The seventh full-length from four-time Grammy Award-winner Sarah Jarosz, Polaroid Lovers is an album-long meditation on those strangely ephemeral moments that indelibly shape our lives. “What I love about a Polaroid is that it’s capturing something so fleeting, but at the same time it makes that moment last forever,” says the Texas-born singer/songwriter/multi-instrumentalist. “It made sense as a title for a record where all the songs are snapshots of different love stories, and there’s a feeling of time being expansive despite that impermanence.” Thanks to the rarefied alchemy that infuses all of Jarosz’s output—her finely wrought lyricism, ravishing vocal work, virtuosic yet unfettered musicality—Polaroid Lovers performs the much-needed magic of leading us toward a heightened sense of presence, all while casting a lovely spell with her timelessly powerful songs.

Produced by Daniel Tashian at the legendary Sound Emporium, Polaroid Lovers took shape as Jarosz recorded live with musicians like guitarist Rob McNelley (Miranda Lambert, Carrie Underwood), Tom Bukovac (Tom Petty, Vince Gill) on guitar and organ, her husband bassist Jeff Picker (Nickel Creek, Ricky Skaggs), and drummer Fred Eltringham (Sheryl Crow, Lucinda Williams), carving out a viscerally potent but resplendent brand of folk-rock.

Looking back on the making of Polaroid Lovers, Jarosz notes that shaking up her process ultimately left her eager to further expand her creative horizons. “It was a big step for me to reach out to Daniel, but in the end it showed me how important it is to keep taking thoughtful chances,” she says. “This whole album reminded me that I never want to play it safe—if anything, I want there to always be that element of being a little scared, because that means I’m taking a risk. In a way that’s what’s so wonderful about art: if you’re lucky, you never reach the finish line. You just keep searching and chiseling away at the stone, and putting everything you can into making something that tells the truth but hopefully leaves space for others to find meaning too.”

The Brother Brothers are the indie folk duo of Adam and David Moss. The identical twins were born and raised in Peoria, Illinois and originally based in Brooklyn, but have been ultimately and profoundly shaped by a life surrounded by travel and the web of community worldwide. They are the kind of people who have a story about everything, and moreso, one you might genuinely like to hear.

American Songwriter once said, “no matter what musical context Adam and David Moss may come to put themselves in, what the duo want to say through music will always come to show the beauty that exists—even in the deepest cracks—of human living.” Proclaims No Depression, “the warm harmonies and silky melodies of identical twins David and Adam Moss evoke the kind of ’60s-era folk tunes that reverberated through dark, wood-paneled bars in the Village… If these brothers aren’t among the Americana Music Association’s nominees for Emerging Artist or Duo-Group, I want a recount.”

The Brother Brothers released  The January Album in January, 2024. Deep in the pre-vaccine period of 2021, the brothers shacked up at Montrose studios with producer Bridget Kearney of Lake Street Dive and Engineer Phil Weinrobe (Alanis Morrisette, Big Thief, Damien Rice, Buck Meek and many others) in Richmond, Va. to undertake this month long recording session. Strictly isolated in the studio and on site accommodations, they spent a month writing, recording, and creating.

The January Album is a collection of songs that speak to the parts of oneself that want to up and throw sedentary worldly possessions in the trash and leave town. Get a camper and travel the country, or fall in love with the west coast and surf everyday. Or spend quiet desert nights staring into the sky contemplating the stars and existence and the wisdom of our ancestors. It speaks to what little we know or understand and how sometimes the only way to attempt understanding is through music and metaphor.

Maybe considered the brothers’ most collaborative effort yet, Adam says, “it feels like the truest and realest thing we’ve ever made.” Although not their first “full band” album, this is their most in depth and creative endeavor into the studio experience.

Stuart Cummings is an energy efficiency champion, a Naval Academy graduate and former aerospace engineer who currently devotes his time to helping people reduce their carbon footprint and go electric in their home and beyond.

View more about the information he presented at goelectriccolorado.org.