Reunions aren't exactly a thing of the past for Sara Watkins, but these days the co-founding member of a disbanded group of progressive pickers might be ready for some alone time.
Watkins, a fiddler, collaborator and all-around team player since she was a half-pint, laughed at the notion, knowing too well that she wasn't all by herself while working on her latest solo record.
"It did feel singular in a way that my previous records and the projects I've done most recently hadn't felt," the singer-songwriter said on the phone last week of Young In All The Wrong Ways. The third solo album of her productive career will be released July 1 (New West Records).
The Watkins Family Hour and a 25th year reunion with Nickel Creek's Chris Thile and her older brother Sean Watkins were costarring roles with impressive collectives during the time following her previous solo release (Sun Midnight Sun) in 2012.
She also worked on a number of high-profile projects as "more of a supportive teammate" that included touring stints with the Decemberists, Jackson Browne, Sarah Jarosz and Aoife O'Donovan as the sweet treat of an Americana trio called I'm With Her, and, most recently, Patty Griffin and Anais Mitchell.
Those enriching experiences "recharged me in a way," an introspective Watkins said from her home in the Echo Park neighborhood of Los Angeles two days before her 35th birthday, which she would celebrate by promoting the album in New York before dining with friends.
During the course of a wide-ranging 45-minute interview that went from pensive self-examination to spontaneous riffing as quick as some of her rapid-fire fiddling runs, Watkins discussed the importance in her life of "positive disruption," the physics behind "not stalling out" and the southwest Colorado town of Telluride.
"I'm a big believer that if you're in one band, you should be in two," said Watkins, who started taking master classes in entertaining for a living in 1989, when Nickel Creek began. She was 8 years old.
"I think you're a better leader for having been a supportive sideman and I think you're a better sideman for having learned how to lead. I really do think they help each other and I'm very grateful that I get to do both. But that being said, this record does feel stronger in a way to me possibly because it's the first record that I've written or cowritten all the songs on it."
Expect many of those moving selections to be presented when Watkins performs a solo set Friday (June 17) at the 43rd Telluride Bluegrass Festival, which Thile opened today in one of the country's most scenic settings.
Knowing Watkins' collaborative nature and a history with the festival almost as long as her musical lifeline, there's no telling who else might appear onstage during her performance. "I think there'll be a couple special moments," she said, not wanting to give anything away. "There's always nice little surprises that happen there."
The same could be said of Young In All The Wrong Ways, though Watkins slightly recoiled hearing her "breakup album with myself" quote that appeared in a recent press release.
"I hope that doesn't become the overarching message of the album," Watkins said softly, clarifying that the phrase mostly referred to "Invisible," one of the album's 10 soul-searching songs.
"I think everybody goes through these phases every five or 10 years or so when you do sort of like a course correction or a course assessment of your life," she continued. "A lot of this album is not breaking up with myself (laughs) but breaking up with other people or situations. It's just a changing course. And it was embracing disruption, positive disruption as a good thing, because it propels you towards change, towards forward motion. And that's what I was getting at."
I'm With Her at RockyGrass in 2015 (from left):
Sara Watkins, Sarah Jarosz and Aoife O'Donovan.
With a stellar lineup of guest artists including Jon Brion, Jim James, Punch Brothers Gabe Witcher (who also produced), Paul Kowert, Chris Eldridge and Noam Pikelny, and harmonizing string sisters Jarosz and O'Donovan, Watkins' earnest collection of reflection is expressed in tones ranging from serene ("The Love That Got Away") to sanguine ("The Truth Won't Set Us Free") to downright demanding ("Move Me").
The latter was the final song she sang for recording sessions primarily done in L.A. Saving the best for last was a wise choice because "Move Me" takes Watkins to limits she has never gone before vocally on a disc. With Brion unleashing a flurry of electric guitar fury, Watkins spills her guts while delivering an emotional message that's more confrontational command than apprehensive plea.
"I was a couple years younger when I started writing this (album), but ... I felt much more confident and strong in who I was in some ways, said Watkins, who began the process in the summer of 2014. "And I think that revealed to me other areas of my life ... that I just hadn't really reassessed in a while. And so that was, you know, a couple of relationships ... I felt had sort of ... that all parties had outgrown."
"Move Me," she said, was inspired by "long relationships that are very valued but that sometimes you take for granted that they still need maintenance," whether they involve extended family, close family or old friends.
"You might cover the same turf because you know it's safe and you know that that's what you do because the risk of losing the relationship is enough to scare people away from confronting the big issues or even opening up to the idea that there are big issues," she added. "And that takes a lot of nerve that often I have not had. And I think a lot of us shy away from that."
With other personal glimpses delivered throughout the album, Watkins believes she accomplished her mission of positive disruption.
"The ways that I worked through identifying what my feelings and my goals for myself and for who I want to be and how I want to live were I processed this mishmash of feelings through writing songs," she said of the method to her sadness. "Largely it's how I process and problem-solve my own life and the world around me. So I learn from that, you know. It's like therapy in a way."
Examples of that catharsis can in found in:
• "Young In All The Wrong Ways": Not only the name of the album, the title track that kicks everything off represents "how I was feeling at the beginning of this time in my life, identifying things that weren't serving me well. Looking back on my early 20s and thinking and assessing choices or how I thought I should have been and even things that I've held on to."
• "Say So": The song cowritten with Dan Wilson includes a lovely melody offsetting a touchy subject -- the frustration Watkins felt with a friend going through addiction issues, "and just wanting to see that change."
