind of see where it goes. So I think that was the initial feeling of starting to put some co-writing sessions together with folks around Nashville.

36:47And so I very much, this was different than a lot of my previous records. I wasn't even thinking about the recording part of it. I was just focused on writing and collecting songs and not being in a rush about it at all. and I think you know because all of my other records were made you know fitting them into my school schedule it always felt like I had very little time to sort of assemble the songs and I would just say okay these are the 10 to 12 songs that I have now let's record them and I've heard people say oh I went in with 40 songs and whittled it down to the best ones I was like I want to do that but just felt like I never had time And so this time around, I was like, I'm going to really focus on the songwriting and then figure out how it should be recorded.

37:34And so. You had tried co-writing sessions before. It's a big part of the Nashville music scene. You get two people in a room that don't know each other. I think Natalie Hemby said that she'd tried to write with you once before. Yes. What made this different? Well, you know, so when I signed my first record deal, there was a lot of outside, you know, pressure, maybe isn't the right word, but it kind of was pressure to set up co-writing sessions. You know, I think people see a young artist and they say, all right, we got to get them cranking out music, you know. But and so I that was one one of the sessions that got set up for me was with Natalie Hemby.

38:25And I mean, she was so gracious. And we wound up writing a song together that we've never cut. But I just wasn't ready. I felt very closed off from wanting to do that because I was like, why would I involve someone else when I'm still trying to figure out what I want to say on my own? And when I'm still trying to figure out what is my sound? And I thought that if I did too much of that co-writing thing too soon, that my voice would get sort of lost in the mix and I would sort of lose myself in the process. So fast forward to this record, I feel like I have a much better sense of my musical identity and what I can sort of bring to the table and what I want to say.

39:13And so I felt like, whereas before I felt like there was something to lose, I felt like there's nothing to lose from sitting down and just being creative with someone else and seeing what happens, seeing where it goes. How were you able to resist that pressure on your first few records? So I just always had a strong internal compass. And I think I had enough because I had gotten this instrument, the Octomandelion at 16. I had enough of my own songs that I had written on my own that I had the confidence in those songs that could sort of keep me grounded and say, I'm not ready for that other thing.

40:00I want to keep following this and seeing where it goes. And I think it was, nobody does anything alone. So it was that in combination with a couple of key people who, when I said, I don't want to do that, they listened. And, you know, and there was a lot of trust and, you know, Gary Pichosa being one of them, a few people in those early days of record making who allowed me to, who trusted me and allowed me to follow my own arrow, so to speak. You have very complex lyrics. Where does that come from? What are your influences lyrically? I'm almost wondering if they come from outside music because they seem very novelistic at times initially my lyrics felt more confessional almost more as when people start writing in their teens you're almost writing a song like it's a diary entry and almost like it's a poem in a way Um, and I think, you know, I've always just been, yeah, I have taken a lot of influence lyrically, I think hugely from Paul Simon, um, a lot of Joni Mitchell, uh, and a lot of James McMurtry, who is, you say novelistic.

41:29He's like the first person that comes to mind when I think of a songwriter who writes, you could almost just read the lyrics on their own and it would be rich, a rich experience without the music, you know? And so I'm just, you know, I'm just kind of, I'm so inspired by that. And I try to take little bits of that and see how it sprinkles into my own music. And you have so many beautiful images in your music, in songs like Build Me Up and Orange and Blue, which is a big favorite of mine. You know, really so much in the world album, but Gone Too Soon and Early Morning Light on previous albums. Are you the sort of person who just walks around with a notebook and like writes that down and says, yeah, someday that's going to work into a song?

42:22Yeah. I mean, I actually utilize the Notes app on my phone a lot. I don't always have a physical notebook with me, but very much so. I mean, a song like Build Me Up from Bones is a perfect example of that, where I was living in Boston when I wrote that song. And I remember walking down the sidewalk and seeing the fingernail moon in the sky and having the line, the thought of the line, the moon's a fingernail scratching on the back of the night. And I just wrote that down. And then, you know, went about my day. And then, you know, maybe a few days later, a week later, was going back through and saw that.

42:59And I was like, oh, there's something to that. And then had the...

43:08That lick. And yes, so I think sometimes for me, the lyrics and the music come separately, not always. And that was an interesting thing with the co-writing experience on this new record is that they're often coming at the same time. But I think when I'm writing on my own, it's a lot of collecting just lines or a paragraph or just thoughts and snapshots and then having a recording of just the music part separately as well and kind of seeing what works together after the fact. You've also done some great cover versions. You've done Radiohead. I think you've done U2. You've done Nirvana? I haven't done Nirvana yet, but Crowded House.

