Festival at Sandpoint announces Sierra Ferrell will take the stage July 25

By Reader Staff

Described as “one of the brightest young luminaries in roots music today,” West Virginia-born singer-songwriter Sierra Ferrell is headed to the Festival at Sandpoint stage for a Friday, July 25 performance that promises to introduce local audiences to her brand of “beautifully strange magic.”

Following the release of her 2024 album Trail of Flowers (Rounder Records), Nashville-based Ferrell took home the Artist of the Year and Album of the Year prizes at the Americana Honors and Awards, and earned four Grammy nominations for Best Americana Album (Trail of Flowers), Best American Roots Performance (“Lighthouse”), Best Americana Performance (“American Dreaming”) and Best American Roots Song (“American Dreaming”). 

Sierra Ferrell will play the Festival at Sandpoint on Friday, July 25. Courtesy photo

For such an impressive resume, Ferrell hasn’t been on the scene for too long. She self-released her first two albums Pretty Magic Spell and Washington by the Sea in 2018 and 2019, respectively, followed by Long Time Coming with Rounder Records in 2021. 

Long Time Coming drew praise from outlets like Pitchfork, Paste, Pop Matters and No Depression, and Ferrell has since collaborated with the likes of Old Crow Medicine Show and Post Malone while bringing her high-spirited live performance across North America and Europe.

A multi-instrumentalist, Ferrell’s musical upbringing included playing everywhere from truck stops to boxcars to New Orleans street corners, and her latest album journeys from freewheeling bluegrass to heartrending old-time music to gritty honky-tonk and beyond.

Featuring guest appearances from fellow singer-songwriters Lukas Nelson and Nikki Lane, Trail of Flowers fulfills Ferrell’s longstanding mission of making music that transcends the barriers of time, making listeners “feel nostalgic for the past, but excited about the future of music,” as she says.

The opening track, “American Dreaming,” is an example of how she merges timeless musicianship with lyrics exploring modern concerns — a world-weary, yet soul-stirring track that speaks to the struggle to build a good life in a culture consumed by capitalism. 

Meanwhile, the track “Fox Hunt” takes the form of a furious, stomping epic driven by galloping rhythms and feverish fiddle work. On “Rosemary,” she delves further into her old-time roots and delivers the album’s most haunting moment: a stark but spellbinding story-song graced with a few bars of soulful yodeling. Tracks like “Dollar Bill Bar” — a swinging but wistful number on which she cycles from longing to regret to a devil-may-care attitude — showcase her profound gifts as a vocalist.

As a listening experience, Trail of Flowers presents an all-enveloping and off-kilter beauty. 

“I’m just trying to put words and melodies together and build it into something people can pour their feelings to, all their happiness and sorrows so that it changes their reality a little bit and gives them some comfort,” she says.

Member presale tickets are available until 10 p.m. on Thursday, Jan. 30, while tickets will go on sale to the public on Friday, Jan. 31 at 10 a.m. General admission is $54.95, with tickets available at festivalatsandpoint.com.