Tag: sierra ferrell

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.

Monday 27th June 2022

Future Yard, Birkenhead, England

It is hard to write about music because it is an elemental thing. Even among artists and other creative types, musicians occupy a special sphere. There is a line attributed to Walter Pater that all art aspires to the condition of music, and even an ordinary musician can, with a few strums of a guitar and some simple lyrics, bring forth the harmony that is in the world much more effectively than a great writer. Certainly, writing about music often ends up destroying the magic in it, turning the experience of sung gold into mute and lumpen lead.

“My hands are little, but they’re strong,” Sierra Ferrell says at one point on Monday night, in between songs, and on that stage those small, dainty hands touched upon the casual magic that music has but which is much harder to find in other art forms. She is certainly no ordinary musician. To hear Miss Sierra sing for the first time is an experience, whether on an album or a video online. To listen to her live is to witness one of the Seven Wonders of the Modern World (others include the Empire State Building, the International Space Station, and how Pete Davidson is attractive to women). It is hard to describe her voice, not only because of the problem of writing successfully about music, but because its qualities shapeshift elusively as you hear it. To describe it as earthy misrepresents its femininity; to describe it as tender or melodious undersells its power. It is note-perfect, and yet with a ruggedness that stays true to Sierra’s West Virginian roots. It is like an angel who has decided to no longer serve, but has not turned away from the light either, and instead chooses to sing according to what it feels truly shines.

I have travelled the thirty-five miles from Manchester to Liverpool precisely to experience this wonder, and the show does not disappoint. In the last couple of years I’ve become a fan of this new country scene – much to my own surprise – and the old iPod I’ve loaded up for the car journey is full of Sierra’s music, mixed with Nick Shoulders, Colter Wall, Charley Crockett and Tyler Childers, among others. The first song on shuffle as I pull away from home is ‘Silver Dollar’, and whether by coincidence or kismet, it’s the first song Sierra plays after I arrive at the packed, dark Future Yard in Birkenhead. After a strong opening act by Josh Beddis, filled with slow songs and including a rolling closer called ‘The River’ – “sinners, won’t you find your way back home” –plenty of goodwill has been generated in the crowd by the Welsh picker’s genial stage presence. The atmosphere is further enhanced when Sierra arrives on stage and throws what appears to be confetti or petals into the crowd. They don’t reach beyond the first row, but unless she deployed a t-shirt cannon they wouldn’t have found me anyway. I’m standing at the very back of the room, near the bar, though I’m not drinking tonight (I’m driving home after the show). If I was any more of a wallflower, I’d be singing ‘Sixth Avenue Heartache’.

The venue, the Future Yard, is the perfect size for the performance that Sierra and her band – Oliver Bates Craven on mandolin and fiddle and Geoff Saunders on stand-up bass – are about to deliver. It is large enough to generate an atmosphere but small enough to emphasise the power in the songs, whether that’s the tender intimacy of ‘Whispering Waltz’ or the raucous energy Sierra finds in ‘Fox Hunt’ or ‘I’d Do it Again’.

On stage, Sierra places her small frame behind her acoustic guitar. She has a crown of flowers sown into her wheat-gold hair – a striking array of pinks and reds and oranges and yellows. She looks like she has stepped out of an Alphonse Mucha painting. And when she begins to sing, the effect becomes otherworldly. Her body sways as she sings and strums on her guitar, and she won’t break the spell she has over the room for the rest of the night.

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A post shared by Sierra Elizabeth Ferrell (@sierraelizabethferrell)

The opening ‘Silver Dollar’ is followed by ‘Give it Time’, with Oliver and Geoff harmonising on the chorus to give it a throwback bluegrass feel. It’s a sign that, for all of Sierra’s unique ability, she is also supported by formidably talented friends. The third song, ‘Why’d Ya Do It?’, features some great fiddle from Oliver; the first sign that while the crowd may miss the incredible Josie Toney – Sierra’s regular fiddle player who, for whatever reason, has not travelled for the UK tour – they need not mourn her on the night.

