Sierra Ferrell

Born: 03 August 1988

Age:

Years Active: 2018–present

Genre/s: Alternative country, bluegrass, Americana

Label/s: Rounder

Sierra Elizabeth Ferrell (born August 3, 1988) is an American singer-songwriter and musician from West Virginia, whose music incorporates elements of folk, bluegrass, and gypsy jazz, and styles such as tango and calypso music.

After self-releasing the albums Pretty Magic Spell in 2018 and Washington by the Sea in 2019, she released Long Time Coming in 2021 with Rounder Records, to critical acclaim. Accompanying videos for singles "The Sea", "In Dreams", and "Bells of Every Chapel" (featuring Billy Strings) were uploaded to her YouTube channel in the weeks and months preceding the Long Time Coming's release. Ferrell stayed with the label for her fourth album Trail of Flowers in March 2024, which won her four Grammy Awards.

Sierra Ferrell was born in Charleston, West Virginia. After her parents divorced when she was around five years old, she lived with her mother and one of her two siblings in a trailer. This led to her spending less time with electronics and more time exploring outside. Despite her home state's deep-rooted history in bluegrass music, Ferrell instead grew up listening to cassette tapes of '90s music that her mother owned, taking interest in such acts as 10,000 Maniacs and Tracy Chapman.

Ferrell's musical journey began in childhood, playing clarinet and singing choir in school, eventually learning to play guitar and even once, performing Shania Twain covers at a local bar. In her teens, she joined 600 lbs of Sin! as the vocalist, who started as a Grateful Dead cover group, but later turned into a blues and roots jam band. She left the band for some time in 2012 to freighthop. Ferrell rejoined in 2013, but after feeling constrained creatively, she departed the band to independently pursue her musical aspirations.

In her early twenties, she adopted a nomadic lifestyle, hitch-hiking, freighthopping, and living in her van, with the majority of her time spent busking between Seattle and New Orleans. By this point, Ferrell had turned her attention towards playing folk music and its various offshoots, with fellow busking group Yes Ma'am making a particular impression on her musical style. It was also during this time that Ferrell was in the throes of drug addiction stemming from her wayfaring lifestyle, claiming to have died "five times" from narcotics overdoses. After these experiences, she decided to get clean and change her lifestyle in favor of improved health and positive relationships.