Over the past few years, Sierra Hull has emerged at the forefront of a new vanguard of bluegrass trailblazers alongside musicians like Billy Strings and Molly Tuttle. With her new album, A Tip Toe High Wire, the mandolin virtuoso steps out onto the proverbial tight rope with her first independent release since signing to Rounder Records at just 13 years old. Unlike her previous albums, the new collection features songs that she’s already performed live and honed on the road with her touring band, highlighting her growing prominence as a star of the live music scene, bridging the gap between the jam band world and bluegrass purists.
Much like her quick-picking compatriots, Hull’s success didn’t come overnight but through years of persistent touring and dogged determination. Growing up in a tiny Tennessee town with a population of less than 1,000 people, she inherited a love of bluegrass and folk music from her family and picked up her first instrument, the fiddle, before her arm was long enough to reach the strings.
“My uncle played a little bit of fiddle and guitar and mandolin, not in the bluegrass context so much, but just kind of folky old hymns,” Hull told Live For Live Music. “He was a preacher as well, so music and church was kind of a thing. In that part of the world, near Nashville, it’s like music is kind of a way of life for a lot of people. Just music and church—not trying to be on a stage, but just something to pass the time.”
Church was where Hull got her start singing in front of people alongside her brother Cody. “The church services that I grew up going to were really small and casual. It wasn’t in any way a performance,” she explained. “As my brother and I started getting into singing old hymns and folky, gospel songs, they’d say, ‘Oh, you kids want to sing one for us?’ We’d just get up and sing, whether it was ‘Jesus Loves Me’ or other things like that.”
Later, her dad took an interest in bluegrass and encouraged Cody to start playing banjo, which inspired Hull to pick up an instrument too. “I just remember him trying to get my brother into it, and I decided I wanted to do something too. So I was kind of the annoying little sister who wanted to be just like my bigger brother,” she joked.
Sierra Hull – “Muddy Water”
Finding the fiddle too large for her 8-year-old frame, Hull borrowed a bowlback mandolin and began tagging along with her dad to local bluegrass jams. “When I started playing mandolin and going to the local bluegrass jams, a lot of the local bands were just so kind to me, so sweet,” she remembered. “Oftentimes I would be the only kid around or the only female, but you’d have these older gentlemen who just loved the music and would be there every week with their local bluegrass bands that would say, ‘Honey, you want to get up here and pick with us?’ And they would just be so welcoming like that. … In a way that gave me my first opportunity to actually stand on a stage and step up to a microphone and play something.”
At age 9, Hull picked up the guitar, and at 10, she recorded her first album, though if you ask her, she doesn’t really count it as her official debut. “It was not on any kind of label or anything,” she said modestly. “The local folks when I would play around where I grew up would say, ‘You got a CD? When are you going to make a CD?’ So I got together with some of the local musicians and recorded some fiddle tunes on the mandolin.”
It was around the same time that Hull discovered Alison Krauss and her band Union Station, which would turn out to be a defining moment in her musical evolution. “She became my biggest hero and is still one of my biggest influences,” Hull said. “I really fell madly in love with her music and her band. The entire band Union Station was my favorite band on Earth, and some of those early records featured a prominent mandolin player, one of my biggest influences, a guy named Adam Steffey, as well. Between the combo of her singing and the band just being so great and having this phenomenal mandolin player, I kind of obsessed over those records.”
Little did she know her hero would soon become her mentor. After briefly meeting Krauss at MerleFest, Hull connected with her again a few months later at a festival hosted by the International Bluegrass Music Association (IBMA). “It was there at IBMA that I met Ron Block, who’s been in Alison’s band for many, many years and has been just one of my dearest mentors and friends over the years,” she said. “He ended up telling Alison about me, and then she called me to come play the Grand Ole Opry after that, which still sounds crazy to say out loud. We didn’t really know each other. I never got to play for her or with her at that point. I think he must have just gone and said, ‘This girl’s a super fan and this would make her dream come true.’ And next thing I know, I got to go play the Opry with Alison and Union Station, and after that, it just kind of extended into this relationship that still today I love Alison.”
Sierra Hull – “Spitfire”
Hull signed to Rounder Records at 13 and three years later, in 2008, released her debut vocal album, Secrets, co-produced by Krauss and Ron Block. The following year, she became the first bluegrass musician to earn a Presidential Scholarship and moved to Boston to study at Berklee College of Music, which she said helped open her up to different kinds of music.
“I think it was just being in an environment where at any point you could go see someone play a jazz concert, you could see the Berklee World Strings Ensemble do something,” Hull recalled. “There were people playing pop music. There were a lot of different things happening. That was all very within reach as a listener.”
