Steve Hochman on July 8th, 2016

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Sharp-eyed Sara Watkins fans may have noticed something as she started her show at Largo, celebrating the release last week and performing in sequence her delightful new “Young In All the Wrong Ways” album: There was no fiddle on stage. Well, sure. Though Watkins since her youthful start with Nickel Creek has been known primarily for her fancy fiddlin’ and gorgeous voice, the album downplays the instrument in favor of guitar-based songs — her first outing in which she’s written or co-written every number.

Well, before starting third song “One Last Time,” Watkins noticed that there was no fiddle on stage. It was not intended. Sheepishly she dashed off and back, missing musical muse in hand, and led her band in the frisky foray. That bit of endearing disarray set a tone for the night, and perfectly so, keeping things loose and lively, never bogged down in any worries about getting the new music “right.”

Sara Watkins at Largo (Photo by Steve Agee)

A little later she fumbled on stage to find the right chord to plug into a guitar. “I’ve been doing this my whole life,” she said, specifically referencing the act of sorting tangled cables, but in a way that could be taken to mean finding the right ways of expression as a performer, which she has been her whole life, having formed Nickel Creek with brother Sean and Chris Thile when she was just 8. That matched well with her introduction of “Say So,” with co-writer Dan Wilson joining in, in which she talked about words being “little covenants,” their very uttering making such vague concepts as trust real.

“Say So” is one of the album’s peaks, probing those covenants with emotional ache and sophistication matched by the multi-hued music and yearning melody (Wilson’s shown a knack for this stuff, co-writing mega-hits for Adele and the Dixie Chicks, among others, not to mention for himself and his former band Semisonic). It’s all part of a theme that emerged in the set, starting with the album’s electric guitar-driven opening title song, looking back on life so far and its lessons learned and life to come with cautious hope those lessons can be applied.

Moving away some from the folky-country-ish sounds she’s best known for provides a fresh environment for the explorations. At every turn that was illuminated by the band — a core of guitarist David Garza, bassist Tyler Chester and drummer Mark Stepro, joined by guest pianist Benmont Tench (who is also part of the Largo-regular Watkins Family Hour with Sara and Sean, and of course Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers), fiddler and album producer Gabe Witcher (who also plays in Thile’s Punch Brothers), singers Erica Canales and Andrea Blunt and, on three moving songs, strings by the Section Quartet.

But Watkins closed the album’s arc alone on acoustic guitar with “Tenderhearted,” inspired by her grandmother (and her big “grandma hugs”) and another woman role model, leaving those fans’ sharp eyes now tear-clouded.

Of course, that wasn’t that, as Watkins and crew returned for a spirited encore sequence. There was a fiddle duet with Witcher on John Hartford’s steamboat ode “Long Hot Summer Day” with audience assistance, a rowdy run on Bob Dylan’s “From a Buick 6,” an affecting version of Sam Phillips’ “Where Is Love Now” (featured on last Nickel Creek album, but here with melancholy strings by the Section Quartet, reminiscent in places of the Beatles’ “She’s Leaving Home”) and finishing with Watkins’ own “You and Me” from her last solo album (also heard on her featured appearance on Garrison Keillor’s “A Prairie Home Companion” finale last week).

“Young In All the Wrong Ways” comes amid of a lot of Watkins collaborative activities — work with Nickel Creek, the Watkins Family Hour (the band based around her and Sean that has been a Largo mainstay), the I’m With Her trio of her, Sarah Jarosz and Aoife O’Donovan among them. Before the last song, Watkins said that ideally each album seems like a first, and this night “Young” did feel like at least a new start for her — grown up in all the right ways.

||| Watch: The video for “Young in All the Wrong Ways”

||| Live: Sara Watkins plays the Troubadour on Dec. 14. Tickets.