Sierra Ferrell

One of the brightest young luminaries in roots music today, Sierra Ferrell brings a dose ofbeautifully strange magic to everything she touches. Since the release of her 2024 album Trail OfFlowers (Rounder Records), the West Virginia-born singer/songwriter/multi-instrumentalist tookhome the Artist of the Year and Album of the Year prizes at the Americana Honors & Awards, andearned four GRAMMY nominations Best Americana Album (Trail of Flowers), Best American RootsPerformance (“Lighthouse”), Best Americana Performance (“American Dreaming”), and BestAmerican Roots Song (“American Dreaming”). Ferrell has collaborated with the likes of MargoPrice, Old Crow Medicine Show, and Post Malone, and enchanted audiences all over North Americaand Europe with her high-spirited and dazzling live performance. On Trail Of Flowers, the Nashville-based artist expands her sound while deepening the urgency of her songs, often revealing a wealth ofwisdom within her wildly imaginative storytelling. Her first full-length since Long Time Coming—a 2021 release that drew praise from outlets likePitchfork, Paste, Pop Matters, and No Depression—Trail Of Flowers came to life with producerEddie Spear (Zach Bryan, Brandi Carlile, Chris Stapleton) and additional production by GaryPaczosa (Alison Krauss, Dwight Yoakam, Gillian Welch) and with such esteemed musicians as ChrisScruggs. In keeping with a musical upbringing that included playing everywhere from truck stops toboxcars to New Orleans street corners, the album journeys from freewheeling bluegrass toheartrending old-time music to fantastically gritty honky-tonk and beyond, endlessly changing shapeto accommodate the immense scope of Ferrell’s eccentric musicality. Mainly recorded at SoundEmporium Studios and featuring guest appearances from singer/songwriters Lukas Nelson andNikki Lane, Trail Of Flowers ultimately fulfills her longstanding mission of making music thattranscends all barriers of time. “I wanted to create something that makes people feel nostalgic forthe past, but excited about the future of music,” Ferrell points out. Instantly proving her extraordinary capacity to merge timeless musicianship with lyrics exploringmodern concerns, Trail Of Flowers opens on “American Dreaming”: a world-weary yet soul-stirringtrack that speaks to the struggle to build a good life in a culture consumed by capitalism. Anothersong informed by her singular outlook on the modern world, “Fox Hunt” takes the form of afuriously stomping epic driven by galloping rhythms and some feverish fiddle work from Ferrell. On“Rosemary,” she delves further into her old-time roots and delivers the album’s most hauntingmoment: a stark but spellbinding story-song graced with a few bars of soulful yodeling. Aprofoundly gifted vocalist, Ferrell often captures an entire world of feeling in just a single line,particularly on tracks like “Dollar Bill Bar”—a swinging but wistful number on which she cyclesfrom longing to regret to devil-may-care attitude with impossible ease. And on “I Could Drive YouCrazy,” Ferrell serves up one of the most joyful moments on Trail Of Flowers, sharing a harmony-fueled and singalong-ready love song that’s both self-effacing and gloriously fun. In selecting a title for her latest body of work, Ferrell chose to reference her deep love of flowersand affinity for surrounding herself with gorgeously colorful blossoms—a perfect reflection of herwondrous inner world. As a listening experience, Trail Of Flowers provides a similar sensation of all-enveloping and off-kilter beauty—one that Ferrell hopes might lift others into a more charmed stateof mind. “I’m just trying to put words and melodies together and build it into something people canpour their feelings too, all their happiness and sorrows, so that it changes their reality a little bit andgives them some comfort,” she says. “To me music is like medicine. And whenever I write a songand it feels healing to me, I know it can heal other people too.”