LOS ANGELES — Like pretty much everybody else in the world, Sean and Sara Watkins were blown away by Joni Mitchell's surprise return to the stage last month at the Newport Folk Festival, where the 78-year-old singer-songwriter gave her first full public performance since she suffered a debilitating brain aneurysm in 2015.
"So incredibly moving," says Sean, who with his sister and their pal Chris Thile formed the plucky bluegrass trio Nickel Creek in Southern California in 1989, well before the three had entered their teens. Adds Sara of the rollicking Newport gig, for which Mitchell was accompanied by an intergenerational cast of famous friends and admirers: "Just, like, beyond."
As dazzled as they were, the Watkinses — Sean, 45, sings and plays guitar, while Sara, 41, sings and plays fiddle — also felt a glimmer of recognition: Meant to replicate the so-called Joni Jams she holds at her home in Bel-Air, Mitchell's all-star concert shared something with the Watkins Family Hour, the freewheeling variety show the siblings have led, with unannounced help now and then from one roots-music luminary or another, for two decades at Los Angeles' cozy Largo nightclub.
