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Wake EP

Produced by Phoebe Hunt. Recorded by Evan Felts & Isaac Strycker at the Magnolia Motel, Brooklyn, NY
Vocals recorded by Andrea Perry at Cicada Studios, Austin, TX
Mixed by Andrew Hernandez at Arroyo Audio
Mastered by Dave McNair

1.      What To Do With This Love - written by Sarah Sharp / Mitch Watkins. 
Wilson Marks – guitar, Jared Engel – bass, Nicholas Falk – drums, Oliver Steck - Wurlitzer

2.      Easy -  written by Sarah Sharp /  Yaniel Matos
Wilson Marks – guitar & piano, Jared Engel – bass, Nicholas Falk – drums

3.      Right Through Me -  written by Sarah Sharp /  Yaniel Matos / Masumi Jones / Daniel Durham
Wilson Marks – guitar, Jared Engel – bass, Nicholas Falk – drums, Sam Reider - Wurlitzer

4.      For Your Love -  written by Sarah Sharp /  Yaniel Matos
Wilson Marks – guitar & vocals, Jared Engel – bass, Nicholas Falk – drums

5.      Kidding-  written by Sarah Sharp /  Buffalo Speedway
Wilson Marks – guitar, Jared Engel – bass, Nicholas Falk – drums, Sam Reider – Wurlitzer

Dream EP

Sarah Sharp - Vocals
Mitch Watkins - guitar
Pat Harris - Bass
Masumi Jones - Drums
Oliver Steck - Organ

Sway EP

Down Beat Magazine - September, 2013 issue

No Musical act embodies the "Keep Austin Weird" civic mantra with more style and class than the "swingadelic" quartet Jitterbug Vipers.  The band's witty updating of classic 1930s reefer jive music, featuring septuagenarian guitar genius Slim Rich front and center, is sly, sophisticated and more than a little habit-forming. The inherent humor of the material disguises serious musicianship from not only Richey- who sparkles on the disc's denouement, the closing "Django's Birthday"-but also from bassist Francie Meaux Jeaux and drummer Masumi Jones. Sarah Sharp, who serves as the primary songwriter, sweetly sails through a selection of originals in the tradition with seductive nonchalance but also digs down deep for an exquisite rendition of "Billie's Blues."


Phoebe's Dream - With Slim Richey & Sarah Sharp - Jitterbug Vipers

I lost a dear friend and mentor on May 31, 2015.  This recording means the world to me. R.I.P. Slim Richey a.k.a. "Most Dangerous Guitar Player in Texas".  I've never known another man who can play with this much soul, grace, restraint, passion, coolness.  He was the most mature player I've ever experienced and no one compares.

Crazy with Slim Richey

This is another song from my duo with Andrea Perry called Kaliyo. (Kah-LEE-yo). This song has been used in a Dell commercial in China, in a TV promo for the TV show Smash in Finland, in Dish Networks Playboy channel commercial in the USA, in a Top Model TV Promo in Poland and others... 

Take What You Can Get - Kaliyo

Mitch Watkins - Guitar, Sarah Sharp - Vocals
Written by Randy Newman

I Think It's Gonna Rain Today

Recorded 11-7-17 
Mitch Watkins - Guitar
Sarah Sharp - Vocals

Spring Can Really Hang You Up The Most - with Mitch Watkins

You Don't Dare

Morning

Just Go

Pieces

Unconditional

Produced by Phoebe Hunt. Recorded by Evan Felts & Isaac Strycker at the Magnolia Motel, Brooklyn, NY
Vocals recorded by Andrea Perry at Cicada Studios, Austin, TX

1.      What To Do With This Love - written by Sarah Sharp / Mitch Watkins. 
Wilson Marks – guitar, Jared Engel – bass, Nicholas Falk – drums, Oliver Steck - Wurlitzer

2.      Easy -  written by Sarah Sharp /  Yaniel Matos
Wilson Marks – guitar & piano, Jared Engel – bass, Nicholas Falk – drums

3.      Right Through Me -  written by Sarah Sharp /  Yaniel Matos / Masumi Jones / Daniel Durham
Wilson Marks – guitar, Jared Engel – bass, Nicholas Falk – drums, Sam Reider - Wurlitzer

4.      For Your Love -  written by Sarah Sharp /  Yaniel Matos
Wilson Marks – guitar & vocals, Jared Engel – bass, Nicholas Falk – drums

5.      Kidding-  written by Sarah Sharp /  Buffalo Speedway
Wilson Marks – guitar, Jared Engel – bass, Nicholas Falk – drums, Sam Reider – Wurlitzer

05 Kidding

04 For Your Love

03 Right Through Me

02 Easy

01 What To Do With This Love

Little Green Bag

Written by Sarah Sharp, Slim Richey, & Kristopher Lee Wade

Sarah Sharp - Vocals
Mitch Watkins - guitar
Pat Harris - Bass
Masumi Jones - Drums
Oliver Steck - Organ

Let's Make Up

Written by Sarah Sharp and Hannah Johnson, with help from Sophia Johnson and Buffalo Speedway. 

