Sarah Jarosz – Polaroid Lovers Tour, with special guests The Ballroom Thieves

Lobero LIVE presents

Thursday, February 29, 2024 at 7:30 PM

Lobero LIVE presents Sarah Jarosz – Polaroid Lovers Tour, with special guests The Ballroom Thieves, on Thursday, February 29, 2024 at 7:30 PM. With her captivating voice and richly detailed songwriting, Jarosz has emerged as one of the most compelling musicians of her generation. The four-time GRAMMY® Award-winner has several critically lauded albums and will be touring in support of her latest LP, Polaroid Lovers, which just released on January 26, 2024 via Rounder Records. Her seventh LP, which finds the highly decorated songwriter at the apex of change, is an album-long meditation on those strangely ephemeral moments that indelibly shape our lives. Indie folk-rock duo The Ballroom Thieves opens the show.

“On Polaroid Lovers, Jarosz reaches toward a broader audience while still maintaining her individuality. The songs are more plugged in, muscular and reverberant than her past albums, which were intimate and largely acoustic. But her particular perspective – at once clearheaded, thoughtful, vulnerable and open to desire – comes through.”

– The New York Times

A Texas native, Jarosz spent most of her adult life living in New York City, but shortly before writing the album, she left her adopted home to join her soon-to-be husband in Nashville, TN. The geographic shake-up led to a sonic one as well for Polaroid Lovers. For the first time in her career, she opened herself up to collaborators, leading to writing sessions with Daniel Tashian, Ruston Kelly and Natalie Hemby. The reorganization of her creative process evolved to include a much richer and more electric sound in the studio, and being in Nashville meant access to a world of hot shot players. She tapped guitarist Rob McNelley (Miranda Lambert, Carrie Underwood), Tom Bukovac (Tom Petty, Vince Gill) on guitar and organ, her husband- bassist Jeff Picker (Nickel Creek), and drummer Fred Eltringham (Sheryl Crow, Lucinda Williams) for the album recording. Tashian took the helm as producer and the whole album was laid down at the legendary Sound Emporium.

The follow-up to 2020’s studio album World on the Ground (winner of the GRAMMY® Award for Best Americana Album) and 2021’s song cycle Blue Heron Suite, Polaroid Lovers embodies a bold new vitality that has much to do with a deliberate shift in Jarosz’s writing process. A widely beloved musician whose past efforts include teaming up with fellow singer/songwriters Sara Watkins and Aoife O’Donovan to form the GRAMMY® Award-winning trio I’m With Her — as well as appearing on albums by iconic artists like David Crosby and Amy Ray of Indigo Girls — Jarosz derived a particularly profound sense of purpose from the highly collaborative process behind Polaroid Lovers and is eager to further expand her creative horizons.

The Ballroom Thieves hail from New England, where their big-hearted, energetic sound won them an audience in the early part of the 2010s. Martin Earley and Calin Peters released their fourth album, Clouds, in 2022 via Nettwerk Records, which became an opportunity for the band to mine the challenges of the past three years for creative inspiration. Clouds is a song cycle born of mixed experiences and fueled by the power of imagination. The album is a lush meditation on longing to return to touring – to see different sunsets and cities. But it’s also a reflection of its difficulties, such as insomnia brought on by sleeping in different hotel rooms every night. After a major car accident and the departure of a band member, the duo has taken the duality of all these experiences and translated them into song. The pair both emphasize that they’ve learned to navigate complicated situations, including their struggles with depression, which often colors their songs. If they can impart anything to listeners, it’s that talking about mental health is not a weakness – and that sharing any of life’s trials can be a source of strength.

Tickets for Sarah Jarosz – Polaroid Lovers, with special guests The Ballroom Thieves, are on sale now at Lobero.org and at the Lobero Box Office 805.963.0761. Polaroid Lovers VIP Tour Experience tickets are $100 (includes premier seating, pre-show soundcheck, Q&A with Sarah, group photo with Sarah, signed poster, & early entry – but pre-show reception is not included in this package), VIP tickets are $106 (includes premier seating and a pre-show reception with drinks and hors d’oeuvres), Section A tickets are $50, and Section B tickets are $40. Reserved seating. Ticket prices include a per ticket Lobero Facility Fee; other fees may also apply.