The performance reaches another level with the fourth song, ‘Bells of Every Chapel’. Sierra introduces it in her tender Southern accent, saying it was inspired by watching the Netflix show The Crown with a friend. It’s a reminder that she hasn’t stepped out of one of Mucha’s art nouveau paintings, or a Roaring Twenties honky-tonk, but exists in the here and now. The song was co-written by Oliver Bates Craven and he leaves another mark on it with a mandolin solo. Not to be outdone, Geoff Saunders delivers a solo on his stand-up bass. Solos from both artists will become a regular and welcome feature of tonight’s set. A high note at the end of this song, held by Sierra for a long time, gets the crowd whooping. The trio on stage will maintain this level for the rest of the night.

A release is provided by the slow and intimate ‘Whispering Waltz’, showcasing Sierra’s vocals on a night when that could be said about every song that’s heard. It is followed by a reprise of ‘Silver Dollar’ – a surprise, particularly as there later proves to be no place on the setlist for ‘In Dreams’, another signature song. The seventh song of the night is the lesser-spotted ‘Littlebird’, from the 2018 album Pretty Magic Spell. Its warm reception from the crowd returns an almost shy thank-you from the artist, as though Sierra is surprised that people respond to her music.

As though to shake off this bout of shyness, Sierra and her band launch into the best song on the night, the as-yet-unreleased ‘I’d Do it Again’. She plays up the cuteness of the lyrics, selling it with a wink here and there, and displays great control of her voice as she hits all the right beats without pausing for breath. Even after solos from each of the three players – including a brief one from Sierra’s acoustic guitar – I’m still surprised when the song, which in its versions online has a charming Cole Porter vibe, reaches a raucous end that gets the crowd going again. Sierra roaring “I’d do it again – three times!”, refusing to let the song end, shows how the versatility in her vocals is matched by the flexibility in her songwriting. ‘I’d Do it Again’ was the most unexpected performance of the night.

Matching the earlier effect of following ‘Bells of Every Chapel’ with ‘Whispering Waltz’, Sierra changes pace after the frenetic end to ‘I’d Do it Again’ by singing the sweet and accepting ‘Made Like That’, followed by ‘Lonesome Feeling’, an Osborne Brothers song introduced as an “old bluegrass number”. Talk of West Virginia in between songs leads to an apparently impromptu rendition of John Denver’s ‘Take Me Home, Country Roads’. Seemingly suggested by someone in the front row, the audience is only too happy to sing along.

Sierra is not yet ready to leave her home state, and begins to sing ‘West Virginia Waltz’. It is another impressive vocal, holding a long note on the word ‘flame’ as the song builds. Her voice proves the strongest even when harmonising with two men, though for the next song Sierra stands alone on stage. She plays ‘Rosemary’ from her 2019 album Washington by the Sea, a murder ballad that is intriguingly followed by the unreleased ‘Fox Hunt’. Sierra plays fiddle on this song, with Oliver also on fiddle and Geoff switching to acoustic guitar. This was the song I anticipated most before the show, with the versions I had seen online finally convincing me that I had to see Sierra live. I don’t expect the new verse she delivers, which suggests that this crowd-pleasing foot-stomper may also morph into something of a murder ballad or outlaw song itself. It’ll be interesting to see what its final form will be when it’s finally cut for an album, but, as Sierra says when the song is finished, “don’t ask me when that is”. It will be quite a task to replicate the live energy of this song in the studio.

Sierra follows up ‘Fox Hunt’ with two other unreleased numbers, ‘Lighthouse’ and ‘Don’t Let Your Deal Go Down’. The three musicians harmonise on one mic for ‘Lighthouse’, and the song hints that Sierra is far from finished in building her stable of quality tunes. Despite the relative unfamiliarity of these two numbers, she still has the crowd in the palm of her hand and has them waving their arms in an arc during the chorus of the next song, the hopeful ‘At the End of the Rainbow’.

The sight of swaying arms also proves appropriate to summon the next number, ‘The Sea’. Though Sierra has returned to a familiar song here, she still has a surprise or two in store. ‘The Sea’ starts as expected, a slow, jazzy piece, but then gets unexpectedly high-tempo. Oliver and Geoff perform some now-signature mandolin and bass soloes to complement the song’s new swift current.

