Chris Willman Music WriterFamily has almost always been a big part of what Sara Watkins has done; she rose to acclaim with her brother Sean as a member of the pop-bluegrass group Nickel Creek, then, as that band has mostly been on hiatus, has continued on with him as part of another beloved SoCal Americana troupe, the Watkins Family Hour.
But now her concept of family is extending downward as well as laterally, with Watkins having a 3-year-old daughter that was largely the inspiration for her blissful new solo album, “Under the Pepper Tree.”Most of the material is of a vintage that it’d fit comfortably into the playlist of a mom, grandma or even great-grandma: pop classics from Nilsson and the Beatles, a little Mancini in the night, two.
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