Sarah Borges will be at The Burren on Saturday, July 16, presenting her “Borges Together Alone Release Show.”

By Blake Maddux

“Been a while now since I’ve seen my friends. Don’t know when I’m gonna see them again,” sings Sarah Borges on the opening track of her new album, Together Alone.

This is, of course, not the first time that a someone has taken to song to express a combination of longing and uncertainty.

However, the Taunton native’s words are particularly fraught and relatable given the harsh realities wrought by COVID-19.

They take on added weight when sung by someone whose livelihood is dependent on as many people as possible gathering in confined public spaces.

Much of Borges’s recently released album, Together Alone, address the personal and financial stress that she has undergone over the course of the past two years as both a working musician and fairly recently divorced mother of a young child.

Sarah Borges’ latest release, “Together Alone.”

The three-time Boston Music Awards honoree originally had a record release show scheduled at The Burren on April 2.

Alas, that had to be postponed due to a positive result for the coronavirus. Thankfully, it has been rescheduled for this Saturday at the same venue.

In the following Q&A, Borges discusses how her new 10-song collection came together under less-than-ideal circumstances.

The Somerville Times: Had you previously collaborated with any of the musicians on Together Alone?

Sarah Borges: Eric Ambel, who produced the record and plays guitar and some auxiliary items, had produced a couple records with me previously. He also tours with me and has sort of become almost a mentor. He made the record possible because he knew how to take the remote recording that we had to do and make it sound like we were all in the same room.

The guy who plays bass on most of the tracks is named Keith Voegele. He’s my boyfriend, but he also was in The Bottle Rockets. We had played with them a ton before, too. And the other folks I knew, but we had never played together. And because so much of the record was made from afar, there are people who played on the record who I haven’t met in person. I’ve only talked to them electronically or on the phone.

TST: Several songs (Wasting My Time, Rock and Roll Hour, Together Alone) reference worries about paying the rent and bills. Is She’s a Trucker about how you made up income lost from not being able to perform live?

SB: Yeah. Basically, I’m a courier, so I go to a location in Chelsea and then just deliver whatever. Yesterday, I went to the Medical Examiner’s office in Boston, and sometimes I deliver dialysis machines. It just really depends on the day. That’s what I do when I’m not doing the band stuff.

TST: The song You Got Me on the Boat was inspired by an Outlaw Country Cruise that you participated in. How did you choose the three bands that you mention in it?

SB: They were all on the boat! (laughs) They are also three bands that I really admire. Eric  Ambel – we call him “Roscoe” – was in The Yayhoos. And I’m such a huge NRBQ fan. John Perrin, who’s their drummer now, played on Together Alone. And The Mavericks are just a band that I love.

TST: Would it be correct to say that your previous album, 2018’s Love’s Middle Name, had more of a rock and roll component to it while Together Alone is more country-flavored?

SB: I think that’s right on. Some of the songs on Love’s Middle Name, I wrote on an electric guitar with the band. I had the basic idea, then brought it to them and they finished fleshing it out. For this record, it was just me home with an acoustic guitar. And the initial track for every single song was an acoustic guitar track. So when you’re starting there as opposed to an electric track, I think it lends itself to something different.

TST: The first song on Love’s Middle Name, House on the Hill, includes the lyric, “I’ve given it some thought/About what we are and what we’re really not/Together alone/Cut to the quick down to the bone.” Does that phrase resonate with you in some particular way?

SB: Yes. You are the first person to catch it! So I said it once, and I liked the phrase. Then pandemic time came, and what could be more descriptive of this time we’re in of how we made the record? Plus, I already said it once, so it’s a nice little foreshadowing.

TST: You wrote or co-wrote all of the songs on Together Alone. On your previous albums, you covered artists as disparate as Mahalia Jackson and The Magnetic Fields. What prompts the decision to record others’ material?

SB: When I like a song, I always want to know how it’s put together. It’s almost like if you like toasters, you’re going to take apart the toaster and figure it out. I think that they were all songs that I just liked and really wanted to understand better. It’s really just a matter of, “I can’t hear this song enough, so I better learn how to play it myself so I don’t have to keep hitting rewind.”

TST: You have won and been nominated for numerous Boston Music Awards. How important is that to you?

SB: All I know is that when I was a kid in Taunton, MA, and the Boston Music Awards would happen, they would run the winners in the paper the next day. And they’ve run the winners in the paper the times that I’ve won, and the feeling of having your grandma be proud of you because your name’s in the paper because you won a gosh-darn Boston Music Award is priceless! Of course, it’s an honor to be nominated, but when you win it, you feel great.

Sarah Borges Together Alone Release Show: Saturday, July 16 at The Burren, 247 Elm Street, Davis Square. Doors at 6, show at 7. $20 in advance, $25 at the door.