The band and the room are still full of energy, but we’ve reached the last song of the night. Sierra launches into ‘Jeremiah’, and the song seems all the sweeter for knowing it is the last. Another welcome surprise of the night: Miss Sierra begins to howl like a wolf on the final verse of the song, much to the delight of the crowd. Perhaps she’s been spending too much time with Nick Shoulders, her yodelling and whistling sometime-tourmate who seems nuttier than a shaken sack of squirrels.

Sierra and the band leave the stage, bowing to the cheers and the applause of the crowd, before returning for a brief encore. “You guys like honky-tonk?” Geoff says, before they sing the old bar-room song ‘Dim Lights, Thick Smoke (and Loud, Loud Music)’. As a nod to the British audience, a line is changed to “that pub down the street”. It can sometimes feel like country fans from outside West Virginia or Texas or the Bluegrass State, particularly those in other countries, are excluded in the name of protecting the genre’s authenticity, but the music never sounded as natural in England as it did tonight. The spell cast is complete.

It is unlikely that Sierra or the band will remember this night. Pretty soon they’re travelling on to London, and then Europe, and there’ll be stages and festivals and honky-tonks aplenty when they head back home to the States. If there remains any natural justice in art today, Sierra Ferrell will be in high demand. She proved tonight, if it needed to be proved, that she can do it all. The high notes and the low, the raucous songs and the tender ones. The voice is the thing that alters you when you hear it, but what is clear throughout the night is that the songcraft is also strong. Old favourites and new soon-to-be-favourites have been played, and ‘The Sea’ and ‘I’d Do it Again’ in particular have changed form without being diminished. It requires a feat of musicianship to bring all this together. It’s most noticeable, of course, in the stand-out moments – the high held notes of Sierra’s singing, the solos from Oliver and Geoff – but also in the night’s smaller moments – the light touches on Oliver’s mandolin, the backbeat of Geoff’s bass, the inflections in Sierra’s voice as it rolls over certain lyrics.

It’s these small moments that return to me after I leave the venue and start the late-night drive back to Manchester. I missed an opportunity to have a photo taken after the show – Sierra and her band mingled with fans at the bar – as it seemed awkward to stick around when I was alone and could not drink due to the need to drive home. I remained a wallflower to the end. But I clutch a black Sierra Ferrell t-shirt with ‘the bee’s knees’ on it, and smile. It seems absurd to purchase a memento when the night itself has been unforgettable, and perhaps it was the final symptom of the spell Miss Sierra had cast. I remember a song from earlier in the night. “Little bird,” she had sung. “Now won’t you sing to me. I know you’ll sing for free. I’m right where I wanna be.” I don’t expect her to sing for free, but on Monday night in Liverpool I was right where I wanted to be.

Setlist:

(all songs from the album Long Time Coming and written by Sierra Ferrell, unless noted)

1. Silver Dollar (Ferrell/Nate Leath)
2. Give it Time
3. Why’d Ya Do It?
4. Bells of Every Chapel (Ferrell/Oliver Bates Craven)
5. Whispering Waltz (Ferrell/Craven)
6. Silver Dollar (reprise) (Ferrell/Leath)
7. Littlebird (from Pretty Magic Spell)
8. I’d Do it Again (unreleased)
9. Made Like That
10. Lonesome Feeling (Billy Henson) (unreleased)
11. Take Me Home, Country Roads (John Denver/Bill Danoff/Taffy Nivert) (unreleased)
12. West Virginia Waltz (Ferrell/Leath)
13. Rosemary (from Washington by the Sea)
14. Fox Hunt (unreleased)
15. Lighthouse (unreleased)
16. Don’t Let Your Deal Go Down (Traditional) (unreleased)
17. At the End of the Rainbow (Ferrell/Leath)
18. The Sea
19. Jeremiah
20. Encore: Dim Lights, Thick Smoke (and Loud, Loud Music) (Joe Maphis/Rose Lee Maphis/Max Fidler) (unreleased)