Exploring a diversity of musical influences led Hull to experiment and develop a more eclectic sound, what she calls “progressive bluegrass,” in the same vein as innovators like Béla Fleck, who produced her third album for Rounder Records, Weighted Mind, in 2016.
“I’ve always been a really open-minded listener, and when you have heroes like Alison or someone like Chris Thile from Nickel Creek or Béla Fleck, people like that who do step outside of the genre a lot, I think you see that freedom in your heroes,” she said. “They don’t have to be boxed into any one particular thing, and so I think that’s always kept me open-minded as a musician. So as more and more opportunities have come, I think I’ve just allowed them to be present in the music I’m making.”
While at Berklee, Hull began to tour more extensively, putting together a band that embodied her experimental approach with unconventional instrumentation. Unlike traditional bluegrass bands, her touring outfit notably lacks banjo and includes drums, which she said was a calculated choice.
“Mandolin usually fills the role of the drums in bluegrass, and I love the sound of a bluegrass rhythm section without drums. As someone that grew up not playing with drums very much, there’s something very at home about that,” Hull conceded. “But adding drums allows a little bit of flexibility to move into some different territory. It’s been really fun over the last few years to explore how I can use my instrument in a different way. It’s kind of freeing as a singer too. It’s freeing that my instrument can sometimes be more of a color instrument or a more thematic instrument. It doesn’t always just have to be me supplying the rhythm.”
Sierra Hull – “Boom” (On The Beach) – Live In Mexico
As she’s continued to tour at a national scale and collaborate with artists from various genres, Hull’s technical mastery and distinct blend of musical styles have helped her connect with audiences beyond the traditional bluegrass crowd and made her a favorite among jam band fans.
“I think the fun thing for me is I love all of it,” she said. “If it’s good music, it’s good music, and for me, if I can be surrounded by it, whether it’s in the traditional community or the jam community, I welcome all of it. I think that balancing between the worlds is what keeps it inspiring for me, not being stuck in the same spot all the time, being able to toggle back and forth. I love that.”
Hull’s wealth of performing experience helped shape her approach to her new album, which is the first to feature her touring band. “I think this was one of the first times that I’ve made a record and went, ‘How would this music feel to play live? How would it feel to stand on a stage and play some of this music?'”
The album also marks her first independent release since the instrumental album she recorded when she was 10, which she said was “kind of exciting and a little bit scary,” adding, “It’s also very freeing and fun to be in the driver’s seat in that way. My last album came out in 2020, and that was the end of my contract that I’d essentially been in since I was a kid. I mean, I signed with Rounder when I was 13, which was unbelievable because that was the label all my heroes put albums out on—Tony Rice, Alison Krauss, so many people. I even drew the logo on the back of little faux album covers as a kid. So it was a dream come true to be on that label, and I’m still so grateful that I got to put out the majority of my music thus far with Rounder. But once that contract was fulfilled, it felt like a good moment to just pause.”
Sierra Hull – “Come Out Of My Blues” Ft. Tim O’Brien
In addition to offering creative freedom, Hull said her decision to release her new album without a label stemmed from a desire to connect with fans in a more direct way. “The landscape is so incredibly different than it was when I first signed my record deal at 13,” she reflected. “We live in a world where everyone’s got a recording studio in their home these days. Putting music out independently is easier than ever before, and I think having ownership of your music when album sales aren’t what they used to be, and the direct relationship with your fans, is something that we’re all as artists kind of clinging to.”
Far from seeing this shift as a risk, Hull said she’s embracing both the benefits and the challenges that come with navigating these uncharted waters. “It feels really good to have made this record and have the opportunity to do it on my own terms—both musically, but also in the way that I can give this music to the fans. It’s a much different experience this time around, and I’m excited about it. To be a little punny, it feels like stepping out onto the high wire, the ‘Tip Toe High Wire‘. It feels a little bit like juggling this new experience and trying to find myself in new territory. But I’m excited about it, and so far it seems to be going okay.”
A Tip Toe High Wire is available now on digital platforms and vinyl. Stream the album below or on your preferred platform.
Hull will celebrate the album’s release on Friday, March 7th at Brooklyn Bowl Nashville. She also has a number of other upcoming tour dates, including headline shows and festival appearances at Pickin’ in the Pines Bluegrass Music Festival, Sweetwater 420 Fest, Goose‘s Viva El Gonzo, Railbird Music Festival, Bender Jamboree, and more, and will join Willie Nelson & Family, Bob Dylan, and Billy Strings this spring on Nelson’s Outlaw Music Festival tour. Click below for a full list of upcoming shows, and visit her website for ticketing details.
Sierra Hull – A Tip Toe High Wire