Sara Wasserman

by William Ruhlmann Singer/songwriter Sara Wasserman is the daughter of bassist Rob Wasserman and Clare Wasserman, a manager of musicians. She grew up in Northern California surrounded by the musicians with whom her parents worked, and began to take vocal lessons at the age of ten. She made her stage debut sitting in with RatDog, the band featuring her father and led by Bob Weir, at the Furthur Festival at the Shoreline Amphitheatre in Mountain View, CA, on August 2, 1997, singing the song "Solid Ground" (written by her father and Jim Capaldi). At 18, she moved to New York to pursue acting, but eventually returned to music. She began working on the tracks for her debut album, Solid Ground, in the early 2000s, constructing it, much the way her father has his albums, over several years and with many guest stars, among them Christian McBride, DJ Logic, Aaron Neville, Vernon Reid of Living Colour, Stephen Perkins of Jane's Addiction, Lou Reed, and her father. (A self-released single, "You Got Me," appeared in 2007.) She signed to That Other Label, a division of Pacific Coast Jazz, which issued Solid Ground on June 16, 2009.