Sarah Jarosz Brings ‘10 Years of Undercurrent’ Tour to Santa Barbara’s Lobero Theatre

A decade after her career-making Grammy-winning album Undercurrent — with a successful touring career as both a solo artist and as part of the multi-instrumentalist singer-songwriters trio I’m with Her, alongside Aoife O’Donovan and Sara Watkins — Sarah Jarosz spoke with me about where she’s been, reflect on where she’s going, and what we can expect from her October 21 show at the Lobero Theatre, which is part of her 10 Years of Undercurrent Tour.

The idea of performing a whole album is different now, since that’s not the way we mostly listen to music anymore. Your first three shows were with Jedd Hughes and Jeff Picker, your husband. 

And that was the original trio that toured Undercurrent 10 years ago. So, we played the album from start to finish in order for the first shows, and then we played some more songs after that. But the show that we’ll be doing in Santa Barbara is going to be a duo with Jeff on bass, and so I’m really excited. It’s kind of a rare thing that Jeff and I do duo shows, so it’ll be fun for the audience to get to see. And we will definitely play the entire album. I have yet to decide if in the duo format we’ll play it in order or not.

I think I’m leaning toward doing it in order for that reason, because it’s sad, but it sort of feels like a lost art in a way. And I still love listening to albums in order, I still like listening that way.

I’m assuming you’ve probably been playing some of that music over the years, but certainly not all of it at the same time.

Yeah, it was so special. Even though I have albums that are older than this one. This is the first anniversary tour that I’ve ever done, and it’s honestly just for fun. I just kind of wrapped up the I’m with Her touring for the year, which has been my main focus for the last year and a half or so, and I realized earlier this year that June was going to be the 10-year anniversary of this record. … It’s kind of a good excuse to do something different and not just do a normal show, but kind of have the focus be on this album. 

It was my fourth album, and it was the first album that I did when I wasn’t also simultaneously in school. So, it kind of felt like a real coming-of-age album for me in a way. I was 25 when it came out, and so it’s cool to now be 35, and some of the meanings have changed a bit for me, and I think there’s also a lightness about the whole thing that I have compared to when I was 25. But really, like I said, the intention behind it is just to be able to put on a bit of a different show for folks, and really just I thought it would be fun. 

When you’re playing the songs that you wrote when you were a decade younger or more than that, and you’re reflecting on them, are there ever any times where it’s like you’re just back in that time when you’re singing

Definitely, you know, especially these last few shows playing with Jedd, and me and Jeff were doing a lot of reminiscing about that first tour. Jedd and I wrote a handful of the songs together, and there’s a few. “Lost Dog“ is one of my most requested songs in general, but definitely from this record. And I can visualize so clearly being in Gary Paczosa’s living room writing that song. We wrote it with our friend Sarah Buxton. So, singing that, it just puts me back instantly.

I wrote one of the other songs, “Take Me Back,” with my friend Joey Ryan from the Milk Carton Kids, and just yeah, the memories of writing that song, and it’s cool. Songs are like time machines, and it really is cool to kind of be transported, but then also sing them with 10 more years of life under my belt, and it’s also personal from a personal, you know, perspective. Jeff, my now husband, who’s going to be playing with me at the show in Santa Barbara, we had literally just started dating when this record came out, so it’s been fun to think back on that time and now here, all these years later, we’re married and playing these duo shows, so that’s kind of fun.

For sure. So, speaking of collaboration, obviously you’ve performed and written with a lot of different people, but what was Ringo Starr like? That seems pretty amazing.

I mean, it’s still very surreal that I got to play with him. It’s funny getting to be on his record was actually a bit of a surprise because my involvement in that initially was through T Bone Burnett and Daniel Tashian. It was initially going to be for a different project, and then it wound up making it onto Ringo’s record. And so, I was almost just as surprised as anyone when I found out that it made it onto the record. What is there to say except it’s completely surreal? 

And earlier this summer, I got to play at Ringo’s birthday party in Beverly Hills, which he does like right on Santa Monica Boulevard. 

Oh, nice.

A very public location, and it was this incredible event that T Bone put together and me and Daniel Tashian and Molly Tuttle and Jeff Picker played bass, and it was amazing. And Ringo was there, and he got up on stage. We played “Birthday” and I mean, never in my wildest dreams would I have ever imagined that would happen. So, I definitely have T Bone to thank for asking me to be involved.

That’s totally cool, that sounds amazing and even though you’re still young, you’ve been a musician for such a long time. So, you know that it must be really cool.

Yeah, I mean it’s crazy being around him because it’s just incredible to me how someone my age, someone 10 years younger than me, someone 40 years older than me. Yeah, everyone is just as reverential to Ringo as the next person. He’s this uniting kind of figure. … It was incredibly special, and I’m still pinching myself that it was real.

Your music is categorized in different ways by different people, but you seem to perform and sometimes cross paths with like a super wide variety of people. I feel like there’s sort of jazz singers or folk singers that kind of all know each other that all do the same circuit, but you seem to be in a few different circuits. Would you say that’s right?

