Biography

Sierra Hull
Daybreak
Rounder 11661-0658-2

1. Easy Come, Easy Go
(Kevin McClung – Mountain William Music, BMI)

2. Don’t Pick Me Up
(John Pennell – Solar Grass Music, BMI)

3. All Because Of You
(Sierra Hull – Tugboat Sis Music, ASCAP)

4. Bombshell
(Sierra Hull – Tugboat Sis Music, ASCAP)

5. Best Buy
(Sierra Hull – Tugboat Sis Music, ASCAP)

6. I’ll Always Be Waiting For You
(Shawn Lane – Cat Town Music, BMI/Gerald Ellenburg – Wadakoe Publishing, BMI

7. The Land Of Living
(Mary Ann Ballard – Word Music, LLC c/o Warner Chappell Music, Inc., ASCAP)

8. What Do You Say?
(Sierra Hull – Tugboat Sis Music, ASCAP)

9. Tell Me Tomorrow
(Sierra Hull – Tugboat Sis Music, ASCAP)

10. Daybreak
(Sierra Hull – Tugboat Sis Music, ASCAP)

11. Chasin’ Skies
(Sierra Hull – Tugboat Sis Music, ASCAP)

12. Wouldn’t Matter To Me
(Kevin McClung – Mountain William Music, BMI)

Produced by Barry Bales and Sierra Hull
Engineered by Brandon Bell and Brent Truitt Recorded at Unpainted Huffhines, Omni Sound, and Minutia Studio Mixed and edited by Brandon Bell
Mastered by Paul Blakemore at Concord Music Group, Cleveland, OH
Photography by Gregg Delman
Art direction by Larissa Collins
Design by Albert J. Roman

Easy Come, Easy Go
Sierra Hull mandolin
Bryan Sutton guitars
Stuart Duncan fiddle
Randy Kohrs Dobro
Barry Bales bass
Shawn Lane baritone vocal
Ronnie Bowman low tenor vocal

Don't Pick Me Up
Sierra Hull mandolin
Clay Hess guitar, low tenor vocal
Cory Walker banjo
Christian Ward fiddle
Jacob Eller bass
Shawn Lane baritone vocal

All Because of You
Sierra Hull mandolin, octave mandolin
Bryan Sutton guitars
Stuart Duncan fiddle
Randy Kohrs Weissenborn guitar
Barry Bales bass, low tenor vocal
Dan Tyminski baritone vocal

Bombshell
Sierra Hull mandolin
Bryan Sutton guitar
Stuart Duncan fiddle
Barry Bales bass

Best Buy
Sierra Hull mandolin
Bryan Sutton guitars
Stuart Duncan fiddle
Barry Bales bass

I'll Always Be Waiting For You
Sierra Hull mandolin
Clay Hess lead & rhythm guitar
Ron Block guitar
Stuart Duncan fiddle
Barry Bales bass
Shawn Lane baritone vocal
Ronnie Bowman low tenor vocal

The Land of Living
Sierra Hull mandolin
Clay Hess guitar
Ron Block guitar
Christian Ward fiddle
Barry Bales bass, bass vocal
Shawn Lane baritone vocal
Ronnie Bowman low tenor vocal

What Do You Say?
Sierra Hull mandolin
Clay Hess guitar
Ron Stewart banjo
Stuart Duncan fiddle
Barry Bales bass, low tenor vocal
Dan Tyminski baritone vocal

Tell Me Tomorrow
Sierra Hull mandolin
Clay Hess guitars, low tenor vocal
Cory Walker banjo
Christian Ward fiddle
Randy Kohrs Dobro
Jacob Eller bass
Shawn Lane baritone vocal

Daybreak
Sierra Hull guitar, baritone vocal
Bryan Sutton guitar
Stuart Duncan fiddle
Barry Bales bass
Ronnie Bowman low tenor vocal

Chasin' Skies
Sierra Hull mandolin
Bryan Sutton guitar
Stuart Duncan fiddle
Randy Kohrs Dobro
Cory Walker banjo
Jacob Eller bass

Wouldn't Matter To Me
Sierra Hull mandolin
Clay Hess guitars, baritone vocal
Cory Walker banjo, low tenor vocal
Christian Ward fiddle
Jacob Eller bass


Sierra Hull
Daybreak
Street Date: March 8, 2011

A good chunk of popular music’s real estate has been carved up along lines of age these last half-dozen decades, and we’re used to seeing young musicians aim exclusively for young audiences then flounder as they outgrow teenaged listeners’ tastes and concerns. Pan-generational mentoring and mingling has done much to insulate bluegrass from this coming-of-age quandary. Still, Sierra Hull is the rare soul to make it through these years entirely unscathed.

Secrets—the debut album she recorded at 15, and released at 16—struck the ear with sensibilities that seemed both seasoned and fresh; kids’ stuff this was not. Three years and a move from her family’s home in tiny Byrdstown, TN to Boston’s Berklee College of Music later, she’s followed with one of the most surefooted transitions into early adulthood put to record. Thirty seconds into the opening track, she sings a line that puts a fine point on it: “I’m not a child anymore.”

Of course, the evidence of Sierra’s uncommon maturity—musical and personal (one might say she embodies the perfect balance of humility and capability)—has been there all along, and won her formidable fans: by age 11, Alison Krauss had called with an invitation to the Opry stage; by 12, Rounder was expressing interest; first Ron Block and now Barry Bales have served as co-producers, and her studio bands have featured the cream of the contemporary bluegrass crop—Stuart Duncan, Randy Kohrs and Bryan Sutton this time, alongside members of Sierra’s own crack band Highway 111. Then there’s the fact that Berklee gave her the school’s most prestigious award, the Presidential Scholarship, a first for a bluegrass musician; her choice to accept it, to delay her dream of hitting the road full-time after high school in favor of expanding her musical worldview, was hardly a light one.

If ever the “child prodigy” label did Sierra justice, its usefulness has completely fallen away and a distinctive new identity emerged. What you hear on Daybreak is one of bluegrass’s few full-fledged virtuosic instrumentalist/singer/songwriters, and one who’s gracefully grown into her gifts. While her mandolin playing has always possessed clarity and fleet-fingered precision, here she attacks her solos with newfound spontaneity and depth of feeling; she calls it “playing with a point to prove.” Her singing—always straight and true—has more heartfelt power behind it, to results Bales describes, simply, as “doing the songs justice.”

As for the songs, Sierra’s first album held just a few originals, but she wrote seven of these twelve, a collection that stands up quite well next to the outside material. There’s a pair of sprightly instrumentals, her first-ever western swing number and several that show her emotional sophistication: in songs that fall squarely in the bluegrass tradition, feelings are out in the open; during country-leaning compositions, she ponders relationships from more introspective angles; and the title track—a breathtaking pop ballad—is the most ruminative moment of all.

Boundaries—age, genre or otherwise—don’t hamper an artist like Sierra. She’s already earned considerable respect in the bluegrass world, the IBMA’s voting members having nominated her for no fewer than five awards over three years—there’s a good chance she’ll be the first woman to win the mandolin category. But as a player, a singer and a
songwriter, she also has remarkable range, the potential to win over ears unfamiliar with Bill Monroe and give performances of broad cultural importance, as she’s done at Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center and the National Prayer Breakfast. Matt Glaser—head of Berklee’s American Roots Music Program—put it this way: “She has no limitations as a musician.” Daybreak is certainly a noteworthy arrival; you can’t help but feel it’s also just the beginning.