[Here’s a link to enjoy the official video for “American Dreaming” by Sierra Ferrell: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=V8e9nbsq-18.]
“It’s so unusual for anyone to win four Grammys in any category,” Larry Groce, producer of the nationally syndicated radio show Mountain Stage on which Ferrell appeared in 2020, told Charleston, WV television station WSAZ3. “We watched her grow up and watched her perform when she was a teenager and watched her grow into what she is now.”
For a profile in Rolling Stone magazine last year, Ferrell –- whose music is an eclectic mix of bluegrass, folk, gypsy jazz, honky-tonk country, and old-time — said: “I want to let other people know, younger generations coming up, that you can do whatever you want… Don’t think you only have to be one way. You can be it all.”
Ferrell’s interest in music was stirred at an early age. Raised by a single mom, she played clarinet and sang in her school choir as a child and was a vocalist with a Grateful Dead cover band during her teens. However, she particularly enjoyed 90s folk-rock while growing up and also picked up the guitar and fiddle. While in her 20s, Ferrell, now 36, traveled cross-country by train — playing freight-train boxcars, truck stops and alleyways, and busking on the streets of New Orleans, Louisiana and Seattle, Washington.
After self-releasing two albums – Pretty Magic Spell (2018) and Washington by the Sea (2019), which she sold while busking and via Bandcamp, she drew the attention of producer Gary Paczosa during one of her frequent live performances during Honky Tonk Tuesdays at Nashville’s American Legion Post 82. With his assistance, she signed to Rounder Records in 2019. Trail of Flowers, released last March, is her second full-length recording for the label following 2021’s critically acclaimed Long Time Coming, an album that also featured Billy Strings and Sarah Jarosz. In addition to those two notable artists, Ferrell has collaborated with The Black Keys, Zach Bryan, Lukas Nelson (Willie’s son), Old Crow Medicine Show, Margo Price, and Post Malone (with whom she is slated to open some shows later this year).
With Trail of Flowers, Ferrell says she “wanted to make a fuller sound with bigger drums, but still stay true to the stripped-down feel of old-time music whenever it felt right.” She sought “to create something that makes people feel nostalgic for the past but excited about the future.” Judging from the four Grammy Awards she just received and the other honors bestowed on her for that album and its songs, it appears that she’s succeeded. Besides being honored by The Recording Academy, Trail of Flowers was named Album of the Year in the 2024 Americana Music Honors & Awards presented by the Americana Music Association, while Ferrell was named Artist of the Year. The album also earned topped spots on a number of music critics and DJs best of 2024 lists and was named album of the year by Saving Country Music!Gillian Welch & David Rawlings, Billy Strings, Kacey Musgraves, and Chris Stapleton Also Win Grammys.
Besides Ferrell, winners in the Grammy Awards’ American Roots Music Field included Gillian Welch & David Rawlings for Best Folk album (Woodland), Billy Strings for Best Bluegrass Album (Live Vol. 1, and Kalani Pe’a for Best Regional Roots Music Album (Kuini). Other roots artists awarded Grammys included Kacey Musgraves for Best Country Song (“The Architect”), Chris Stapleton for Best Country Solo Performance (“It Takes a Woman”), and Ruthie Foster for Best Contemporary Blues Album (Mileage). Musgraves and Stapleton also were among the nominees for Best Country Album, an award that went to Beyonce for Cowboy Carter, while Musgraves also was in the running for Country Solo Performance and with Madi Diaz for Best Americana Performance.
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