• "The Love That Got Away": Accompanied by her ukulele, Watkins quietly grabs the listener with irresistible force from the opening verse -- If you live long enough / You start to think about a list of / What you would do differently.
Now 35, Watkins believes she meets that age requirement. Though unable to compile "a list that I could recite," she's sure others will relate to the song's sentiments.
"A lot of us have moments when you're driving down the road and you think about something you said or something you did, and I just groan, audibly groan. And I don't even know that I'm doing it until it happens. It's just like, 'Awww.' (laughs) It's just this very guttural feeling of embarrassment and disgust or something. ...
"There are 'what might have beens' in a lot of our lives. And sometimes that's helpful to think about and sometimes it's not helpful to think about."
Looking back on the making of an album that has contributed to an emotional growth spurt, Watkins said she is "super-happy" at this stage of her career after finding a new manager (Aaron Sawyer), new label (New West) and new guitar (at the end of the recording sessions, a friend gifted her a 1953 Gibson ES-140 with the name "PAT" inscribed on the pick guard).
"I imagine (Pat is) some lady who sang country music in bars in L.A. I've got a very clear picture," said Watkins, who used her Bourgeois acoustic guitar to write most of the album. "I've never named an instrument. I don't name cars. That's not something that's ever really felt natural to me. But this guitar, I just can't call it The Guitar. With a Gibson, it's Pat."
While hoping to eventually uncover the mystery of "Pat," Watkins also was thinking about someone much more familial -- her dad -- and his three little words of advice that she'll never forget -- "Don't stall out."
Once that happens, "You might not ever get going again," Watkins recalled him saying in 2008, when she was having trouble making a decision about the future of a relationship. "He was like, 'Just keep going.' I often think about the physics of like when you're walking and you get pushed over, you can adjust and you can catch yourself and you can turn. If you're standing still and something hits you, you're gonna fall over."
Whether she's performing with or without fellow musicians, Watkins appears to be on solid ground. During previous solo stints on the road, she developed "more pride of ownership" in other aspects of the business such as tour managing and logistics.
"And I'm lucky. I feel like I've had some really good examples of people in my life who do a great job of that," Watkins said. "That's one of the things I love about touring with people is I get a peek into how people lead and how people run their business and how they support people. It's really fascinating."
The upcoming Telluride performance takes her back to Nickel Creek's first appearance there in 1993, when she and Thile were 12, and Sean Watkins was 16. The southern Californians originally were asked to play the children's stage, then invited to perform for 10 to 20 minutes on the main stage ahead of John's Hartford's set.
"We had this little arrangement of that fiddle tune ('Katy Hill')," Watkins said. "I remember just a crazy tempo that nobody should ever play at. And I'm sure it didn't sound very good but we were so nervous and so excited. ... We couldn't believe it."
Watkins laughed about attempting (unsuccessfully) to sneak backstage to see Bela Fleck and the Flecktones and Strength in Numbers, the bluegrass supergroup that also included Mark O'Connor, Sam Bush, Jerry Douglas and Edgar Meyer, and tracking down bluegrass guitarist Russ Barenberg while trying to hang with his family. She collected signatures from a number of artists, including Hartford, who signed his name in calligraphy for her autograph book, one that she recently enjoyed rediscovering.
Twenty-three years later, Watkins (above left with Thile in 2011) is still like a wide-eyed kid in a candy store, eager to check out so many acts over a four-day festival appearing on a stage with "the best view that you could imagine." Not wanting to offend any of her friends on the roster when asked to pick a favorite, there's hesitation in her voice before she relents -- "Emmylou's gonna be there ... can't wait to see that."
Watkins also is scheduled to host a set with some of her closest musical colleagues at 1 p.m. MDT Sunday (June 19) in cozy Elks Park, a more intimate setting "where a lot of the best moments happen," Watkins said, knowing from previous experiences. In 2011, for example, Thile, Willie Watson and Abigail Washburn were among her guests along with members of the Decemberists, the innovative folk-rockers whose tour dates with her as part of their band that year included a peppy set in Telluride later that afternoon.
Nickel's Creek's Sara Watkins (left) and Chris Thile perform during
a Nickel Creek reunion in 2014 at the Telluride Bluegrass Festival.
The Nickel Creek reunion on the main stage in 2014, where they also played in 2000, 2001, 2003 and 2006, "felt a little like a homecoming," Watkins said. "When you get to play Telluride, it always feels like a privilege. However, since we didn't have such a big moment early on in our careers there, it feels always like a special savoring moment to get to be there again. I think it's a good reminder of the beginnings of that band. And it was wonderful."
If there are any immediate plans to meet up again for even an impromptu Nickel Creek show, Watkins' lips are sealed. But eventually, she promised, "I'm sure it will happen."
So it's anybody's guess what will happen when Watkins, assisted by guitarist David Garza and a number of different drummers, takes her solo act on the road through the rest of 2016. Telluride is known for its all-star ensembles and expect the unexpected for Garrison Keillor's final Prairie Home Companion broadcast July 1 at the Hollywood Bowl before Thile takes over as permanent host when the next season begins Oct. 15.
No matter who's on the bill and where she's playing, though, count on a collaboration of acquaintances that will be enthusiastically embraced.
While changing and aging gracefully, Sara Watkins remains young at heart -- in all the right ways.
Publicity photos by Maarten de Boer. Nickel Creek photo courtesy of Benko Photographics. Other concert photos by Michael Bialas.