44:00I mean, gosh, I'm doing a massive attack cover on my current tour. Does it help your own songwriting doing those? Does it help your touring? What does that bring to the table? Very much so. I think, well, that's actually, my relationship to cover songs feels connected to this record, to the new record in a way, in the sense of, you know, I've always loved learning songs that I love and that I want to play and that are fun to play. And I think with this record, I had this feeling of I want to try to write songs that are fun to play and that are satisfying to play and that maybe are simpler in nature and in melodic nature and chordal nature.

44:49But, you know, it also does feel connected to the pandemic of not being able to perform for so long, of imagining being on stage and what's going to be just so satisfying and fun to play live. And that's how a song like Runaway Train came about. You know, just instead of having to turn to a cover to have that energy or that spark in the set, what if I just tried to write it myself? They feel big. Yeah. They feel like big songs. Yeah. I mean, and that's what I wanted. That's what I was going for. But to the cover question, I think that has, you know, up until this record, I've turned to covers in my live show to kind of create some of those bigger moments.

45:37Because I think my own songs have felt more intimate and more moody, if you will, or melancholy. And I love that. And I never want to lose that part of my songwriting heart. But there's also the element of examining a lot of the music that I love to listen to and kind of how to strike that balance between a song that is very musically satisfying, but maybe that somebody can just grab onto and understand in a more instantaneous way, if that makes sense. After this quick break, we'll be back with the rest of Bruce Hedlum's conversation with Sarah Jarosz. In today's super competitive business environment, the edge goes to those who push harder, move faster, and level up every tool in their arsenal.

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48:41Try Claude for free at claude.ai slash broken record and see why the world's best problem solvers choose Claude as their thinking partner. Lexus is a company that believes in the importance of setting a standard, which I can appreciate as someone who holds themselves to lofty if not ridiculous standards, especially with the car I drive. The standard Lexus has set for themselves is to experience amazing. Lexus measures success by the feeling and emotions evoked in a driver, like exhilaration and joy. Amazing can only be achieved by knowing people on a deeper level. The standard of amazing results in a feeling in drivers that their car was built in anticipation of them.

49:19Machines that make you feel more human. because a car that doesn't make you feel something is a car that stops short of amazing. Experience amazing at your Lexus dealer. We're back with the rest of Sarah Jarosz. You wrote Runaway Train with John Randall. Tell me about writing that song. Yeah, so that was the first song that he and I wrote together. I went over, he and I have known each other for a long time just kind of through making my early records in Nashville. And he's just always someone that I felt like I didn't know well, but whenever I saw him, I felt very at ease. And I think because of our Texas roots and connection, he almost, when I feel, when I'm with him, it feels like I'm with my uncle or like, you know, that I'm with family.

50:11And so I think because I felt comfortable in that way, I always had this feeling like I would love to write with him. And thankfully, he was willing and open. And so I went over. He has a little studio at his house. And he just had the first little...

50:43Just that little riff. And it got me so excited because I went into that writing session feeling, to what we were discussing before, feeling like, I want to try to write a song that will just be satisfying and fun to play. and almost purposefully not take a lot of musical focus in terms of playing a difficult line or a difficult part so that I can be more present in the moment with the song and how it connects to an audience. And so he played that, and I was like, this is it. This is the magic. This is the spark. And it just kind of rolled from there. And that was very much a song where it felt like the lyrics and the music was sort of coming at once.

51:32And that we were just going for, it felt just like a spark and a magic and a joy to it that I think comes through in the song. It's interesting you say that because particularly with your more bluegrass inflected music, often that can seem very maybe churchy. People handing solos back and forth, Not that the audience isn't excited, but it doesn't bring them in in the same way as something like this, which is like your band, four people facing the audience, just kind of letting it rip. Yeah, 100%. I mean, I think, and that's what I was really sort of almost studying in a way. And that I've always been aware of, but I think I was paying attention to that musician audience connection in a way that I hadn't really spent time thinking about before where, I don't know, John Prine keeps coming to mind where, you know, There's just so much space and simplicity in the song that invites the audience in, and they feel like they're a part of it.

52:53And it's not heady or above. It's not trying to go over anyone's heads or with being impressed by something. It's trying to create the space so that the artist and the audience can have the moment together because it takes both to create that. And so I think I was just trying to figure out how can I feel like this is my own voice, but I'm trying something new and creating this space for that. And how does it feel when you play it live? It feels amazing. I think that goal was accomplished. It's I've been having more fun playing this playing live on this tour than ever before. I really just feel like these songs ground me in a way on stage that I I'm just paying more attention to the audience than ever before.

