The award-winning musician, singer and songwriter kicks off the fall concert series at Grand Rapids’ Royce Auditorium. The Local Spins interview, with recent performance videos.
A Favorite of Michigan Bluegrass Fans: Sierra Hull (Photo/Sam Wiseman)
SCROLL DOWN FOR VIDEOS
Mandolin whiz, singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Sierra Hull turns 33 later this month, but she already boasts more than two decades of stage experience, having made her Grand Ole Opry debut at age 10 and signing with Rounder Records at age 13.
Support our coverage of
West Michigan's music scene
The award-winning bluegrass and folk artist has released five acclaimed studio albums, including two that soared straight to No. 1 on the Billboard Bluegrass Chart: 2016’s “Weighted Mind” and 2020’s “25 Trips.”
She’s also been a favorite of Michigan audiences, headlining Wheatland Music Festival earlier this month, joining guitar phenom Billy Strings for last October’s Halloween homecoming spectacle at Van Andel Arena and helping light up Greensky Bluegrass’ 2021 mini-fest at Kent County’s Shagbark Farm.
Tonight, she kicks off St. Cecilia Music Center’s fall edition of the “Acoustic Cafe” folk series at the intimate, 650-seat Royce Auditorium in Grand Rapids. The concert, with special guest Stephanie Lambring, begins at 7:30 p.m. A few remaining tickets, $24-$54, are available online here.
‘Very Fun and Chill; Hull performing at Wheatland. (Photo/Ted Bergin)
Local Spins writer Enrique Olmos recently caught up with Hull to chat about her music and tour.
Local Spins: Sierra, hello! Thanks for taking some time to talk. I happened to catch your Saturday evening set at Wheatland Music Festival. It was magnificent. How’d was your Wheatland experience?
Sierra Hull: Wheatland was very fun and chill, you know, kind of that familiar feeling to some of the other, older bluegrass festivals I used to play. It was a different kind of scene since there’s quite the variety of music there. You could tell that the people going to that festival seemed to be ingrained in the history of it.
Local Spins: I like to ask early in the conversation what the last 24 hours entailed in your world, wherever you are in the world?
Sierra Hull: We got home kind of late Monday night to Nashville. Yesterday, I was working from home, trying to get caught up on things before we’re gone for like three weeks on tour. And right now, I just wrapped a baby shower gift for a friend of mine. Yesterday, me and my husband, who’s also a musician, went to a picking party. It was nice just to have a little, uh, end of summer picking party. It’s a gathering with traditional folk instruments.
Local Spins: I do have to ask, since you mentioned gift wrapping, what kind of gift wrapper are you?
Sierra Hull: You know, in the most humble of ways, I’ll say that I care about it and I enjoy it … so therefore I’m decent at it. I grew up with a mom who was really good at wrapping Christmas gifts, so I was well-taught on how to properly wrap a present.
Hull and Band: From picking parties to big stage spectacles. (Photo/Chloe Weir)
Local Spins: So at a picking party, like the one you and your husband attended, what’s your approach as a musician in that setting?
Sierra Hull: Well, playing together at the same time is about falling in where it makes sense. For those of us that kind of grew up around very traditional forms of music, there’s a kind of language within bluegrass. A lot of the instruments have their role. When you show up at a jam, there’s a lot of natural improvising that happens as well.
Local Spins: What are your first musical memories?
Sierra Hull: I grew up hearing music in church and learning to sing harmony. When I say church, I don’t mean like a fancy choir or anything like that. But the kind of backwoods Southern Baptist, singing-out-of-the-hymn-book kind. It wasn’t fancy, but people sang all the time. Hearing singing was very much part of my upbringing, so I think by the time I got into bluegrass, there were sort of these specific harmonies that felt easier to start to pick apart, just from having spent so much time around music and singing even as a kid.
Local Spins: How do you think you’ll look back and reflect on the current musical memories you’re making?
Sierra Hull: It’s interesting, I think the older I get, the more I realize how music has been so much of what my world has been built around since I was a small kid. I knew I wanted to do this since the time I was like eight, you know. That was clear early on. I wanted to make records. I wanted to travel. I wanted to perform. That’s been the thing that has fueled me, that love of it. I’m already so grateful that I get to do the thing that I fell in love with and knew I wanted to do.
VIDEO: Sierra Hull, “Black Muddy River” (Live)
VIDEO: Sierra Hull, “Bombshell” (Live)
VIDEO: Sierra Hull, “Mad World” (Audio)
Copyright 2024, Spins on Music LLC
