Taken from her new album World On The Ground (Rounder Records, June 5th), Sarah Jarosz has released her new single Maggie. She sings of frequent journeys in a blue Ford Escape – hoping the car will live up to its name and take her away from the small-town life of football games and processed food.
The song is inspired by a recent return to a high-school reunion in the small Texas hometown of Wimberley where she was raised, Jarosz now lives in New York. At the reunion, she had a conversation with an old friend who confessed that despite feeling stuck in Wimberley, she just couldn’t seem to find a way out. While Jarosz did escape, the song conveys a profound message of empathy and courage.
A hunt around the internet reveals how driven she was at such a young age to follow those dreams. In 2004 there was a concert in Wimberley at Chapel in the Hills…it starts “Creativity flows through Wimberley as freely as the crystal waters that bubble from Jacob’s Well…” All the performers of the evening are under the age of eighteen. It goes on to list an impressive list of names that Jarosz has performed on stage with from The David Grisman Quintet, to Ricky Skaggs and Kentucky Thunder, Blue Highway and lots more…she was just 13 at the time.
World On The Ground is out on June 5 via Rounder Records
Photo Credit: Josh Wool