53:52I think before, when I was younger, I was so concerned with everything being perfect and not messing up and just kind of looking inward the whole time, closing my eyes, not looking out at people. and there's just something about these songs that really allows me to just look out and and and and have that be have the song be the bridge to to each other and um and then the other awesome thing that I wasn't sure of going in to these live shows on this tour was how would my older songs fit alongside these new songs um and that's that's been such a joyful realization is that it feels totally seamless and they all feel like me and they all feel like they belong alongside each other.

54:51Interesting. This is a total aside, but of all the people I've seen, I was never a big Springsteen fan. I don't know if you've ever seen him live. I have never seen him live. I would love to. I mean, I've seen lots of great groups. I've never seen anybody establish that audience connection better than him it's unbelievable there's no kind of joking well there are joking asides with this band but there's so much energy focused out it's kind of overwhelming and i saw him years ago with like sting and peter gabriel and tracy shapp and all these great people but then he comes out and it's just a different i'd never seen anything like it.

55:31You can understand why people get sort of addicted to it. And he just has, I don't know. I mean, people love the songs. There's lots to love about him, but it is kind of that thing you're describing. It's overwhelming with him. If you ever get a chance to see him, you should. Oh, for sure. I'm going to try to figure out a way. Just to get that kind of whatever it is, whatever you're talking about. It's kind of amazing. I also have a theory that it's all his pre-choruses. If you listen to his songs. Yeah. Like particularly on Darkness on the Edge of Town. Yes. It's more the pre-choruses are unbelievable.

56:12And the time you get to the chorus, he could be giving you his laundry list. Right. It's sort of like I've never noticed that before with other artists. But I'm like, oh, my God. It's like the way he winds people up before the setup. His setups are like unbelievable. Anyway, that's completely beside the point. No, I love that. Can I ask you, I think you wrote this one with John Randall as well, which is a lovely song, Don't Break Down On Me. Tell me about that. Oh, I love that you asked. Nobody's asked about this song yet, and it almost feels like the deep cut of the album. Oh, I love that. It's very direct, like Runaway Train, that you know what the central image is, but it's really complicated.

57:00So tell me about it. I'm hoping there's a bad car experience. There's not. It really feels more like we were bringing in our sort of Texas hill country imagery to it. I mean, Ranch Road. So the first line, what am I supposed to do on Ranch Road 12 at half past two? Ranch Road 12 is the road that runs through Wimberley, Texas, where I grew up. And John knew the road, you know. And then actually also in Runaway Train, I say, no lazy river. What's the lyric? No lazy river, no Sunday drive, no waiting in a Blanco stream. The Blanco River is the river that runs through Wimberley. So we kind of injected that imagery in there.

57:46This one just felt, it was almost like the opposite, whereas Runaway Train is this joyful, like the beginning of a relation kind of the chaotic fun beginning of a relationship or an experience with with another person this is the flips the 180 of you've been with someone and it's this this feeling of do not give up like don't give up on me we've been we've been through so much don't give up now and I think yeah there there was just something about thinking about the hill country at night that that landscape that that felt like that feeling um or that evoked that feeling and i couldn't have written it with anybody who didn't understand the landscape of of the hill country and i just feel like that's injected in this song and and then i i have to say at the end when it kind of it lifts out of the chorus and i'm i'm really belting don't break down on me high at the end I have to give Daniel Tashin credit for that arrangement idea because he when we were in the studio cutting the song he was like I just feel like you need to you want to cry out at this point you know and and I think John when John and I wrote it we had a more kind of traditional ending where we just tagged it and it kind of ended softly and And Daniel was like, no, it's got to explode out of this because these feelings are so raw and real.

59:26We need to hear that in your voice. Amazing. We haven't talked about Daniel Tashin, who we've had on the show when he did an album with Burt Bacharach. Yes. We've talked to all your producers. Tell me about meeting with him and what writing was like with him. It was amazing. I think when I first, so Daniel was the very, he was number one on my list of writers that I wanted to write with. Why was that? I was just so curious about the process. And I had heard, he's just, he's almost like Nashville. He's like a Nashville institution. He's just been, he grew up there. His parents are musicians, you know.

