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.

Billie's Blues

SarahSharp