Yeah, yeah, definitely. Well, I’m glad to hear you say that. When it comes to the music that I listen to, I don’t have one genre. I love so many different types of music, and I always have. And I think you know when it comes to my records, I’ve also just tried to not let a genre guide the way. Let the songs guide the way. So, I have very kind of folky leaning things, and then I have my last solo album, Polaroid Lovers, was much more produced and almost like rock moments at times. So yeah, just if it’s a good song, then I don’t care about what genre it falls into.

When did you start writing songs?

Pretty early on. I was probably like 12 or 13 when I tried to write my first song. My mom had always written songs as a hobby, so I felt like I would see her typewritten lyrics around the house, and I was like, “Oh, this is normal. This is just something people do, and I guess I’ll try.” So, she was kind of my earliest songwriting influence, and yeah, so early teens, and then I felt like I really started writing more around like 15 or 16 when I was like, okay, I love songwriting.

And when you look back on those songs, can you tap into that girl? 

Yeah. It’s been an interesting thing, even the earliest songs for sure, and even these songs from Undercurrent that are 10 years old or I guess I wrote some of them a little before that…. I think it’s important, something about this process of working up these songs from this album that’s been cool. It’s kind of acknowledging the different versions of ourselves that lead us to where we are now. 

I think when people look back on younger versions of themselves, maybe they have regrets, or they have embarrassment, or any number of feelings that are just natural human feelings. And I think that’s normal, but I think it’s also kind of beautiful. It’s like those things, you wouldn’t be where you are today without that stuff. There’ve been phases where I’ve been really cringing or embarrassed about something that I put out when I was younger or wrote when I was younger. And I think I’ve tried to let that go because ultimately, I’m proud of that person. I’m proud of that girl because she was fearless enough to do it in the first place, and so I think you know. Fast-forward, like I try to take some of that fruitlessness, you know, with me now today.

I think that’s great, and it’s definitely the longer journey you have, the more perspective you have about those different times and ages and all of that. How different does it feel now, having done several tours with I’m with Her?

It feels great. It’s really nice with Aoife and Sara. Now that we have two albums out, we’ve kind of fallen into this cycle, I guess you could call it, where we put out a record and tour for it for a year or two, and then turn our attention back to our solo stuff. And I just think it’s really healthy, you know. I think a lot of bands fail because it’s their only musical outlet. All the pressure is on the band, and so it’s really refreshing to be in a band where we all three have other musical outlets, and so it just feels like a really healthy kind of natural cycle to just be able to do that. … I’m now really excited to do these shows and come turn my attention back to my own thing. And then I know after I do that for a while, it’ll be really nice to meet back up with Aoife and Sara and get to do that for a while. And so, it all really feeds into each other in a really beautiful way that I’m grateful for.

That makes sense. And then being married to Jeff, a fellow musician, who’s the deejay in your house?

Very much both of us, I would say. Similarly, even with playing with Jeff, it’s a similar thing where I think it works and it’s fun because it’s not the only thing that we do, especially because we’re married. We need to have our other musical outlets. That’s not just the other person, and so it is because we don’t get to do these duo shows all the time, it’s incredibly fun when we get to do it. 

I feel like we’re both playing each other music around the house or in the car, and you know introducing each other to new stuff all the time.

I hear sometimes from prose writers that they don’t want to read anything when they’re deep into their novel. Do you ever not want to listen to music when you’re writing music, or do you always want to listen to music?

I always need to listen to music. I think that’s one of the main ways that I derive inspiration. I definitely have songwriter friends who fall into that category that you mentioned, where they’re like, “No, I’m really particular about what I listen to, and I don’t want to have my ears be influenced by the wrong thing.” But yeah, I’ve never been that way. It’s really kind of the opposite. I think that I’ll go through phases sometimes where I’m not listening to as much music, and I find that I’m just not writing, and it’s sort of like a dry spell, and then I just I get so much inspiration from what other folks are doing, and it makes me want to do it.

So, what are you listening to these days?

I’ve been listening to the new Phoebe Bridgers’s album a lot.  I’m such a fan of hers, and it’s such a dense album that it’s been kind of fun, like really needing to spend time with it, to get into it, and I feel like this last weekend I kind of crossed into a new place with it. Really great songwriting. On the drive home from our Owensboro show the other night. Jeff and I listened to that Warren Zevon record with “Lawyers, Guns and Money.” … God, I mean, I think that might be like one of my top five albums of all time. I always come back to it like every few years, and I think that’s one of the best sounding albums as well.

So when you guys are here in town, do you get to spend any time in Santa Barbara?

We travel on the day before, thankfully. We have some family in the L.A. area, so we’ll get to see them the night before the show. And I mean the Lobero, I’m not just saying this because I’m talking to you. It’s truly one of my favorite places to play in the whole country. I love that venue so much, and so I’m always thrilled when I get to come back. It’s the best.

Sarah Jarosz performs at the Lobero Theatre (33 E. Canon Perdido St.) on Wednesday, October 21, at 7:30 p.m. See lobero.org/events/sarah-jarosz-4/.