From hopping trains to crushing on Kimmel, Sierra Ferrell’s roving country roots help her go places
Erin Osmon April 1, 2024
On a hotel rooftop in Hollywood, facing the glitterati tucked into the hills, Sierra Ferrell explained how to pack for a clandestine ride in a boxcar.
Some dry goods. A couple
of
jugs of water. Cans of ravioli and an opener. And of course, some alcohol, she said, her grin revealing a gold cap on her right-front tooth.
The singer-song
writerer
, 35, began freighthopping when she was 23 years old after befriending some itinerant musicians in her hometown Charleston,
West Virginia
W.Va. She said shes ridden about 30 trains in the manner immortalized by Great Depression imagery and Roger Millers King of the Road. Which is to say: it aint Joe Bidens beloved Amtrak.
There are people who go out there and romanticize it, which is understandable, she said. But it could be dangerous and the people could be dangerous.
Contrary to crust-punk tradition, Ferrell didnt dress in black or sport a raccoon tail. I was more of a hippie, she said, but one that wasnt noticeably
grimy.grimey.
I would carry baby wipes and clean my face and hands, she added. Sometimes people would be like, I dont believe you ride trains. And I was like, Why? Because Im not dirty enough?!
On March 22, Ferrell
will
release
d
Trail of Flowers, her fourth full-length album and
her
second for Americana label Rounder Records. The release finds the singer a lifetime away from her peripatetic origins. However, the free spiritedness of her music an uncommon blend of old-time bluegrass, country, ragtime, folk and jazz, anchored by her powerhouse vocals that by turns recall Patsy Cline, Dolly Parton and Bessie Smith remains largely the same.
The incorporation of D d
rums
are is
the most marked change on the new album. They were added because Ferrell desired a bigger sound, as if to mirror her rising profile.
By being uniquely herself, the singer has amassed a coterie of prominent admirers. I love Sierras voice and think shes a great interpreter of songs, the musician Margo Price said via email. Price asked Ferrell to sing on a stripped-
down
acoustic version of her song Change of Heart, released in 2023, and emphasized the importance of women in Americana sticking together.
Absolutely I feel a kinship with her, Price said. She is doing her own thing and has a style all her own. Its so important to lift up new artists instead of feeling like theyre competition.
Ferrell grew up poor and was raised, along with her two brothers, by her mother, who married eight times. Her dad legally changed his name to avoid paying child support. In spite of it all, she was an upbeat,
performative animated
kid who was always making noises, making drumbeats, humming, singing along to commercials and theme songs.
My family, sometimes theyd be like, SHUT UP! she explained. I could be a lot. I didnt realize it at the time, but I was preparing for this. It was like my soul already knew what I was here to do.
She learned about American musical traditions by attending folk music festivals, such as the
Appalachian String Band Music Festival in West Virginia
(aka Clifftop), where she became enamored with songs that were hundreds of years old, she said. She also lived in a van in New Orleans, where she played on the streets for eight years and soaked in the citys music, new and old.
sierra-ferrell-ryman-1-by-bobbi-rich.png
Before moving to Nashville, where she still lives, and launching as a solo artist, Ferrell was a vagabond who traveled between the Big Easy and Seattle. Along the way, she busked on streets from Colorado to California, and occasionally popped up on YouTube in nascent collectives including a ragtime group called Ladies on the Rag and a duo called the Feral Creek Sweethearts.
Singer-songwriter Todd Snyder was the first notable musician to praise Ferrells genre-hopping style and big voice. In 2014, he wrote a stream-of-consciousness screed for the magazine Magnet titled From the desk of hard working Americans: Sierra Elizabeth Ferrell. He paired Ferrell with his producer Eric McConnel and the two made the records Pretty Magic Spell and Washington by the Sea, which Ferrell self-released on Bandcamp. Snyder was also supposed to take her out on tour, a plan that was yoinked out from under me, Ferrell explained.
That kind of honestly devastated me, she said. It hurt my feelings and so I kind of disappeared from that scene for a minute. I started traveling and riding trains and hitchhiking again.
