RockOm

Today we bring you three new feature interviews with celebrated artists whose music is very distinct, but who are nonetheless connected by a burning desire to share their joy through music.

"I was given the gift of devotional song from birth, raised with the music of the temple, taught to sing and play beautiful instruments and dance... for love and for God," says Gaura Vani, the heralded musician and leader of As Kindred Spirits (which Jai Uttal calls, "Simply the most wonderful kirtan band in the Western world"). See RockOm's interview with Gaura, An Instrument of God's Peace.

The New York Times says, "Liking Brooklyn Qawwali Party doesn't depend on if you know what Qawwali is. Nor does it depend on how you feel about Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, its most revered practitioner. This is an 11-piece band... that piles texture into Mr. Khan's melodies, ultimately transforming them; it's joyous music, and this band adds all the extra fun and funk it knows." Get ready to rocket into musical orbit as we get, High on Sufi Jazz Grooves.

You could say that Sara Watkins' solo debut has been a lifetime in the making. The 27-year-old singer-songwriter, fiddle player and one-third of the Grammy Award winning group Nickel Creek sets out on her own and as you'll discover in her interview with RockOm. Watkins can't quite explain music's ability to bring us all together, she only knows that it does and that music is unavoidable. For Watkins, "Music is everywhere."

By Tom Crenshaw, tom@rockom.net

You could say that Sara Watkins’ solo debut has been a lifetime in the making. The 27-year-old singer-songwriter and fiddle player spent nearly two decades—all of her teenage and young adult life—as one-third of Nickel Creek, the Grammy Award–winning acoustic trio that used contemporary bluegrass as a starting point for its no-genre-barred sound. Along the way, she’s hinted at her desire to do a project of her own and even organized some exploratory sessions in Los Angeles about six years ago.

Now, with Nickel Creek on indefinite hiatus, she has released her self-titled solo disc, recorded in Los Angeles and Nashville and produced by former Led Zeppelin bassist John Paul Jones. It features an impressively wide range of backing players and old friends, including itinerant alt-country duo Gillian Welch and Dave Rawling, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers' keyboardist Benmont Tench, Elvis Costello drummer Pete Thomas, as well as fellow travelers from the bluegrass world like Tim O’Brien, Chris Eldridge, Ronnie McCoury and Rayna Gellert and her Nickel Creek bandmates. RockOm recently spoke with Sara Watkins about her debut CD, the diversity of the audience at her concerts, and the power of music to bring people together.

RockOm: The new self-titled album is out and doing well for you, and you’re in the middle of touring. How’s the reception been to the new CD and is it strange to look around and not see your brother Sean or Chris Thile (of Nickel Creek) beside you?

Sara Watkins: Actually I’m used to not seeing Chris because there’s been different outlets beside the band for quite a while. But Sean has been playing guitar with me on the road for this first leg because I don’t have a set band yet. Aside from solo shows and occasionally having my friends play with me, I haven’t quite gotten used to that yet. So that’s something I’m going to be exploring in the next couple of months or so- having a new guitar player, which for me is going to be a really big deal because so much of the record is based on Sean’s guitar playing. I’m interested and excited to see how that’s going to go.

I’ve been trying to find the right person that can fill his shoes, but you know I’m learning more and more that what I’m going to be looking for in a band is not people who can replicate as much as people who have something of their own to bring and communicate what the record communicates accurately. I’m talking to a bunch of people now. There’s a lot of great young players out there.

RockOm: There’s such diversity in your songwriting on this CD, not to mention the songwriters you choose to cover ranging from Tom Waits to Jimmy Rogers. The album comes together nicely as a whole. How did you choose the songs to go on the CD?

Sara Watkins: I have been doing a bunch of these songs over the years, largely in the Watkins Family Hour which is a show that my brother and I have been doing for about seven years now in LA. For a while it was just the outlet outside Nickel Creek and when Nickel Creek stopped touring or we were off the road we would have this other band and this other format and venue. It was really nice. A lot of the songs I chose to cover on the record is material I have been experimenting with and that has been growing on me for the last little while now. Some of the songs I’ve sung for quite a while now and some are more recent, but all of them I’ve had the chance to perform and become comfortable with before going into the studio.

RockOm: Let me ask you about your huge success at such a young age. Two Grammy Awards and numerous nominations, Country Music Association Awards, Horizon Awards - does age fall away when you’re collaborating or performing with your peers?

Sara Watkins: When it comes to songwriting, I’ve not collaborated much with others. When it comes to playing, I think age does fall away. What doesn’t fall away is people’s ability. At bluegrass festivals kids are really welcomed and brought into the fold.

RockOm: Let me ask you about music and spirituality. Ricky Skaggs said in an interview with RockOm last year that there’s such incredible power contained in a song. Can you explain how music has the power to bring people of different cultures, ages and even creeds together?

Sara Watkins: I don’t know that I can explain that. I know that it does. Many people have explained it better than I ever could. Growing up in Nickel Creek and so far in my solo shows there has been a fairly diverse audience. It’s really fun to see younger people and kids and then older couples and families. It’s nice to see the diversity. That’s one of the wonderful things about music. It’s everywhere; it’s unavoidable. You can’t go anywhere without hearing music. It’s interesting to me to think of people who aren’t players. They experience music exclusively as listeners. What they experience is interesting to me. I think that’s a total different love and response.

RockOm: Let me ask you about this song you arrange with Chris Thile on the CD called “Give Me Jesus”. Such a pretty song - the harmonies are incredible.

Sara Watkins: I love that song. It was really fun to do the hymn. I learned it from a friend of mine, Fernando Ortega . I was doing some researching of the verses on the internet. It’s an old spiritual, an old African-American spiritual. There are tons of verses that I found and I chose these four verses. I was really glad to have Chris around. He actually arranged that about five years ago when I was doing a demo of the song.

RockOm: Would this project have come together if not for John Paul Jones (of Led Zeppelin) helping with the production of it?

Sara Watkins: I would have done the record - it just wouldn't have been nearly as good. I can say that because I’m actually proud of the record. I think it’s the best possible record I could make at the time. I feel so fortunate to have had him work on it with me.

www.sarawatkins.com