Year in Music 2022: Talking With Sierra Ferrell

Sierra Ferrell at Eastside Bowl
Photo: Daniel Meigs

While her breakout debut album Long Time Coming was released in 2021, the year 2022 has been a big one for Music City singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Sierra Ferrell. She toured relentlessly in support of the LP, including stops at FreshGrass, Bonnaroo and the Newport Folk Festival. In September, Ferrell took home the coveted Emerging Artist of the Year trophy at the Americana Music Association’s Honors and Awards — a win that celebrates her one-of-a-kind fusion of bluegrass, old-time, traditional country, jazz, blues and more. She was also tapped to cover Dolly Parton’s beloved classic “Coat of Many Colors” as part of Parton’s much-lauded induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

And she’s not stopping anytime soon: Coming up, Ferrell will host her New Year’s Eve Circus Spectacular, a special event at Brooklyn Bowl slated to feature her music, a set from brooding North Carolina folkies Resonant Rogues, circus-themed activities and lots of audience interaction. On a November afternoon, Ferrell took a break from writing a song with Melody Walker to chat with the Scene about staying healthy while touring, writing on the road and how it felt to take home that Americana trophy.

We’re looking back on 2022 with this issue, and you had quite a year yourself. What moments from this year feel especially meaningful to you?

It’s been really amazing, and a wonderful journey — to get to dial in, to get used to touring a lot with my full band. I’ve gotten to teeter between being a leader but also being a friend and understanding. And I feel like I’ve grown a lot by getting to tour with other musicians, some of whom I’ve always looked up to, and by playing festivals with a lot of bands and musicians. I think that’s really wonderful, that I get to be a part of it with them as well.

Tell me more about your time on the road. How did touring so intensely live up to or challenge your expectations?

I feel like I have dialed in more to my limitations — like what I can do and what I can’t. So that was kind of nice, to get used to what my limits are and learning where to set boundaries and when to say no. You know, we’re just humans. We’re just people. We can’t work too much or we’ll do a lot of damage. This has been a really big growing phase for me, and next year is going to be a lot better. The tour is going to be more spaced out. And I think we’re going to be a lot more comfortable as a band because we’re going to be on a bus, so that’s going to be nice.

Sounds like a great upgrade. It’s been good to see more conversations about the relationship between touring and artists’ physical and mental health in recent years. It seems like COVID, in part, shifted some perspectives on how much time on the road is too much.

I have a wonderful team that’s helped me. All the stuff that I have, I’ve had to work to get. A lot of artists are like that, you know — they come from nothing. And then, therefore, they have to be a workhorse and work really hard to get the money to just keep progressing their career. It’s kind of scary, because there’s a fine line of, like, “Well, I still need to create music, and I still need to create stuff that people can connect with.” And that’s another beautiful thing about music, is that music could be anything to anyone. Someone can listen to a song and think that it means this or that, and someone thinks that it’s another way. And that is the beauty of music. And I definitely think that, touring this hard, I’m gonna get some good songs out of it.

Some artists struggle to find the time or energy to write on the road. Do you write much on the road, or have a practice you keep at home?

It’s a little bit of all those things as I go. Melody Walker, for instance, she came over here today and she’s like, “Hey, let’s write a song.” And I’m like, “OK.” We just wrapped it up and we think it’s kind of nice. And I’ve already been thinking about a video for it and stuff. But this is also the period where I am processing stuff, because I’m home now. On the road, it can be a little too much. There’s a lot you have to do to keep a routine, or you start to slowly lose your mind. But I definitely get inspiration from touring and lots of other ways.

Shifting gears, I was really excited to hear you won Emerging Artist of Year at this year’s Americana Awards. What did it mean to you to be embraced by the community in that way?

I feel like it’s all worth it regardless, but that definitely was like a nice hug. It felt nice to be seen for something with music. We’re all on our own musical journeys and all have our own style and ways, and it’s good to just be a part of it and have people see it.

You recently contributed a cover of Dolly Parton’s “Coat of Many Colors” as part of her induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. How did it feel to be part of such a monumental moment?