Sarah Sharp - Vocals
Mitch Watkins - guitar
Pat Harris - Bass
Masumi Jones - Drums
Oliver Steck - Organ

Your Girlfriend Hates Me

Everytime We Say Goodbye

Oh, What a Beautiful Morning

Always On My Mind

Written by Sarah Sharp, Slim Richey, Kristopher Lee Wade

for the #1159SongwritingGroup

A co-write with Andrea Perry. All I did was write the melody, lyrics, and sing lead. Andrea did evvvvvverything else.

Giant Baby Steps 2.11.20 - Sarah Sharp Andrea Perry

From the upcoming Jitterbug Vipers album - Phoebe's Dream
I wrote this with Kristopher Lee Wade
Slim Richey – Guitar 
And his Hidy Hidy Hos:
Sarah Sharp – Vocals
Francie Meaux Jeaux – Bass
Masumi Jones – Drums


When You're High

From the upcoming Jitterbug Vipers album "Phoebe's Dream"
I wrote this with Elizabeth McQueen & She is singing harmony. 

STUFF IT
Well if you’re feeling low & you don’t know why
Having trouble just getting by 
Check your pipe, is it cashed? oh my!
Stuff it

Now if that don’t work, you’re still feeling small
The boys don’t whistle & they never call
Don’t waste your time, honey check your bra
Girl, you need to stuff it

Oh, just stuff it, you can just stuff it, 
Oh stuff it
Baby, it’s all about stickin it in 

You’re looking hungry, have you been on a diet
I just a 12 course meal, you should try it
Put it all in that gate mouth, even the pie
And stuff it

Oh, just stuff it, you can just stuff it, 
Oh stuff it
Baby, it’s all about stickin it in 

Awww..., you’re kitty died? 
You can stuff your cat
It’s your red wagon if you’re into that
I’m just trying to help, with what works for me
You can stuff  it’s empty

Now you can stuff your turkey, you can stuff your pet
You can stuff your mattress, stuff your wallet 
I think I’m all out of stuff to stuff
I’m just trying to help with your depression
And if that don’t work, I have one last suggestion
You can stuff it


Stuff It - Jitterbug Vipers

Jitterbug Vipers - Slim Richey - Guitar & His Hidy Hidy Hos: Francie Meaux Jeaux - Bass, Masumi Jone - Drums, me singing.

I wrote this with Kristopher Lee Wade from Ghosts Along the Brazos. 

A Viper Just The Same

I wrote this with Kristopher Lee Wade. We were trying to think of what the girl's name should be... something from the 1930s, 40s, like Maude, but I wanted it to be 2 syllables.  The night we tried to play this song live for the first time at Lambert's, our dear friend Phoebe Hunt showed up, so I put her name in, just for the night. It stuck and we ended up naming the album after this track. 

Adder on a Ladder (Phoebe’s Dream)

Did you ever hear the story of dear Phoebe?
She thought she found her way up off the ground
She tried to smoke her way up into heaven
But they turned her back around

She was bitten by an adder on a ladder to the sky
She was trying to get higher, didn't need no reason why
The vipers loved to watch her move
Up, up, up she climbed
Man, that girl was smokin’, my oh my, so high, high so high

Well, I guess she never figured that she’d ever come back down
But she must have met her maker and her turned her back around
He said, “Darlin’, don’t you get me wrong, a viper knows no bounds
But sometimes, the only way back up is down, down, down”
Down, down, down

She dreamed about a ladder 18 stories high
That’s where she met an adder, he said
“Come with me, Grab a stick of tea, You’re going right up to the sky”

When dear Phoebe woke from her dream, she was lying on the ground
With a hazy, lazy feeling and a viper hanging ‘round
He handed her a light, got a sparkle in his eye
And before you know it, She was high so high, high so high



Phoebe's Dream

The Jitterbug Vipers give their own take on "Undecided", a song which hit the pop charts in a version by the Ames Brothers in the early 1950s but actually dates back decades earlier.

