GOOD GRIEF, SHE’S BACK

Sara Bareilles opens the studio door for
an intimate look at the music, friendships,
and emotions behind her first album in seven years

Sara Bareilles hasn’t made a studio album in seven years. When she finally returned to record one, she invited writer-director Josh Alexander into the room. What began as a document of Bareilles making music with close friends became something considerably more personal: Sara Bareilles: Good Grief, a new documentary arriving in theaters nationwide on September 2.

The film follows Bareilles through the making of Good Grief, her first album since 2019, capturing the conversations, confessions, false starts, and creative discoveries that accompany the recording process. As its title suggests, grief is very much in the room, but the documentary is less interested in mourning than in what happens when loss finds its way into the work. Bareilles has called the film a “sister piece” to the album, one that reveals more of what was happening behind the songs.

Sara Bareilles: Good Grief

Alexander had unusually intimate access. Rather than reconstructing the album’s creation after the fact, he was present as Bareilles and her friends worked, allowing the camera to catch the less easily packaged parts of making music. The resulting film received a high-profile introduction this summer at the Tribeca Festival, where a sold-out screening at the Beacon Theatre was followed by a performance from Bareilles.

The documentary is only one part of a particularly busy season for Bareilles. The Good Grief album arrives August 28 with 14 tracks, including “Salt Then Sour Then Sweet,” featuring Brandi Carlile. The film follows five days later, opening in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Miami, and more than 35 cities around the country. Then Bareilles heads out on tour, including stops at Radio City Music Hall, the Chicago Theatre, the Dolby Theatre, and San Francisco’s Bill Graham Civic Auditorium.

For an artist whose songs have always had a knack for making private feelings sound unexpectedly communal, opening up the process behind them seems particularly apt. Sara Bareilles: Good Grief offers the chance to see what usually happens before an album reaches us: the people in the room, the uncertainty behind the finished song, and the experiences that gave the music something to say.

✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦

photo courtesy of Group Effort Films

Sara Bareilles: Good Grief
opens in theaters nationwide September 2, 2026
for a full list of locations, click here

Good Grief album available August 28

Sara Bareilles Live begins September 9
tour dates here

for more info, visit Sara Bareilles

✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