Sara Milonovich & Daisycutter

Sara Milonovich & Daisycutter

“I’ve never gone into the studio with a road map,” says Sara, a seasoned side musician to artists such as Richard Shindell, Pete Seeger, Eliza Gilkyson, and Jim Gaudet and the Railroad Boys, and a featured player in the Broadway musical Come From Away. “Making an album has always been more like a circuitous voyage.”

Sara’s voyage starts in the bucolic agrarian area of northeast upstate New York — the name of the song that gives Northeast its title is no accident — where she was raised on her family’s working farm and exposed to earthy music via her parents’ record collection and her grandparents’ efforts organizing local bluegrass concerts. She started violin at age four, was leading her own band by nine, and released a live cassette when she was 12. “It was a very welcoming scene,” she says. “If you could play, you were accepted. I learned a lot, playing standards like ‘Tennessee Waltz’ and ‘Faded Love’ at grange halls and dances. I loved how those songs could tell stories and make people dance.”

At 16 she joined upstate Celtic bluegrass outfit the McKrells, recording two albums with the group and touring the U.S. and Ireland. “It was the best road education I could’ve asked for,” she recalls. Between accompanying mentors — including Pete Seeger on his Grammy-winning 2008 album At 89 — she made her solo debut with 2009’s Daisycutter, a disc whose name eventually became that of her band. After a 2011 tour with the U.S. State Department-/Jazz at Lincoln Center-sponsored “Rhythm Road: American Music Abroad” revue to Kosovo, Bulgaria, Moldova, and Turkey, she and Daisycutter recorded 2015’s Waiting for the Stars, which earned enthusiastic reviews and comparisons to Shawn Colvin and Sheryl Crow.

Like Waiting for the Stars, Northeast was produced by Daisycutter guitarist Greg Anderson. While its predecessor has more experimental touches, the new album is more direct, stripped down, and driving — more Milonovich.

“Being in the band and getting to know the songs from the inside, I felt like I was really able to get to the core of her music,” says Grammy-winning engineer and Hot Tuna drummer Justin Guip, who recorded, mixed, and plays on Northeast. “This album has a lot of moods: some swampy, spooky stuff, some upbeat pop, some alt-country stuff. Whenever I listen to it, what really hits me is how much Sara stands out, as both a musician and a songwriter. That’s a pretty rare thing.”

Sara was named 2022 Americana Artist of the Year by the Capital District Thomas Edison Music Awards (AKA the Eddies). “When people hear Northeast, I hope they feel connected to what they’re hearing,” she says. “Like their stories are being written and sung through mine. We’ve all got stories to tell.”

So true. If only we all could tell them in the beautiful, moving, and melodic ways that Sara Milonovich does. Luckily, until that day comes, we have Northeast as our traveling companion.

Write what you know. Tell a story. Let the journey be your guide. There are some simple tools for making great, lasting songs.