Jeremy GilbertsonSierra Hull’s relationship with music started at a young age. She began singing in church with her mother and was soon pulled into learning stringed instruments by her uncle and her dad. Eventually, Hull was holding her own in bluegrass jams with seasoned musicians, and it was clear she had found her calling. Rocketing to virtuoso status on the mandolin, she became a sought-after player in the tight-knit community of bluegrass music. By eleven, she was gracing the stage of the Grand Ole Opry, performing with Alison Krauss. Two years later, she was a signed recording artist on Rounder Records.
After two releases, however, Hull began to hear a quiet calling from the shadows. This voice didn’t seem to fit in the traditional framework of bluegrass music. It had a deeper story to tell that needed to find its way above the chop of the mandolin, the jangle of the banjo, the sizzle of the fiddle, and the thump of the bass. In 2016, she teamed with Bela Fleck to record her latest album Weighted Mind. In addition to earning a Grammy nomination for Best Folk Album, the record found Hull simplifying her approach in service of the song and confidently delivering new genre-bending music.
Recently, I caught up with Hull in-between recording sessions for her upcoming album. We spent some time discussing her musical development, before turning our attention to her last record, and her evolution as a songwriter.
How did you first cross paths with the mandolin?
I got a fiddle for Christmas from my great aunt and uncle, but it was a full size. It was just too large for me to really be able to play at the time. My dad said he would get me a smaller fiddle, but in the meantime, he said the mandolin is tuned just like a fiddle. You just use a pick instead of the bow. He showed me a couple of tunes, and I instantly fell in love.
Give me a couple of waypoints on your journey discovering music.
Well, one of them would have probably been when I got my first Alison Krauss album when I was nine-years-old. I fell so in love with her voice and this album called Forget About It, which isn’t actually a bluegrass album. It led me to discovering some of her bluegrass music, which Adam Steffey played mandolin on, and that was hugely influential to me. Then we got an album by Nickel Creek that Alison produced. Chris Thile plays mandolin on those albums and it blew my mind. That got me excited about playing.
Bluegrass music has wonderfully emergent properties that stir up in these open jams. How was your experience in that world?
We would go every weekend. There were just a bunch of older musicians that would sit around in a circle and play. And they weren’t professional players, but they were good. I learned a lot from those moments. Bluegrass is such an improvised-based music, and most of the musicians I grew up around didn’t study music. Everything is basically learned by somebody showing somebody how to play a chord or somebody says, “Hey, here’s this cool tune, let me show you how it goes.” It’s a really exciting way to go about learning to play an instrument. It is such a beautiful thing cause there’s already this kind of built-in repertoire of songs that everybody knows.
Tell me about a moment from a particular jam that stands out.
Even when I didn’t really know a lot of the songs, I would be welcome to just come in and try to chop chords on the mandolin. After a little time, you start to kind of learn these songs just through the process of repetition. My dad said, “You’ve been playing a couple of years now. It’d be good if you started trying to learn to improvise.” And it’s like, gosh, how do you even start? You can’t really teach somebody how to improvise. You can just give them the tools and explain some ways to get to it. But at the end of the day, improvising is really making stuff up on the fly. It’s based on a spur of the moment experience. You gotta be brave, get in there, and just try to play something. I remember having a moment in a jam in the key of B, which is harder when you first start playing. I took a solo and kinda felt like, “Oh, I did it! I think I did it! I think I just improvised.” I remember it being a really proud moment, you know? Kind of being vulnerable and putting yourself out there. You have to be willing to sound bad for a while to sound good.
Describe the transition from traditional bluegrass to finding your way as a songwriter.
I think it was a slow progression that had been happening without me even realizing it. My first two records are fairly traditional. I was very immersed in the bluegrass scene, but I always loved other styles of music, too. The more I started writing, the more I just realized that influences from other things I was listening to were kind of creeping into my music. I just really felt the pull to get out whatever was inside of me at the time, you know, lyrically. I can still love bluegrass and love to play traditional bluegrass on the side, but if I’m really trying to record solo albums and give an honest expression of myself, then writing seemed to be the way to express that.
Tell me about some non-bluegrass music that inspires you.
