Nashville, Tennessee may be well known as a ‘ten-year town’ for artists to make an industry breakthrough but West Virginian Sierra Ferrell tore up the rule book when she arrived in Music City just over four years ago. A residency at the legendary American Legion weekly honky tonk nights as a member of the band The Cowpokes brought her to the attention of the big wigs at Rounder Records, who took little time in signing her to their label. The release of her debut album LONG TIME COMING on that label in 2021 drew universal critical acclaim and was a Lonesome Highway Album of The Year last year.
Due to Covid restrictions, her gig previously scheduled for The Workman’s Club was postponed and eventually rearranged for the larger venue, The Button Factory. The show was the opener of her European and U.K. tour, where she will play sell-out shows and festivals over the coming weeks before heading back Stateside to continue touring there for the rest of the year.
To say that her performance at The Button Factory was a triumph is possibly an understatement. From her opening song In Dreams to the set closer Jeremiah, she enthralled the large attendance with her knockout vocal range, polished stage presence, and deft guitar and fiddle work. Accompanying her on stage were two of Nashville’s finest players. Grammy Award winner and much sought-after session player Geoff Saunders played upright bass, with fiddle and mandolin parts performed by founding member of The Stray Birds, Oliver Bates Craven, with both also providing harmony vocals.
Ferrell’s eclectic musical style has been branded as everything from gypsy jazz to swinging bluegrass. Whatever the pigeon-hole she’s placed in, her talent and styling have drawn her to punters of all ages. The normal audience for roots and Americana audiences in Dublin have age profiles north of fifty, so it was particularly refreshing to witness that the majority in attendance fell well below that age category and seemed to know every musical twist, turn and lyric offered to them.
Understandably the set included the best part of her LONG TIME COMING album, particular standouts being Silver Dollar, Bells of Every Chapel, and West Virginia Waltz. The latter, a co-write with upright bass player Geoff Saunders, was given a somewhat slower treatment than the studio version and included stunning harmony vocals from Ferrell and her side men. Also included was a remodelled version of Charlie Poole & The North Carolina Ramblers’ Don’t Let Your Deal Go Down and two new songs destined for her next album titled I’d Do It and Foxhunt. She also visited her early recordings on Bandcamp with Rosemary and Lighthouse. Another of the many highlights of the show was the crowd favourite At the End of the Rainbow, which included an additional ‘vocal only’ chorus where she invited the audience to take part.
Having finished the evening to rapturous applause with the most requested song of the evening Jeremiah, she returned to the stage with the band to encore with a rollicking version of the classic Osborne Brothers bluegrass song Lonesome Feeling, bookending what was a spectacularly successful opening tour night. Given the quality and professionalism on show, Ferrell is far from at the end of her musical rainbow and is only on the maiden voyage of a career that is very much and rapidly in the ascendancy.
Review and photography by Declan Culliton