1:00:12And so many of the friends that I did have in Nashville, his name just would always come up. I loved his work with Casey Musgraves. I loved a lot of, I loved the Silver Seas records that I heard. I was just very curious about what it would be like to sit down with him. And he wound up being the first person. And I kind of had basically what happened is I set aside this week in March of 2022, where I said, I'm going to set up five co-writes Monday through Friday. Every single day, I'll get together with a different person and just see how it goes. And he was the first one. And it was just, initially it was funny because I felt like he was like the John Leventhal of the South, where his setup was very similar to John's, like in his home studio, where everything was just kind of plugged in and ready to go so that you could just, as you were writing, you were also simultaneously demoing and both were happening at the same time.

1:01:16And I loved that process with John when we made our record together. So that was exciting to me because I felt like, okay, I know this way of doing it now, but it's with a different person and kind of some new energy. And so the first song that we wrote was Take the High Road. And I left the right that day with a demo that we had kind of made over the course of the right. And I remember playing it in my car on the way home. And that was the moment. That was the aha moment of the song showing me what the album wanted to be. and kind of laying the groundwork for what I knew I wanted to try to do.

1:02:01And that song really does feel like almost the thesis statement for the album. You know, I'm tired of being quiet, time to face up to the fear. Feels like this, I'm going to jump into the pool of making this bigger record. And Daniel paved the way for that for me in many ways. And yeah, so because that experience went so well, he and I wound up writing a ton over the course of that year. And he was so generous. I wound up, while all the other co-writes happened in Nashville, he was like, my family and I are going on vacation to Mont Eagle in Tennessee, which is like an hour and a half outside of Mont.

1:02:42He was like, I always try to get people to come write with me there. No one will ever come. He was like, do you want to come up for a day or two? and I was like sure you know why not see what happens and that's when we wrote jealous moon and a few months later he was like we're going to the gulf coast of Alabama to have a family vacation why don't you come down and you know so it's kind of funny that I was because I barely knew him and and his family his wife and his three daughters and they were just so open and warm and welcoming and I kind of tagged along and and then and then on that last trip we wrote Columbus in 89th and Days Can Turn Around and another song that actually is I hopefully going to come out this year as a bonus track but yeah so it was just he he has a way of creating this flow um it just felt like he opens a portal or something to to having stuff that you didn't even know you needed to write about, you're suddenly writing about it.

1:03:43I wanted to ask you about Days Will Turn Around. Tell me about how that came about. Their setup there was a condo kind of overlooking the Gulf Coast, which I've never spent time on the Gulf Coast of Alabama. I grew up going to the Gulf Coast of Texas every summer with my family. And that's what inspired my album Blue Heron Suite. So there was something kind of grounding about looking out and seeing the Gulf. And we felt like we wanted to write something that could lift people up, a hopeful number. I think we're just aware of just what a slog life can feel like just in general and wanting to kind of create this hopeful feeling within a song and using a mother's wisdom as the way into that.

1:04:35So the first verse being, you know, my mama always said, water your garden and make your bed. These simple little images that anybody could relate to and sort of grab onto and connect to their own lives. And that one was actually really special in having his family around because they were so responsive to it. As we were writing it and kind of singing it in the living room, his wife was like, what is that one? And, you know, I remember her kind of honing in and it was nice to have another ear around to, as a, you know, just to kind of bounce ideas off of. And, yeah. When I first heard it, my wife was away this week.

1:05:20And I immediately sent that one to her. Because she just finished her second novel and wondering what to do next, feeling a little lost. And I thought, well, so it really works. Oh, thank you. One more I want to ask you about, which is a lovely song, Good at What I Do. Well, this is coming back to Natalie Hemby. It was a very full circle experience writing this song with her because we had that experience of writing together when I was 18. And it was, you know, there's really nothing, there was nothing bad about that experience. I just wasn't, my heart wasn't in it. I wanted to find my own thing before doing that.

1:06:03So there was a lot of... She's incredible in terms of the way she opens up the space and makes you feel supported as her fellow songwriter. And I have to say this song, whereas every other song on the album really started with either an idea that I came in with, a start that I came in with, or was written fully in the moment together with the other person. Good at what I do, she very much came in with that idea. She had the first verse and it was almost like she had been saving it for me. Um, and it just, it really was one of those magical days where she sang that first verse to me and it resonated so much and it felt, it felt so right for this record because I, I felt like I was really trying something different with this album.

1:07:05And, and with that comes some self doubt and wondering if you're doing the right thing, wondering if just that very human emotion of, am I good at what I do? Am I on the right track? And does my partner feel loved by me? Am I doing everything right? And she just has such a way of saying things so simply and straight to the point. And I think she kind of unlocked that for me to, And then, you know, we wrote the chorus, we wrote the rest of the verses together. And it kind of took on this almost, I feel like, Lucinda Williams-y, Tom Petty vibe in the studio that felt right for the song in terms of just like the rawness behind the meaning and the message.

