Wednesday 3rd December 2025

Co-Op Live, Manchester, England

Towards the end of her short opening set, Sierra Ferrell invites Marcus Mumford and Ben Lovett out onto the stage to join her and her band. “That’s what we’re here for,” says a runty man stood in the crowd behind me, and no doubt he speaks, albeit too rudely, for many of the 20,000 people here who have filtered into the Co-Op Live arena in Manchester to hear Mumford and Sons, tonight’s headliners.

But he doesn’t speak for me. I wager there are a few others like me, scattered throughout the arena like cuckoos in the nest, who have made their way here tonight with the sole desire to hear Miss Sierra sing. I last heard her live in June of 2022, a short pilgrimage over to Liverpool to witness this small wonder of the modern world; it was so wondrous an experience that it moved me to write for the first time about music, in a review I wrote of the night. It’s a habit I’ve continued, for forty gigs since that night at the Future Yard in Birkenhead, but with no opportunity to write again about Sierra. Aside from a few festival appearances, this is the first time she’s returned to English shores, and I decide that even if it’s as an opener rather than a deserved headliner, I’m going to savour every moment. It has been, you could say, a long time coming.

More than three years after she cast her pretty magic spell in Birkenhead, Sierra Ferrell now appears on the stage in Manchester, an apparition in a fetching purple Victorian dress and matching vintage hat, looking like she is about to walk into 221b Baker Street to enquire about the services of Mr. Sherlock Holmes. Sierra’s costuming eccentricities have become a key feature of her live shows; the last time I saw her, her hair was bedight with flowers, but tonight the flowers are confined to a large, vivid bouquet placed before her on the stage.

Preceding Sierra’s arrival are the five men of her band, all in matching white patterned shirts and black neckties, looking for all the world like an old-timey country band. On Sierra’s right, closest to my side of the stage where I view from near the front of the pit, Oliver Bates Craven sets himself with fiddle in hand. He’ll also switch to electric guitar at some points in the band’s set. Behind him, Matty Meyer is seated on the drums, next to Geoff Saunders on bass (both electric and upright). On the other side – next to an oversized bass drum which looms like Chekhov’s gun, ‘Heavy Petal Music’ written in large yellow letters on the drumskin – Mike Robinson fills in on acoustic guitar, banjo, dobro and pedal steel. Before him, Joshua Rilko – who, like Oliver and Geoff, is a familiar face by Sierra’s side – carries a mandolin. Completing the old-timey look, all five men are in white hats, aside from Joshua in black.

For their first number, Sierra joins Oliver’s fiddle with one of her own, leading the introductory notes of ‘I Could Drive You Crazy’ as Geoff runs a bow across his upright bass. Sierra Ferrell begins to sing – a sentence I’ve been waiting to write again for more than three years – her voice coming in high and strong and pure. I realise that for many of the people here tonight, this will be the first time they’ve heard that voice. While we’re only treated to nine songs from Sierra tonight, we’re blessed for each and every one of them.

This triumphant opener is followed by ‘Jeremiah’, one of Sierra’s signature songs and an opportunity for the band to really find their groove. Joshua moves to banjo and Mike bends some notes on a dobro, Sierra spinning carefree in a circle as they play. She’s a star in the making, as natural and at ease in this arena of 20,000 as she was in front of the few hundred at the Future Yard in 2022. It’s in this song that I make my peace with Sierra only being an opening act tonight; this is her crowd, for these nine songs, and she glides through it all with us in the palm of her hand.

‘Jeremiah’ is followed by ‘Bells of Every Chapel’, its title announced lustily by Sierra, with Mike switching to pedal steel to give yet more authentic country feel to the band’s sound. But despite their look and the instruments they have to hand, Sierra Ferrell and her band are no hidebound purists or retro tricksters. They prove this in their next song, with the drum patter and dirty electric guitar of ‘Why’d Ya Do It?’ a cool change of pace that surely slays any remaining sceptics among the mainstream Mumford fans tonight that this is a gal to reckon with.

Joshua’s mandolin begins the next song, ‘Years’, the only song tonight that isn’t penned by Sierra herself. It’s a cover of a John Anderson song that Sierra has made her own since she recorded it for a tribute album a few years ago. It suits her voice perfectly as, sans instrument, she picks up the microphone and strolls to the front of the stage to sing. She gestures tears from her eyes and dances snakily to the lyric “like the wind”, but as with all things Sierra it’s the vocal performance which is the most impressive. With harmonies from the men in the band, Sierra’s voice fills the arena – something it feels like it has always been destined to do. Her haunting woos resound as the song draws to a close and the lights go out to a rising applause.

Next up, a real boon for the cuckoos in this nest as we are treated to an unreleased song that Sierra, back behind her acoustic guitar, announces as ‘Kickin’ Up Dust’. It’s a wonderful country song, sincere and homespun and played straight, reminiscent of Dolly Parton as Sierra sings “Put one foot in front of the other/That’s the way it always goes/One thing leads to another/Kickin’ up dust on a hardwood floor.” The band plays it with a sort of easy, laid-back zest, almost like the way an old favourite or well-known standard would be played. It’s an uncanny sensation, as the song, while new and unheard, sounds like a rediscovered classic. It settles in all snug and nice.

