Music Review

PATTY GRIFFIN, SARA WATKINS,

andANAIS MITCHELL: Use Your Voice

Presented by Celebrity Series of Boston.

At Sanders Theatre, March 10

CAMBRIDGE — A charismatic figure stood onstage Thursday evening and rallied a supportive crowd in the cause of building a wall to keep undesirables away. “The wall keeps out the enemy and we build the wall to keep us free,’’ the appeal went, “. . . because we have and they have not!’’

Although the front-runner for the Republican presidential nomination was also onstage this night, at the GOP debate nearly 1,500 miles away, it was Anaïs Mitchell who belted out her archly satirical song “Why We Build the Wall,’’ garnering easily the most enthusiastic ovation on an evening dedicated to getting out the vote. This Sanders Theatre audience needed no commentary to connect the dots between the 2010 song — sung in the voice of the mythical lord of the underworld, imagined as the autocratic CEO of an epically miserable company town — and the platform of presidential candidate Donald Trump.

It was the dramatic high point of the local stop on the “Use Your Voice’’ tour, featuring the newly formed unit of Mitchell, Patty Griffin, and Sara Watkins, each a beloved figure in the world of acoustic-minded American music, in partnership with the League of Women Voters. (This trio was joined by David Pulkingham, who served as welcome musical glue all night on acoustic and electric guitars.)

But the political talk was kept to a minimum as the three women took turns leading songs, showing off wonderful combinations of musical assets.

Mitchell and Watkins lent sweet backing vocals to Griffin’s “Burgundy Shoes,’’ led by the songwriter on piano. Watkins, best known for her work with progressive-bluegrass trio Nickel Creek, lent wonderful colors to Mitchell’s haunting “Young Man in America,’’ authoring a fiddle solo that beguiled while hugging the tune’s melody. For John Hartford’s “Long Hot Summer Days,’’ Watkins accompanied her fiddle with just boot-stomping and an audience sing-along.

Griffin, who was in fine voice, was the respected elder stateswoman of the group. She noted that she’d lived in the Boston area for 10 years as a young musician, and jokingly apologized to anyone in the audience whom she may have served as a waitress. In a featured spot, she was accompanied only by Pulkingham’s acoustic fingerpicking for a gripping “Waiting for My Child.’’

As Griffin clutched a microphone stand with her right hand and waved around the other, Mitchell and Watkins watched intently from the side, seemingly entranced.

They were not alone.

Patty Griffin, Sara WatKins, and Anaïs Mitchell: Use Your Voice

Presented by Celebrity Series of Boston. At Sanders Theatre, March 10

Jeremy D. Goodwin can be reached at jeremy@jeremydgoodwin.com.