Follow Me Down

Sarah Jarosz | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (May 17, 2011)
• Original Release Date: 2011
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Sugarhill
• ASIN: B004S3AU0U
• Also Available in: Vinyl  |  MP3 Music
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (70 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #5,831 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)
  • #75 in Music > Folk > Traditional Folk

Editorial Reviews

2011 sophomore release from the Folk singer/songwriter. What Sarah Jarosz's acclaimed debut album, Song Up In Her Head, suggested, Follow Me Down confirms: she is constitutionally incapable of getting stuck in a rut. Her approach to acoustic music is expansive and vital; she sees no need to choose between old-timey and modern material; between picking, singing and writing; between experimenting and reviving tradition. She does all of it, and pushes it all further, on this album.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

88 of 90 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A Beautiful Album May 18, 2011

By James Johnson

Format:Audio CD|Amazon Verified Purchase

FOLLOW ME DOWN is a beautiful album. I loved every cut. I'm a basic roots guy and normally indie rock and young woman singer-songwriter fare make me think about organizing my sock drawer, but Jarosz's soulful singing, fluid musicality and surprising twists make everything interesting. This CD is going to be riding in my pickup for a long time.

SONG UP IN HER HEAD was one of my favorite albums of 2009 but I think FOLLOW ME DOWN represents growth across the board. Her music has become more sophisticated, more expansive and richer without losing that mystic, bluesy, old-timey, "mountain soul" sound that makes Jarosz so special. She's changed the bathwater but the baby's still there.

FOLLOW ME DOWN is the third wonderful "roots +" album that I've purchased recently, joining Crooked Still's SOME STRANGE COUNTRY and Abigail Washburn's CITY OF REFUGE. These are exciting times for roots based acoustic music.

One last note. Sarah Jarosz is touring heavily this summer. If you get a chance to see her trio perform, do so. Alex Hargreaves on fiddle and Nathaniel Smith on cello are awesome musicians, truly A-list players. Even playing together sporadically, Jarosz, Hargreaves & Smith have been making amazing music. Playing together on a daily basis should only make their music better. I haven't mentioned age in this review because the music stands on its own merits, but their ages become pertinent in discussing a live performance. Jarosz turns 20 in late May, Hargreaves recently turned 19 and Smith is 17. Seeing these young kids play this incredible music with such skill, taste and verve is a jaw dropping, not to be missed experience.

39 of 41 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A triumphant follow-up to her 2009 debut May 17, 2011

By Rufus T.

Format:MP3 Music

Funny that Amazon has this in their "Alternative Rock/General, Alternative Rock/Singer-Songwriters" category. But that's what happens when an acoustic artist who started in bluegrass & folk expands her musical palette to encompass a wide range of genres and styles.
After two years at the prestigious New England Conservatory honing her already formidable skills, Ms. Jarosz has created a collection of 11 songs (9 original & two covers) that defy labeling or definition. Moving with ease from guitar to clawhammer banjo to mandolin and octave-mandolin, together with her velvety-smooth singing (the sonic equivalent of warm honey), she exhibits songwriting maturity that doesn't seem possible for somebody not yet 20 years old. Her songs are poetry set to carefully-crafted music, and in fact that's exactly the case with "Annabelle Lee" - based on Edgar Alan Poe's final poem of doomed love.
"Floating in the Balance" shows her channeling Dylan, or perhaps Paul Simon. "Come Around" is a rhythmically complex and introspective number that expresses both doubts and optimism about a person's place in the world. "My Muse" is a gorgeous love ballad, even if this version has an ill-conceived orchestral string overdub that all but buries Sarah's octave mandolin (the earlier version on the "New 45" single is superior without the added strings). Dylan's quasi-gospel "Ring them Bells" is rendered beautifully here, full of reverence and hope. And Sarah shows her indie rock chops by covering Radiohead as well.
I have only one 'complaint' - at under 40 minutes with just 11 tracks (2 fewer than her previous album) it's over far too soon. Producer Gary Paczosa should have made it an even dozen by adding the B-side of the New 45 single, a fantastically 'groovy' version of the Bill Withers R&B tune "Grandma's Hands." It would have filled-in the spot occupied on her first album by Tom Waits' "Come On Up to the House." But that's a minor quibble. This is a spectacular sophomore effort by a musician with amazing depth and sophistication.
One can only imagine what Sarah Jarosz will produce in 5 years, at the ripe old age of 25.

36 of 41 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Just admit it May 24, 2011

By John Montroy

Format:MP3 Music

She ain't a bluegrass artist. Her heart may eternally have a fondness for it, she may always take some influence from it, but in a couple of years I expect her to be about as bluegrass as Chris Thile is nowadays. This album is another step in that direction. But I'm very glad she's headed in that direction, as are many others, surely. Maybe it's the Radiohead cover that is the big tip-off...once you start messing with that, you can't look back. So, I say first in this review...reader be warned: if you go into this expecting bluegrass or even some modernized form of it (The Infamous Stringdusters, Sierra Hull), you'll be disappointed. If you come into expecting beautiful, optimistic music, you'll be enamored. As I am.

Let me begin the review in earnest with an unambiguous statement: Sarah is an incredibly gifted songwriter. We can speak forever about her technical command of multiple instruments, her beautiful voice, or whatever else, but that's really the most impressive thing about this album. She knows how to write a song. Whether it's the clever riff in the beginning of Annabelle Lee mirroring her vocal line, or the perfect build and delicate instrumentation of Run Away, every inch of every song is expertly crafted. She so obviously has a perfectly clear vision of each song she writes - it comes to her, and the whole thing is written in her head in three seconds, I suspect. Then it's just the technical stuff of extracting that idea out. That's how a natural does it, and Sarah is a natural.

Something I enjoy a lot about this album, though, is its optimism. I don't mean to sound faux-intellectual or deep here or something, but the whole album is infused with this joy that's hard to really describe. Tracks like Old Smitty and Here Nor There are saturated with this positive aura. It reminds most of Chris Thile's solo album "Not All Who Wander Are Lost"; the sound of an incredibly gifted musician in the midst of discovering new sounds and new worlds in music and jumping into them with glee and joy. It's very refreshing to listen to with the amount of darkness that is in most people's music. The only band I can think of coming close to this aura is Fleet Foxes.

I expect Sarah's musical palette to keep on expanding as she grows older. She may relapse into bluegrass once or twice, but I don't think she'll hang around. This girl is an evolving artist, more folksy and progressive than bluegrass. I'll tell you not to label it and just enjoy it, but honestly, even the most diehard bluegrass fan will find something to like here. The music is just so cheery, honest, and wonderfully written. I can't give the album five stars; it's a little short, and some tracks are a little weak (Peace sounds like she desperately wanted to write an instrumental mandolin-driven piece a la Chris Thile's first two albums, but didn't quite have it in her). But mostly, I'm saving the five stars for when she releases the best album ever. Cause she will.