Sarah Jarosz revisits her roots and shares new music at Kessler Theater in Dallas

The slightly boozy cry rang out from the darkness.

“Play some of that Texas music, girl!”

Singer-songwriter Sarah Jarosz, in transition between songs and tuning her instrument, didn’t miss a beat: “It is Texas music — I’m from Texas.”

The polite but firm rejoinder, delivered early in Jarosz’s roughly 85-minute showcase at the Kessler Theater Thursday, drew appreciative whoops and fierce applause. With those seven words, she firmly rejected the notion that the music being made to that point, and which would continue until she left the stage, was somehow not “Texas.”

(It’s also worth noting, in what is a definite rarity for the Kessler, that said seemingly inebriated interlocutor continued to shout at Jarosz at various intervals, before an irritated patron rose up and effectively silenced him with a scolding.)

The state and its musicians are often reduced to that catch-all notion of “Texas music,” which according to stereotype, should feature ample amounts of twang, banjo, fiddle and guitar, with an emphasis on country to the exclusion of any other influences.

But as the Austin-born Jarosz worked through several songs from her forthcoming album, Undercurrent, which she co-produced with Gary Paczosa and collaborated with songwriters like Aoife O’Donovan and Parker Millsap, it became evident that “Texas music” can — and does — contain multitudes. (There is also the culinary to consider: “I know I’m in Texas doing a show because my set list is stained by a taco,” Jarosz joked, before noting, since her recent move to New York City, “I sincerely miss the Mexican food here.”)

The more fitting musical categorization might be Americana, as the sounds veer from folk to country to jazz to pop, united by Jarosz’s time-stopping alto, breaking and fluttering and slicing and blending in spine-tingling harmony with guitarist Eli West (bassist Jeff Picker filled out the trio Thursday).

Leading off with the sinister slow-burn House of Mercy, from Undercurrent, before pivoting to Build Me Up from Bones, the title track of Jarosz’s 2013 album, the Grammy-nominated musician deftly incorporated the new and the old, allowing that Thursday marked not only the live debut of the yet-to-be-released material, but also stood as the first time she, Picker and West had performed before an audience.

“Thank you for listening with open ears,” Jarosz said.

Not that anyone could have known of the group’s relative unfamiliarity from the crisp interplay between Picker’s stand-up bass work, and Jarosz and West’s fluid trade-off between mandolin, banjo, acoustic and electric guitar. All of it was effectively flawless, a stirring evening of song performed by one of the finest musicians the state — which has a rather lengthy history of legends — has ever produced.

From first note to last, Jarosz proudly chronicled not only where she was from, but where she is capable of going — toward a horizon as limitless as Texas itself.

This story was originally published April 15, 2016 at 9:45 AM with the headline "Sarah Jarosz revisits her roots and shares new music at Kessler Theater in Dallas."