Undecided

That Was Just The Sauce Talking
written by Jacob Jaeger and Sarah Sharp

It was just another weekend flirting & drinking
Something about you caught my eye
And I don’t recall exactly how we ended up the night
I guess we had some fun not hurting anyone
And I’m sure that I will see you around
But if you’re thinking it’s the start of something I’ll be part of
Baby let me lay it down

That was just the sauce talking 
Lord knows what was whispered in your ear
When you get the sauce talking 
It’ll tell you what you wanna hear

I met you on a Sunday
Here we are on Monday
In the harsh light of day
And right now, I’m wondering when you’re gonna go away 
You’re hanging around while my head is pounding
I’m wishing I was dead
And I thank you mighty kindly
But need to remind me
Of all the things I said 

That was just the sauce talking 
Lord knows what was whispered in your ear
I think it’s time to start walking
Honey, tell me why you’re still here

That was just the sauce talking 
Lord knows what was whispered in your ear
When you get the sauce talking 
It will tell you what you wanna hear


That Was Just The Sauce Talking

Billie's Blues

“Watching Sarah perform onstage is pretty analogous to the experience of being bewitched by a musical sorceress: conversational, charming, organic, at times whimsical and crazy, and always utterly captivating. When Sharp arrives, you listen.” – Songwriters Across Texas

Sarah Sharp has long been honored for her skills as a jazz singer. That is evident in her accolades. In February 2024, Austin’s premier Jazz singer, won her third Austin Music Award presented by the Austin Chronicle for Best Jazz.  But make no mistake – she also is a soulful songwriter and so much more. She masters Americana, Pop, and old-school country music, while exploring other sounds and collaborations. And, its hard to not fall in love with her whole persona. As one reviewer wrote, she’s a little bit Tina Fey. 

No matter what genre she sings, it will be authentically Sarah, and you’re going to get a well-rounded performance that has you both mesmerized and fully entertained. 

Talent comes honestly for the Houston-born and raised performer. “I grew up in a big Catholic family where I thought it was normal for people to end every gathering playing songs and singing four-part harmony.” It wasn’t until much later that she realized not everyone had a similar musical upbringing. 

Audiences can feel, in her unique style, traces of her musical influences. “We sang everything from show tunes to James Taylor,” she says, adding that she counts the Beatles, Simon and Garfunkel, Aretha Franklin, The Pointer Sisters, The Police, Sting, and Rolling Stones among other early influence. She credits songwriters Willis Alan Ramsey, Leonard Cohen, Bob Dylan, Elliot Smith, Eminem, and Beyonce for having a soulful impact.

Although a devoted ballet student, Sarah ultimately followed her passions to attend Berklee College of Music, the world’s preeminent college for the study of music. There, she began to lean on the best of the best to feed her jazz inclinations – Billy Holiday, and even more deeply, Etta James singing the songs of Billie Holiday in the record “Mystery Lady.”

Sarah carries all of her influences and her passion for music to the audiences she reaches and the performers with whom she works side by side.

“There is a flow, almost like a reciprocal loop, when the audience is truly connected, that both fills me up and allows me to give more. When the audience is there and we are connected, it elevates everything,” she says. 

As for her band and collaborators, Sarah says she has a deep love and appreciation for them and is honored to be making music with them. “There is a true love fest going on between us all on stage,” she says of her band, who she describes as quintessential jazz musicians. They are immensely talented in a way that allows them to bring a vital sense of improvisation to the music they make. “They never play a song the same way twice.”

In the co-writing realm, Sarah has had many successes. She wrote nine original songs on the Jitterbug Vipers’ “Phoebe’s Dream”. That caught the attention of NPR’s Michael Feinstein who flew them to New York City to be featured on his national radio show. Sarah also has written with Yaniel Matos, Mitch Watkins, Elizabeth McQueen, Katie Shore, Jacob Jeager, Kristopher Lee Wade and Matt Hubbard, among others.

As with her recent Austin Music Awards win, enthusiastic accolades have followed Sarah through her career including multiple awards for her singing and songwriting. The self-produced album “Phoebe’s Dream,” with then-band Jitterbug Vipers, earned Sharp Top 5 placements in Austin Music Awards categories for Best Female Vocalist, Producer, Songwriter, Album of the Year, Song of the Year, Band of the Year, and Best Jazz Band. Sarah also was a (two times, once with Jitterbug Vipers, and once as Sarah) top recipient of the Black Fret Award (now Sonic Guild) from the organization supporting “the creation and performance of extraordinary new music.”

“It’s so clear that the music you create is so inspired by your environment,” says NPRs Michael Feinstein. Of her song “Trouble,” Feinstein adds, “That is the kind of song that has such a classic quality to it and it’s a song that could have been written a long time ago, and yet it speaks so much to the world now, and I think it will speak to people whenever it’s heard.”

Sarah now has a library of songs she is eager to put into her next record. She is looking forward to a new era of Sarah Sharp.

SarahSharp

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