A big cheer erupts as Sierra now invites Marcus Mumford and Ben Lovett onto the stage for what will be one of her best-received songs of the night – and not just because of the added star power. ‘American Dreaming’ is, I confess, not a song that’s hit me all that strongly before, but its wistful verses and anthemic chorus are ideal for a live setting. Marcus in particular seems glad to be here, bouncing out onto the stage and hugging Sierra. With Ben behind him on accordion, Marcus is relaxed and grinning behind his electric guitar, revelling in this opportunity to harmonise with Sierra as she stands with a microphone in one hand and a sprig of flowers in the other and sings. At the end, as the crowd cheers, he blows her a kiss and bows theatrically to her talent.

The goodwill spreads, with Sierra introducing her penultimate song, ‘Dollar Bill Bar’ – Marcus and Ben having now left the stage – with some simple, earnest thoughts on spirituality and loving one another. ‘Dollar Bill Bar’ is a well-judged song for this stage of the night, an easy, rolling pop number that still allows space for Sierra’s impressive vocals.

All too soon, we’re into the final song of Sierra’s set – a big finale. The big Heavy Petal Music bass drum, which has been cocked like Chehkov’s gun at the back of the stage, is now rolled up to the front and fired. Sierra begins banging on it rhythmically with a large gong mallet drumstick, her hips shaking in time as she begins howling the opening notes of ‘Fox Hunt’. Behind her, Geoff Saunders leads a willing audience in clapping their hands to the beat.

As the song builds, Sierra yells and picks up her fiddle, joining its sound to Oliver’s own fiddle. The band crashes into the music and Sierra begins to sing. ‘Fox Hunt’ has always been a barnstormer, and tonight it’s evidence of how far Sierra has come and how much potential is in her music. I had heard this footstomping crowd-pleaser back in 2022 among the few hundred people at that live gig in Liverpool, and it’s only grown in strength since then, filling this arena of 20,000 with a raucous, driving sound that morphs from fiddle hoedown to a snarling rock jam. There’s no space so large that Sierra’s sound can’t fill it perfectly.

It’s a thrilling moment, and also rather bittersweet for me, as not only do I know it marks the end of Sierra’s set – hopefully it won’t be another three years before I experience it again – but because it hints at the potential of how powerful a full headline arena set from Sierra Ferrell could be. We’ve had an abridged version tonight, a little big show from the band, but it would be fantastic to hear this blossom as a full set.

Forty-five minutes is not enough to hear such a special talent. While Sierra’s strategy of opening for Mumford and Sons, an established act, in order to grow her own audience here in the UK is an understandable one (and kudos to Mumford and Sons for giving her the platform), I do wonder if she’s not spreading herself too thin with her frequent mainstream collaborations and guest spots; if perhaps she would not be better served by visiting the UK more regularly to build her own following and thereby reaching arena-level crowds as a headliner, the way Tyler Childers and Billy Strings – who played the O2 and the Royal Albert Hall in the last couple of months, respectively – have done over the last few years. She certainly has the talent and potential for it, a natural star who has not only penned a solid stable of her own songs but who is one of those artists you love to hear interpret the material of others. I don’t know how the music business works, of course, and no doubt I speak from ignorance, but having seen Tyler and Billy graduate to the biggest arenas as headliners this year, I listen to Sierra bang the drum on ‘Fox Hunt’ tonight and know without a shadow of a doubt that she could do the same. I’d wager she’s done much to win over some new fans tonight, but those of us already under her spell know she deserves a night of her own.

‘Fox Hunt’ ends with a big finish, the petite purple lady on stage a force of nature as she stretches her arms wide with fiddle in hand and sings. As the crowd roars its applause with an enthusiasm usually reserved for a headliner, she makes sure to thank each member of her band by name.

But one name that won’t be forgotten is Sierra’s own. She will come back out again later in the night during Mumford’s set – after yet another costume change – to duet on ‘Here’ with a pink flower in her hand, but her work is already done. As she leaves the stage following her forty-five minute opening blitz and the crowd buzzes with energy, I realise I’m no longer a cuckoo in the nest, but just one more fan among a crowd of Sierra Ferrell’s thralls. She’s cast her pretty magic spell once again. Everyone else awaits the arrival of Mumford and his sons, but for me the night is already blissfully complete.

Setlist:

(all songs from the album Trail of Flowers and written by Sierra Ferrell, unless noted)

  1. I Could Drive You Crazy
  2. Jeremiah (from Long Time Coming)
  3. Bells of Every Chapel (Ferrell/Oliver Bates Craven) (from Long Time Coming)
  4. Why’d Ya Do It? (from Long Time Coming)
  5. Years (John Anderson/Dan Auerbach/David Ferguson/Patrick James McLaughlin) (from Something Borrowed, Something New: A Tribute to John Anderson)
  6. Kickin’ Up Dust (unreleased)
  7. American Dreaming (Ferrell/Melody Walker)
  8. Dollar Bill Bar (Ferrell/Walker)
  9. Fox Hunt

My other concert reviews can be found here.

My fiction writing can be found here.