Gary Paczosa messaged me about it. I thought it was just amazing that I get to be involved with anything Dolly. As we all know, she is a freaking national treasure.

Long Time Coming was one of my favorite records from last year. Now that you’ve spent so much time touring the music and listeners have had a chance to dig in and digest it, has your perspective on the album changed?

I’ve been touring Long Time Coming for a minute so I’ve been calling it “Long Time Going” recently, just for fun. [Laughs] I have some songs on the back burner that I’ve been working on that I’m excited to reveal and let people see and hear. And I’m always looking for the next thing for me, because I gotta keep myself occupied and entertained. I have to keep it exciting, so that I can portray the excitement in the music and in the songs to people — so then they can believe it.

What are some things that you’re able to do that help you keep that excitement going, or help you tap back into it if you’re feeling disconnected?

Recently, I’ve been really leaning on the fiddle a lot more. And I’ve been learning a lot of old-time fiddle songs, old country songs. A lot of the old country songs have such a lonesome feeling, and it’s easy for me to tap into that. But I also feel like we create our own lives and realities, in a lot of ways. So if you’re surrounded by sad news, I feel like you’re more prone to being sad. So I’ve been trying to be more uplifting about songs and to keep it more light. Because if you put out a song and people like it, you better get used to being OK with touring that song a million times.

You’re stuck with it.

You’re stuck with it! So, you’ve got to make sure that your aim is true and that you like playing it.

To your point about woodshedding some old-time and traditional country songs, your music is wonderfully difficult to describe in terms of genre, as a lot of great music is. Do you have a sense of how so many varying musical traditions made their way into what you make?

I feel like a lot of my music taste just comes from life experiences, and from when I used to be a pretty transient person. And I’m not “older,” by any means, but in my younger days I was pretty transient and I was going to lots of different places. I would hear a lot of street performers and their music. I feel like as human beings, we have certain styles and certain ways of songs that just stick with us and gravitate towards us. Like, we might be able to connect, maybe, to past lives or DNA memory and whatnot [through music]. That’s another beautiful thing about music, is everyone has such different taste. And it keeps it exciting.

You’re rereleasing the record on vinyl in the new year, and selling it only at independent record shops. This week, Nashville is losing Exit/In as we’ve known it — another independent supporter of the music community. What role do spaces like indie record stores and venues play in what you do?

I think it’s super important to be supporting those small businesses and small, independent anything, because, as in 2020, a lot of people just can’t keep up with the finances. Nashville’s real estate is going out of control. Now more than ever, we need people to band together and stand up to the big corporate monsters. With vinyl in particular — in general, it’s been a struggle for any artists starting out, especially because I feel like the [corporate] industry is producing massive amounts of vinyl. Smaller artists who are just starting out are having a hard time, and that’s where most independent artists really get their money, from vinyl. The fact that, I don’t know, Adele and Taylor Swift are, like, trillionaires — they don’t really need to lean on vinyl. Someone like me, that’s where a lot of my money comes from. I’ve been struggling to even keep it in inventory.

It’s been frustrating to watch what started as a vinyl resurgence driven by independent musicians get co-opted by the corporate machine. Like right now, you can go out and buy the new Taylor Swift vinyl in a bunch of different colors — which is cool for fans, of course — but takes up so much bandwidth at pressing plants.

I feel like the industry just needs to get their own vinyl presses, you know? Build your own presses for vinyl. I’m not saying that nobody deserves an Adele or Taylor Swift record, because a great way to listen to music is on vinyl. But it’s like, come on, four different colors? I can only do one at a time right now. I’m lucky to get my vinyl six months later.

You have what sounds like one hell of a New Year’s Eve party planned. What can you share about what you have in store for the night?

I’m so excited for New Year’s. My record is going to be there and my songs are going to be there, but there’s going to be so much more. I don’t want to give away too much, but there’s gonna be some freak-show stuff going on. We’re gonna get the audience involved, and I’m really excited. I’m just honestly excited to do something else, like have a different show to present besides just music. Especially on New Year’s, there’s so much, “Hey, let’s go listen to music.” But this is, “Hey, let’s go listen to music and see this crazy circus.”