Sara Watkins @ Highline Ballroom

Bluegrass darling Sara Watkins lit up the stage of the Highline Ballroom during the CMJ Marathon in October. After the dissolution of Nickel Creek last year, each of the members has gone off to do their own things: Chris Thile started the Punch Brothers, Sean Watkins teamed up with Jon Foreman to form Fiction Family, and Sara Watkins has struck out on her own. At her CMJ show she brought her warm personality to the stage and got the crowd to sing along to a couple of songs. She played a mixture of Nickel Creek songs, bluegrass and country classics, and original songs, wowing an audience unprepared for her music (she opened for Donovan Frankenreiter) on the ukelele, guitar, and fiddle.