Today, Ferrell has a marketing and public relations team, and a budget that allows her to stage elaborate live shows with costumes and visuals executed by her creative collaborator Bobbi Rich, whos also worked with Price and Brittany Howard. Ferrells aesthetic, like her music, is a singular blend that joins past with present: 19th century carnival-core, art nouveau huntress, cosmic cowgirl, anime pixie and futuristic Las Vegas showgirl. The common denominator is Ferrells singular ability to blend fantastical flash.
On this day, she wears a two-piece vintage cowgirl ensemble under a 70s-era leather coat with a fur collar. The sides of her long hair are set in two victory rolls like a 1940s pinup model. Ferrell pointed to the hoops in her ears and the chains around her neck. I have gold and stuff now because of the money Ive earned, she said. But coming from nothing, money isnt that important to me. I dont need this stuff.
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Shes sort of the new version of what Dolly is, said Alejandro Rose-Garcia, the Austin, Texas-based musician known as Shakey Graves. The pair met when Ferrell opened a 2022 Shakey Graves tour where Rose-Garcia was immediately struck by her voice, which he described as flawless, timeless and like recorded music.
Rose-Garcia invited Ferrell to perform on Ready or Not from his 2023 album Movie of the Week, a song inspired by the pop spirit of Islands in the Stream,
Dolly
Partons enduring duet with Kenny Rogers.
During our conversation, he drew The musician draws
parallels between Ferrell and Parton, including their humble backgrounds, preternatural singing voices, work ethics, bold choices and aesthetics, and progressive stances. He
then also
pointed to the inevitable friction between artistic fulfillment and commercial demands that many rising musicians, himself included, have faced. Sierra is very sensitive to that stuff, as she should be, he said. I think she doesnt want to be typecast in a way thats going to hold her down in the future.
In 2022, Ferrell was named Emerging Artist of the Year at Nashvilles Americana Awards, and made her Grand Ole Opry debut the same year. Her 2024 tour includes four arena stops with country megastar Zach Bryan, an appearance at the Newport Folk Festival and many sold-out dates. The day after this interview, on Jan. 18, she
madewill make
her late-night television debut on “Jimmy Kimmel Live!”
In interviews Ferrell has attributed her recent whirlwind rise, which also includes an appearance on Bryans
Holly “Holy Roller
which has with
about 40 million streams on Spotify to the teams that came with her signing to Rounder.
sierra-ferrell-ryman-3-by-bobbi-rich.png
I genuinely do feel that way because I know so many talented peoplewho should be where I am but arent, she said. Im not going to discredit my talent and hours of working to get myself where I am musically, but I think there is definitely a political side to this sort of thing.
To help her
self
remain grounded, Ferrell plays charity gigs
; many
center
ed
around her concern for the environment.
Recently,on Jan. 15, In January,
she performed a concert in Indianapolis whose proceeds in part benefited a childrens literacy program through the public libraries. Six days before that, on Jan. 9, she headed home to West Virginia to raise awareness about clean water.
She recalled the 2014 chemical contamination of the Elk River, which runs through her hometown. It left 300,000 West Virginia residents without clean water to drink or bathe in; businesses, schools and hospitals in eight counties were forced to close or enact emergency measures. Nearly 10 years later, West Virginias drinking water ranks among the nations worst.
It just shows how fragile our systems are and how much we really rely on our leaders and they keep letting us down, Ferrell said. She looked up toward the Los Angeles sky and sighed. Like the smog here is insane. Its all part of the systems that have been put in place for us.
Ferrell expressed her belief in an artists duty to speak out, and insisted that music should be deeper than the industry standard of sex, drugs and rock n’ roll. She called those cliches distractions and low frequency vibrations. We need to help vibrate people up here, she said, placing her hand near her heart. Music is medicine for people.
During our conversation, it became clear that Ferrell feels the spiritual, emotional and physical worlds around her very deeply. She often referenced vibrations and frequencies and how they connect people to people, and people to the natural world.
