© 2026
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations
Scam Advisory: We have been made aware that an online entity is posing as Joe Donahue to invite authors and other creatives onto our radio shows. The scammers then attempt to charge guests an appearance fee for exposure/publicity.
Please note: WAMC does not charge guests to appear on the station and any email about appearing on a WAMC program will come from a wamc.org email address.

A Bluegrass Debutante, A High School Graduate

In the past three weeks, Sarah Jarosz has hit some big milestones.

She turned 18. She graduated from high school. And her debut album, Song Up in Her Head, got reviewed in Rolling Stone, where she was dubbed "a contemporary-bluegrass prodigy."

Jarosz has been playing mandolin since she was 10. In the years since, she's also picked up banjo and guitar, and become a songwriter.

"A lot of the songs on my CD — there's a lot of questions in the lyrics," she says. "And I think that's reflective of my age and the curiosity that I have about everything."

She gave a few brief demonstrations of her songs, plus a cover of Gnarls Barkley's "Crazy." Jarosz also spoke with host Guy Raz about balancing a career in music and being a teenager.

"Many times it would feel as if there were two lives going on," she says. "But sometimes they would coincide with each other — in calculus class."

To hear the full interview with Sarah Jarosz, click the link at the top of the page starting around 6 p.m. ET on Sunday, June 14.

Copyright 2022 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.