I'm With Her — I-89

A couple of years ago, I discovered Aoife O’Donovan, a bluegrass/folk singer by way of her performance of “Morning Bugle” on A Prairie Home Companion. I was smitten, because her sound lined up nicely with the likes of the singers that I’d grown up listening to, like Nanci Griffith, Gordon Lightfoot, and Alison Krauss and Union Station. I’ve since picked up and devoured her albums, 2013’s Fossils and 2016’s In the Magic Hour, both of which are fantastic.

Recently, I happened to find that she’s been performing in a sort of folk supergroup — I’m With Her, alongside Sara Watkins (of Nickel Creek fame) and Sarah Jarosz. While doing a bit of reading on the group, it turns out that they ended up writing most of the album here in Vermont — not far from where I grew up. One of the songs, I-89, is named for the highway that runs West-to-East across the state. It’s a beautiful song, and the entire album is well worth picking up.