MOST OF THE TIME SHE WAS
RAISED ON THE ROAD, AWAY
FROM OTHER KIDS. LOU REED IS
BASICALLY HER GODFATHER.
••
Sara Wasserman
Daughter of Rob Wasserman, upright bass
sarawasserman.com
Some of marin’S rock families have unexpected connections. Back in the early 1970s, for example, carlos Santana gave a
teenage neal Schon his start. and 31-year-old Sara Wasserman (shown here with emcee richard Habib at her annual benefit for
Peruvian children) says that when she was growing up in mill Valley, her parents — clare and rob Wasserman, the latter a Grammy
award–winning bassist who has played with elvis costello, Jerry Garcia, Lou reed, neil Young, Van morrison and many others —
were good friends with Tracy and David Grisman. The Grisman kids, especially monroe and his sister Gillian, often babysat her.
Due to her father’s work, Wasserman had a unique childhood in more ways than one. most of the time she was raised on the
road, away from other kids. Lou reed, she says, is basically her godfather. She also grew up in the company of aaron neville,
another of her father’s collaborators. The experience left her with a somewhat conflicted relationship with music early on.
“When you grow up around something, you just want to try and find your own thing,” she says. “Some people don’t, but i
was just determined to do something else for a long time.” She briefly studied musical theater in new York in her late teens,
but wound up deciding to be a singer after all. in 2009 came her bluesy, soulful and star-studded debut album Solid Ground;
a follow-up is due in the early fall.
