Sara Watkins

Sara Watkins first gained recognition as a founding member of the Grammy Award–winning, platinum-selling trio Nickel Creek. When not on the road or in the studio, Watkins has guest-starred as fiddler and/or harmony vocalist on albums by Béla Fleck, the Chieftains, Ray LaMontagne, Ben Lee, Dan Wilson, Richard Thompson, and Alex Woodward, among others.

Along the way, she’s hinted at her desire to do a project of her own and even organized some exploratory sessions in Los Angeles about six years ago. With Nickel Creek on indefinite hiatus, she released her self-titled solo disc, recorded in Los Angeles and Nashville and produced by former Led Zeppelin bassist John Paul Jones.

In the three years since her debut and her second release, Watkins has been busy touring the world as guest fiddle player and vocalist with and joining Garrison Keillor on his nationwide Summer Love performance tours, as well as acting as his first and only guest host for A Prairie Home Companion broadcasts.

Sun Midnight Sun followed Sara Watkins’ critically acclaimed 2009 self-titled solo debut. NPR said Sara Watkins “puts her great instrumental breadth on display as she plays the guitar, ukulele and fiddle in addition to her sweet-voiced singing,” and the Kansas City Star called it a record “for anyone who likes the sound of a good singer and a good band hammering out good music.”

Listen to Sara Watkins here