I’m With Her is a folk-rock supergroup. Members Sara Watkins, Sarah Jarosz, and Aoife O’Donovan are all well-known and highly respected in their musical fields. Individually and collectively, they’ve won Grammy Awards, including a Best American Roots Song Grammy for I’m With Her’s 2019 single “Call My Name,” as well as a slew of other honors and prizes. They’ll appear at the Englert Theatre in Iowa City on June 15 as part of their 2025 tour.
Watkins may be the best-known of the three. She began her career when she was just eight years old as one-third of progressive acoustic trio Nickel Creek, along with her brother Sean Watkins and fellow prodigy mandolinist Chris Thile. Since then, she has recorded and played with a host of acts, from Led Zeppelin’s John Paul Jones to indie rock’s the Decemberists, as well as releasing four solo albums.
Jarosz and O’Donovan were also acclaimed acoustic music stars when they were young. Jarosz and Watkins met at a bluegrass festival when Jarosz was just nine years old. O’Donovan was 15 when she was introduced to Jarosz. The three women have known each other for many years.
“We were all fans of each other’s music before we played jointly,” Watkins said over the telephone from her Los Angeles home. She compared their initial concert together—at the 2014 Telluride Bluegrass Festival—to being on a first date. “We had a good time and felt that we should do this again. There was something about it that felt nourishing,” she said, explaining that it was not just good chemistry, but more of a deeper and vital level of connectivity.
The three would meet and play together occasionally, but I’m With Her did not release their first album, See You Around, until three weeks after they had written it ,back in February 2018. The band just released their sophomore album, Wild and Blue and Clear in May 2025. The title song pays tribute to Nanci Griffith and John Prine, who both died in 2014, and who inspired these women to become artists.
“It may seem to an outsider that we took seven years to make our second album, but the truth is that we never stopped since we made the first one,” Watkins said. She explained that they always knew they would get back together when schedules allowed and were constantly thinking of what they would do next. In the meantime, they occasionally performed together and kept in close touch.
One of the hallmarks of I’m With Her’s music is how collective the songs feel. The 11 tunes on the new album are all credited to “Sarah Jarosz–Aoife O’Donovan–Sara Watkins.” Watkins explained, “We’d get together to write the songs. We’d start with little seeds—perhaps a line, a topic, a chord progression, a chorus—that rattled inside one of us.” The process was collaborative. A bandmate would expand on the thread to see where it led, sometimes to a song and other times not.
This was true of the lyrics as well as the instrumentation. Watkins said that listeners sometimes think that the person singing lead vocals on a song must have been the person who wrote the words, but that isn’t always the case. The three deliberately work together to give each other space to shine, and they’re all big fans of each other’s work.
“Of course we are not always in agreement, or what’s the point of collaboration?” Watkins said. She said what makes the band special is their willingness to find what they agree on and move forward to see what they can discover.
“We all benefit, because we all come from a cooperative musical culture in bluegrass and acoustic music where we played with family and friends,” she said. “The point is to find what one can contribute, whether it is jumping on the harmony or figuring out where a solo fits or even ending the song on the same note.” That process is what makes music special and can serve as a metaphor for how one should live with others.
That is why the band’s name, I’m With Her, seems so appropriate. Watkins said the name originated when they booked a tour without having a group moniker. They needed to have a name to fill out the paperwork. She said that although the trio felt a camaraderie with each other, they each felt like the other two were better. “Do you know that Paul Simon song ‘Wristband?’ ” she asked. “I had a dream like that, where I was at a show and they let Sarah and Aoife in to play, but not me because I did not have a wristband. So I told security that I’m with her (meaning either of the two) so I could get in.” Watkins said she told the others that story and the name stuck.
“Collaboration is beautiful,” Watkins said, “whether in work or in life.” She suggested that this is the unwritten theme of the band’s existence and their music. “We bring out the best in each other by being a part of each other’s world.”