Bluegrass star Sierra Hull debuts Saturday at Crystal Bay

Tahoe Onstage
Sierra Hull plays at the 2016 High Sierra Music Festival.
Tahoe Onstage photo by Larry Sabo

Bluegrass artist Sierra Hull has performed at the nation’s most-prestigious venues, including Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center and the White House. Last week, she starred at MerleFest and also appeared at the Grand Old Opry, where she first played when she was only 11-years old.

Now 25, Hull will perform Saturday, May 6, for the first time at the Crystal Bay Casino. It will be a rare seated show in the Crown Room. The mandolinist will be onstage with double bassist Ethan Jodziewicz. It is part of a short West Coast run. She plays in Mill Valley on Friday and Marysville on Sunday.

Tahoe Onstage
Sierra Hull at the age of 20 at High Sierra.
Tim Parsons / Tahoe Onstage

In 2016, she was named International Bluegrass Music Association Mandolin Player of the Year. Her album, “Weighted Mind,” was produced by banjo great Bela Fleck, who said on Hull’s website: “She plays the mandolin with a degree of refined elegance and freedom that few have achieved. And now her vocals and songwriting have matured to the level of her virtuosity.”

Alison Krauss, who has won more Grammy Awards than any other female bluegrass artist, recognized Hull’s talent early on.

“I think she’s endless,” Krauss said. “I don’t see any boundaries. Talent like hers is so rare, and I don’t think it stops. It’s round.”

Hull wrote 11 of the 12 songs “Weighted Mind,” penning some with co-writers Jon Weisberger, Zac Bevill, and Josh Shilling, and writing “Stranded,” “Wings of the Dawn,” “Birthday,” “Lullaby,” “I’ll Be Fine,” and “Black River” on her own.

“The moment you start to be yourself, there’s an honesty about that, that people connect with,” Hull said. “This album feels like the story of my early 20s, of that searching. Now, it feels like everything worked out the way it was supposed to.”

Hull performed at the High Sierra Music Festival in 2013 and 2016. She has a summer ahead filled with festival appearances in the United States, Europe and the United Kingdom, the closest to Tahoe being the Four Peaks Music Festival in Bend, Oregon on June 17.

Royal Jelly Jive, which plays the Crystal Bay Casino’s Red Room after-party for Hull, also will appear Aug 13 at Squaw Valley’s Brews, Jazz & Funk.

Interview: Sierra Hull sets the record straight.

  • ‘An Evening with Sierra Hull’
    When: 9 p.m. Saturday, May 6
    Where: Crystal Bay Casino Crown Room, a seated show
    Red Room after-party: Royal Jelly Jive
    Tickets: $20
    Where else: Sweetwater Music Hall in Mill Vally on Friday, May 5; Yuba College, Marysville on Sunday, May 7

 

ABOUT Tim Parsons

Picture of Tim Parsons
Tim Parsons is the editor of Tahoe Onstage who first moved to Lake Tahoe in 1992. Before starting Tahoe Onstage in 2013, he worked for 29 years at newspapers, including the Tahoe Daily Tribune, Eureka Times-Standard and Contra Costa Times. He was the recipient of the 2011 Keeping the Blues Alive award for Journalism.

LEAVE A REPLY

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

@FOLLOW ME

Twitter feed is not available at the moment.

SEARCH TAHOE ONSTAGE

Search

EVENTS CALENDAR

[tribe_mini_calendar limit="5"]