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Song Review: Chris Thile, Aoife O'Donovan and Chris Eldridge - “Douglas Fir”

From Syria to Manhattan, let every child be adored, Chris Thile and Aoife O'Donovan sang on “CBS This Morning Saturday” during a Christmas Eve-eve performance.

Joined by Chris Eldridge on guitar, mandolinist Thile and vocalist O'Donovan were reprising their duet on Thile’s just-released Thanks for Listening LP. “Douglas Fir” is part religious Christmas carol; part secular, questioning protest song; and part history lesson.

Written as a song of the week for the 2016 season of the recently renamed “A Prairie Home Companion,” the track features Thile and O'Donovan’s gorgeous, organic vocal blend, a sprightly solo from the mandolinist and rhythm-guitar glue from from Thile’s fellow Punch Brother Eldridge.

And at more than four minutes, the performance proves CBS’ “Saturday Sessions” is dedicated to letting artists present their art as they intend it to be presented.

Grade card: Chris Thile, Aoife O'Donovan and Chris Eldridge - “Douglas Fir” - B+

Song Review: Sara Watkins, Sarah Jarosz and Aoife O’Donovan - “Leaves that are Green” (Live, 2015)

It’s no wonder Sara Watkins, Sarah Jarosz and Aoife O’Donovan decided to become I’m With Her.

A just-released version of the pre-IWH performing Simon & Garfunkel’s “Leaves that are Green” on a 2015 broadcast of “A Prairie Home Companion” in retrospect makes the group - which releases its second long-player May 9 - seem a matter of destiny.

With the house band behind their already-familial three-part harmonies, Watkins, Jarosz and O’Donovan deliver Paul Simon’s lyrics unmodified even as the music is modernized and countrified:

I was 21 years when I wrote this song/I’m 22 now, but I won’t be for long/time hurries on/and the leaves that are green/turn to brown, they sing before O’Donovan calls a mandolin solo from Jarosz.

In addition to suggesting I’m With Her were fated, the revisitation of this early S&G deep cut also confirms Simon was destined to be among his generation’s greatest songwriters.

Grade card: Sara Watkins, Sarah Jarosz and Aoife O’Donovan - “Leaves that are Green” (Live, 2015) - A+

"I come from the land down under."

Interlude 🌳🪉🌺 musical