1:08:00Okay, I'll put you on the spot. Who is the writer you want to co-write with now? No disrespect to any of the people you wrote with. Is there a wish list? Well, I actually do honestly want to write with all the people that I wrote on this album again.

1:08:22I mean, the first person that comes to mind, or just even, I don't know if it's writing or just having a musical moment with, is Bonnie Raitt. Yeah. I just, she is someone that I've always looked to as her, the connection between her voice and her instrument and the way that she puts those out into the world has always just seemed like magic to me. and I've just very, I've always looked up to her and I've gotten to meet her and she's so lovely. So I would, but to actually share a musical moment with her, I think would be, she's the first person that comes to mind. And she just won a Grammy for songwriting.

1:09:10I know, I know, it was absolutely incredible. I know, well, and you've got, how many Grammys do you have? Four. That's a lot of Grammys. Okay, it's Beyonce, then you. Would you play us something? Anything you like? Absolutely, absolutely. Maybe I'll play, since we've talked so much about the octave mandolin, I feel like I want to play something on this. It's cool to be able to have the opportunity to try to play these alone because I haven't really done much of that. These songs were written with others, and so they've always sort of lived in this place where there's been multiple instruments happening.

1:09:54And even the arrangements for the record, it's very band-oriented. So unlike a lot of my songs, which just start with me and always sort of had their moment living in the world as just me and the instrument, these feel a little different from that. This is your unplugged session. Yeah, yeah. But this one, like I said, I'll play the way it is now because it feels like it feels connected to build me up from bones in this way that I love. And I wrote this with Sarah Buxton.

1:10:30And it makes me, I remember when we recorded it, this one and Columbus in 89th, it was the first time that I had a visceral, emotional reaction to my own song, where I was actually kind of tearing up in the vocal booth as it was going down. and I think it was just because these lyrics felt so connected to something I feel all the time which is the you know life is just can be so overwhelming and it can be very hard to remember to just be present in the moment and even the pressures of social media and feeling like you have to just create, create, create content all the time. I talk about this with a lot of my musical friends.

1:11:22It's, you know, it's top of mind for us, you know, wanting to not lose sight of what's important and not lose sight of the music and staying on the path and not getting distracted from that. And so, yeah, this song just really kind of encapsulates.

1:11:49guitar solo

1:12:15In my stories, heart so heavy I forget to breathe Determining the future Like anyone who knows what's around the bend I can stand still, I can change like the wind This is the way it is now Even with the darkness Steppin' at my heels The goodness is still Dancing me around This is the way it ends Now It's a hard time But it's our time And someday we'll be Looking back Missing the way it is now guitar solo

1:13:44Loving me through phases Even the ones I want to leave behind Long walks and sunshine To warm up my blood when I'm down and out Watching thoughts like clouds in my mind This is the way it is now Even with the darkness Stepping at my heels The goodness is still dancing me around This is the way it is now It's a hard time But it's our time And someday we'll be looking back Missing the way it is now Missing the way it is now

1:14:58Long walks, sunshine Clouds in my mind

1:15:12Clouds in my mind

1:16:08We'll see you next time. podcast subscriptions. And if you like this show, please remember to share, rate, and review us on your podcast app. Our theme music's by Kenny Beats. I'm Justin Richmond.

1:16:26The more you learn about your favorite artists, the more you want to know. Claude helps you keep digging, finding new threads and rabbit holes to explore. Whether it's discovering deeper meaning behind a detail in an interview or figuring out the influence behind an artist's particular era. Claude thinks with you to find the next clue. If you can't get enough of the stories behind your favorite music and artists, Claude will help you discover new layers you didn't know existed. Try Claude for free at claude.ai slash brokenrecord. This is an ad by BetterHelp. We've all had that epic rideshare experience.

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From the publisher

Sarah Jarosz is a singer/songwriter who also happens to be a killer banjo, guitar, and mandolin player. The Wimberly, Texas-native's latest album, Polaroid Lovers, was produced by former Broken Record guest Daniel Tashian. It’s her seventh album and so far the best at highlighting the power of Sarah’s songwriting over her virtuosity.

In this episode you’ll hear Sarah Jarosz tell Bruce Headlam about the Friday night bluegrass jams that shaped her playing, and why she’s turned down co-writing songs with artists she respects. You'll also hear her dabble with some of her instruments and maybe even perform a song or two.

You can hear a playlist of some of our favorite Sarah Jarosz songs HERE.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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