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Wednesday, December 4, 2019 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon
FOLK FESTIVAL:
Concerts feature
award-winning music
Continued from page 3
their transcendent live shows,
while mining new energetic
material from the place where
folk music, funk and soul
meet.
The band9s newest album,
<Is It You, Is It Me= 4 com-
ing January 31 via their own
Medium Expectations label
and Nashville9s Thirty Tigers
4 is something different
entirely and represents the lat-
est stage in a band that never
stops evolving and refuses
to stand still. The result is a
sonic revelation and a reck-
oning. After celebrating more
than a decade of sonic adven-
turing, playing thousands of
shows together in 10 coun-
tries and counting, and col-
lecting a devoted and growing
fan base coast to coast, the
six core members 4 founder
Z. Lupetin, Liz Beebe, Josh
Heffernan, Matt Rubin, Ulf
Bjorlin and Connor Vance
4 knew they had to create
something bigger.
With a big brass-and-
strings band building the sets
around them, Is It You, Is It
Me isn9t afraid to explore the
personal and political tension
that the group may have shied
away from facing before. The
group9s signature intertwined
vocal leads star on the open-
ing track, <Dreaming,= which
tackles the deep vulnerability
of revealing your secrets and
your soul every night in front
of an audience. But where
the band really sets on a new
course is on lushly cinematic,
orchestrated set pieces like
<Mirror,= <Runaway= and,
most notably, the current
fan favorite and live show-
stopper <Sonic Boom,= about
the struggle to reveal who
you really are in the hidden,
rose-colored world of social
media.
On Thursday, April 9, stel-
lar mandolin player Sierra
Hull will perform with a
full band, demonstrating her
wide-ranging and excep-
tional musical talent as a
writer, singer and performer.
Hull9s stellar career started
early. She had her Grand Ole
Opry debut at age 10 and
was called back to the famed
stage a year later to perform
with her hero and mentor,
Alison Krauss. Sierra played
Carnegie Hall at 12; at 13
she signed with Rounder
Records and issued her debut,
<Secrets,= garnering the first
of many nominations for the
IBMA9s Mandolin Player of
the Year designation.
She played the Kennedy
Center at 16 and the next
year became the first blue-
grass musician to receive
a Presidential Scholarship
to the Berklee College of
Music. As a 20-year-old, Hull
played the White House and
in 2010, captured her first
IBMA award for Recorded
Event of the Year. All the
while, she was shedding the
prodigy tag, turning virtuoso,
and recording her second
album, <Daybreak,= with
seven of her own original
compositions.
By 2016, Hull had reached
a more mature place in her
life and in her art. She tapped
legendary bluegrass musi-
cian Béla Fleck to produce
her third album, <Weighted
Mind.= A departure from her
opening pair of records that
blended progressive elements
with traditional structure, Hull
let go of whatever preconcep-
tions existed 4 both hers and
those of her audience 4 and
birthed a Grammy-nominated
masterpiece. Enlisting bassist
Ethan Jodziewicz (and Fleck
on two cuts), and harness-
ing vocal contributions from
Krauss, Abigail Washburn,
and Rhiannon Giddens, Hull
trusted her foundation of
influences to support this
artistic leap. Months later she
was taking home the IBMA
Mandolin Player of the Year
award.
After a near-decade of
consecutive nominations,
Hull broke that last glass
ceiling, becoming the first
woman to win the prestigious
title, then she took home a
pair to join it, winning again
in 2017 and 2018.
Sierra Hull has maintained
a rigorous touring schedule.
Even when off the road, she
is frequently guesting with
friends and legends, joining
such icons as the Indigo Girls,
Garth Brooks, and Gillian
Welch, and performing at the
Country Music Awards with
Ricky Skaggs, Brad Paisley,
and Marty Stuart.
She says she9s ready now
for something new.
Currently in the midst of
work for the follow-up to
<Weighted Mind,= her next
album will consist of all
original songs. Beyond that,
there are compelling ideas
she won9t divulge for col-
laborations and, perhaps, an
all-instrumental record.
<I love playing music.
It9s all I ever wanted to do.
I don9t see it, necessarily, as
a bad thing that I9m slow on
making albums. I want my
albums to be something I can
be proud of,= said Hull.
For more information on
the 2020 Sisters Folk Festival
Winter Concert Series visit
www.sistersfolkfestival.org/
winterconcertseries. Tickets
can be purchased online in
advance or at the door. SFF
Winter Concert Series season
passes are $55 for adults or
$40 for youth 18 and under.
Tickets are also available for
individual shows. All shows
are at the Sisters High School
auditorium and start at 7 p.m.
The Nugget Newspaper Crossword
By Jacqueline E. Mathews, Tribune News Service
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