Sara Watkins, whose self-titled solo debut was released on Nonesuch earlier this week, and the album's producer, Led Zeppelin bassist John Paul Jones, spoke with the Wall Street Journal's Christopher John Farley about the album and how the two came together to make it happen.

The article takes a closer look at three songs off the album: its opening track, "All This Time," written by Sara; "Long Hot Summer Days" by the late fiddler John Hartford; and Jon Brion's "Same Mistakes," her version of which, says Farley, "infuses Mr. Brion's pop song with country twang."

There's also a video interview with Sara available with the article and sound clips from the three tracks mentioned above, all at online.wsj.com.

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"Words like 'preternatural' probably shouldn't be used in reviewing a record, especially one as wonderfully natural sounding as this one," suggests No Depression's Lloyd Sachs. "But the more I listen to Sara Watkins' self-titled album, with its gossamer vocals and heavenly instrumentation, the more the 'p' word asserts itself. The music seems neither of this time nor of the past, but somewhere in between. Or somewhere above."

Sachs goes on to extol the very much collaborative effort of the nevertheless solo debut. He credits Sara's "seamless interaction with a stellar cast of accompanists" and insists "there's nothing debut-ish about Watkins' emotional assurance and range as a singer and songwriter, whether she's reflecting on romance or history, reaching out to religion, acting out a narrative, or just sittin' and pickin'."

He continues:

From the haunting opening strains of her original tune "All This Time", with its sweetly resolved casting-off of fate ..., you know you're in the presence of an artist working on a deeper level than your average new grasser. As a singer, Watkins is both huggably endearing and powerfully affecting. As a songwriter, she radiates compassion, never more so than in wishing for a troubled friend someone or something to "bring hope to his heart, relief to his mind."

Read the complete review at nodepression.com.

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CMT.com features a brief back-and-forth with Sara and CMT's Craig Shelburne. The two discuss the many stellar guest artists who join Sara on the record, including its producer and Led Zeppelin bassist John Paul Jones; Gillian Welch and David Rawlings; fellow Nickel Creek members, Chris Thile and her brother Sean; and Greg Leisz, master of the pedal-steel guitar, about which she explains, "It’s a powerful instrument because you never really know what direction it’s gonna go, and when it’s in the hands of somebody like Greg, it’s just kind of freaks me out." Read the article at blog.cmt.com.

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Sara began her monthlong tour in support of the new album in Spartanburg, South Carolina, last night with Old Crow Medicine Show. They'll all play two more shows together, at Atlanta's Fox Theatre tonight and Jacksonville's Florida Theatre tomorrow.

After a stop in New York City on Monday for a performance on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, with Jones on bass, her brother Sean on guitar, and members of the show's house band, The Roots, on board as well, Sara's tour takes her to Minneapolis, Minnesota, for two nights at the Dakota Jazz Club, next Wednesday and Thursday. The Minneapolis-St. Paul Star Tribune includes the shows among the week's "Big Gigs," saying:

Fiddler/singer Sara Watkins proves her mettle on a terrific self-titled CD, a dark-hued collection of slow bluegrass, quiet folk and old-timey country produced by Led Zeppelin's John Paul Jones. There's a piercing loneliness to Watkins' soft, sweet soprano on such originals as "My Friend" and "Where Will You Be" and on Tom Waits' wistful "Pony."

Read more at startribune.com.

For more upcoming tour information, visit nonesuch.com/on-tour.