I’ve always been a big fan of Joni Mitchell. Paul Simon. Beyoncé. Michael Jackson. Django Reinhardt. I’ve enjoyed listening to things like Wayne Shorter or Herbie Hancock. I’ve gotten more into trying to learn to play a classical piece every once in a while. I just try to keep my ears open and that can mean hearing a lot of different things.
Let’s talk about Weighted Mind for a minute. How was it working with Bela Fleck as a producer?
Bela has always been one of my biggest heroes since I was a kid. Getting to work on that album with him was just so special. I learned so much about myself through the process of making that record thanks to him. He was the one that really encouraged me to just strip everything away. Just mandolin and voice. How might I try to present it if that were the case. And how that affects the way I choose to play my instrument because I’m the only one playing. It opened up this whole new idea of what I could do with the songs. And it didn’t mean I was going to record them that way, but it was still an exciting way to try to explore the possibilities of what the song could be.
It sounds like you were trying to separate the song from traditional genre-based expectations. Is that what you were going for?
Absolutely. Just put the song out front. Sometimes bluegrass can be so focused on the instrumental side of things, and the song can sometimes feel like a bed on which to shred your instrument. The goal with Weighted Mind was to focus on the lyrical content and more on the songwriting aspect of it then to have it be so instrumentally driven.
How did the song “The In-Between” come together?
That song was kind of inspired by the process of this transition and figuring out what’s next. The opening lyric “You know there is no in=between I tell you / if you think there is you’ve been lied to / you’re only high or low / nowhere in-between nowhere else you can go.” There is something to be said about feeling that way. It can either feel like you’re going through a very inspired time and everything’s super exciting or you’re absolutely not, you know, and you’re kind of struggling to figure it out.
I enjoyed your take on “The Queen of Heart.” Isn’t it an interesting manifestation of the traditional side meeting a new expression of your personal music style?
A lot of the music on Weighted Mind had been swirling around my musical mind for awhile. I ended up writing the instrumental piece, “Royal Tea” that’s connected to that song back in high school. It certainly had more of that Gypsy vibe, but it always felt a little incomplete to me. It’s obviously not a traditional bluegrass thing. I was listening to a Joan Baez record one day, and I stumbled upon her version of “The Queen of Heart.” It was in more of a ballad—an eerie, beautiful version. It was different than the feel of my Gypsy piece, but melodically there were some similarities there. I thought it might be interesting to make a little mash up of this traditional song and make it have the vibe of my instrumental piece. I played it for Bela and he really liked it, so we decided to make it a part of the record.
What’s next for Sierra Hull?
I’ve been working on the new record. Just chipping away at it before leaving out on my winter tour, which really kicks off this week. I chose to work with a really talented engineer named Shani Gandhi (Johnnyswim, The Infamous Stringdusters, Steve Martin and Alison Krauss). We’re co-producing the record together. I wanted this record to be more of an exploration of using the studio in a different kind of way. I’m still trying to write from the most honest place that I can, but the approach is quite different. I wanted to make a record by separating myself from the idea of what the live show is going to be. I wanted it to sort of stand on its own.
Are there any Atlanta artists that are exciting you right now?
The first people that pop in my head are friends of mine, Larkin Poe. They are in Nashville now, but are originally from Georgia. I need to dive into the Atlanta scene a little bit more and discover some artists from the area because there’s so much great stuff happening there.
What can listeners expect from your show this Sunday at Variety Playhouse?
I’m really excited about this upcoming show and the winter tour. I’ve surrounded myself with musicians not based on the instrument they play, but based on the spirit in which they play. I’ve tried to bring out some openers that would inspire me. My friends 10 String Symphony are going to open the show in Atlanta and a good bunch of other shows. By having these amazing musicians out on this tour, it’s just going to bring such a great vibe to the crowd. It’s going to be a really fun bit of collaborating on some of my old music from Weighted Mind, and even a couple of previous albums, but then also playing a bunch of new music, too.
Sierra Hull will perform tonight at Variety Playhouse alongside 10 String Symphony. Doors open at 7 p.m. Admission is $20-40. All ages.
More Info
Web: sierrahull.com
Facebook: @SierraHullMusic
Instagram: @sierradawnhull
Twitter: @sierrahull