Sara Watkins of the U.S. trio I’m With Her may only be in her early 30s, but she’s already a well-seasoned artist. By the age of eight, she was playing fiddle in progressive bluegrass and country-folk band Nickel Creek, with her elder brother Sean and mandolin ace Chris Thile, currently with the Punch Brothers.

“I enjoy feeling like I have experience performing in a range of formats and bands, and playing different roles on-stage over the years,” says Watkins, reached at her home in Southern California, just before she begins touring with her colleagues in I’m With Her, Aoife O’Donovan and Sarah Jarosz. “I really value that variety, and I think that the more I’ve being playing with these diverse bands, the stronger I’ve become as a musician.”

Watkins, who also plays guitar and ukulele, released six albums with Nickel Creek before its breakup in 2007. She’s also toured with Jackson Browne, played with the Decemberists, and performed with former Led Zeppelin bassist John Paul Jones, who also produced her self-titled solo debut. A third solo album is almost complete.

At Nickel Creek gigs and workshops, Watkins kept meeting the teenage Jarosz, a guitarist, mandolinist, and songwriter from Texas—and they would play in the tour bus after shows. After Jarosz launched her own career, they met at festivals.

“For the last couple of years, I’ve got to know her a lot better. Aoife O’Donovan is another great friend that I’ve known since the early 2000s, when she was playing with the Wayfaring Strangers. We used to cross paths afterwards, when she was in Crooked Still, and we’ve done a little touring together before. “

The three women—all excellent singers and songwriters—talked a while of playing together. Then O’Donovan was asked to play at the Telluride Bluegrass Festival in Colorado in 2014, opening for the Punch Brothers.

“She got hold of Sarah and I, and said, ‘Let’s do it as a trio,’ ” says Watkins. “So we worked up 20 minutes of material. It was so much fun, we thought we should go further and do more songs, and see what happens when we put our heads together. We were all excited to work on this material and begin as an outfit. All of us are in between record cycles, and have time this year.”

I’m With Her’s set list draws equally on original compositions and gems by masters of the craft, like “Crossing Muddy Waters” by John Hiatt and the Nina Simone standard “Be My Husband”.

“We’re planning to record together, but we all have solo albums out next year—after that, we can do more as a band. It’s been a great process jumping into I’m With Her, because we love and respect each other’s musicianship so much. This summer, we’re writing. There’s still a lot to discover. We’re still getting to know each other a little deeper, which is probably something that will continue for a very long time.”

I’m With Her plays the Vancouver Folk Music Festival’s Main Stage on Saturday (July 18).