Shes a fire sign with an affinity for water signs. [Australian roots musician] C.W. Stoneking is a pisces and I dated him for a little bit, and I dated this guy named Joe Fulton and hes a pisces and I loved him, she said. And the mercurial, self aggrandizing pisces, like Billy Corgan of the Smashing Pumpkins? Thats typical male action, she concluded. We need more women leaders out here.
Ferrell said shes the most introverted extroverted person she knows and its sort of like a burning a candle from both ends mentality, but accidentally. Like many who feel very deeply, she also suffers from bouts of depression. I honestly should be put on medication, but I refuse to do it, she said. Ive been put on medications before and they just make me feel less. I have a hard time loving people and expressing love.
On the flipside, she called drugs such as Adderall legal meth. Were not supposed to be mentally capable of doing a million things at once, and have the capacity to know a million fing people or be in touch with that many people. When shes overworked and stressed out, she logs off, from life and the internet.The next day, d D
uring sound check at Jimmy Kimmels studio in the cartoonish heart of Hollywood Boulevard, Ferrell lived up to her hippie origins. In tie-dye yoga pants and a button-down denim shirt, she and her five-piece band ran through her song Fox Hunt three times, each vocal performance more powerful than the last. The bluegrass-centric tune positions Ferrell on fiddle alongside lead fiddler Oliver Craven, while drums, mandolin, banjo and bass flesh out its updated sense of tradition.
sierra-ferrell-trail-of-flowers-1-by-bobbi-rich.jpeg
Backstage in the green room Ferrells band, whose members have taken to calling her sissy the Southernism for sister mugged for the camera, taking selfies to send back home to Nashville. Ferrell joined them in front of a large
“
Jimmy Kimmel Live
!”
sign for musical family photos.
Jimmy Kimmie l! they shouted in unison as production assistants, Rounder Records reps and Ferrells creative team snapped pics.
Though the group vibe was palpable joy, the energy in Ferrells dressing room was a bit more complex. As Rich glue-gunned flowers to Ferrells costume, the pair explained their vision, which began as a mood board and manifested as a large animated backdrop of psychedelic trees, flowers, fields and clouds that danced behind Ferrell and her band on stage.
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I want this to be a voice for the forest, the singer said, twirling the flower-dotted braids that fell around her face like vines on a tree limb. The costume she had slipped into a green corset with poofy pink sleeves, green hot pants, tights covered in vines and knee-high boots landed somewhere between Robin Hood and Sailor Moon. Thank you! Rich said when I mentioned the words woodland nymph and anime.
But it wasnt all pink flowers and pixies. The previous night, Ferrell developed an intense cough and was working to mitigate it with hot tea and lots of water. She was also upset about a Rolling Stone profile of her published that morning. According to Ferrell, it mischaracterized a comment she made about the country singer Jelly Roll.I was talking about how African American artists get buried; how when you look up a song or something, it’s like you see all these white people covering their songs, which is beautiful and amazing, but that kind of buries the African American people in the mess and the madness of the internet vortex, she explained. And so I used Jelly Roll as an example because, you know, the original Jelly Roll is Jelly Roll Morton from a long time ago.She continued, It was just worded weirdly and it upsets me because Im sensitive. Ive already talked to a couple of people trying to reach out to him. It hurts my feelings that it may have hurt his feelingshaving that come out, it kind of ruined my day a little.After clarifying that she was thrilled to be backstage at Kimmel,
Ferrell and Rich headed to the stage to shoot photographs in front of their animated flower-power creation. Soon, Ferrell and her band would make their television debut, performing Fox Hunt for a studio audience.
The songs lyrics, hinged on the image of a humble rural hunter just trying to survive, double
s
as an analog for Ferrells journey to date, from West Virginia vagabond to Americana queen. Standing in what may be the least-natural setting possible, she emanated the look and power of the Greek goddess-hunter Arte
r
mis. Though her kill was metaphorical, it may be more nourishing. Three and a half minutes of network television can swiftly upgrade an entire career.
Shoot for the moon, sissy bird! Rich said as Ferrell posed in profile, her fiddle in one hand and bow in the other. Then, as if to call her next shot, she pointed her bow skyward and smiled.
