Bobbi Rich
Executed well, songwriting is a skill that stands up to just about any style. That is to say, even if the dressing up of a track is not to your liking, if you’re discerning, you won’t be able to deny the reassuring solidity of what’s buried under scrunched-up bundles of tulle and organza. Such is my experience taking in the discography of Sierra Ferrell.
A wayward West Virginian freight-jumping street busker who found her way from hard life to the Nashville A-list, Ferrell’s output walks a funny path. While the overarching effect is shorthand for roots music, her oeuvre emerges delicately, flaunting a long train of genre fluency that brings along elements of gypsy jazz, tango, and other more traditionally associated Americana-related sounds. So while someone like me would be happy to never have to hear a banjo again, her songs are so well-crafted that I can look past the instrument’s somewhat regular appearance.
Though her voice is neither deep nor window-rattling in strength, its tunefulness and flexibility in carrying melodies arrives in an unusually anachronistic delivery that recalls the type of classics that permeated 1930s and 1940s Warner Bros. musicals. Numbers like “The Sea” or “Why’d Ya Do It,” from Long Time Coming (2021) could have been written 100 years ago—and believe me—that’s a compliment of the highest order.
Seems that Ferrell’s rise has come with appropriate recognition, as she’s amassed a handful of Grammy Awards from her 2024 breakthrough, Trail of Flowers (Best Americana Album), and its poignant reflection on touring life, “American Dreaming,” which topped categories in Best American Roots Song and Americana Performance. There’s also a steady string of non-album singles that include the cute f-you duet “A Lesson in Leavin’” with Nikki Lane, plus stepping in as a featured artist on others’ tracks, including a Top 40 single “Holy Roller” by mainstream country star Zach Bryan and “Ready or Not” with Shakey Graves.
For a brief career, Ferrell’s already packed in very high-quality work, the bulk of which is costumed in a fetching collection of fabrics and colors, upcycled with an unexpectedly glamorous thrift store ingenuity.
CAUTION: The writer’s unrestrained cynicism and unresolved issues shape the writing of this opinion column. Results may vary.
