Most people are familiar with Malcolm Gladwell’s axiom that it takes 10,000 hours to be really good at something. You have to have some talent to start, but in the end you still have to put in the hard work. How then to explain Sierra Hull? She got her Rounder Records deal at 13. If she practiced 20 hours/week she would had to have started at age 3 to get her 10k hours. Anyway, at the ripe old age of 33 Hull is about to release her 6th album, A Tip Toe High Wire. It features her in all her mandolin glory, but also shines a light on her guitar and vocal talents.
Although not strictly a bluegrass record, the project carries that undercurrent throughout. As an example, Come Out Of My Blues is a co-write with frequent John Prine collaborator Pat McLaughlin. It has an old-timey sound and features Tim O’Brien on vocals. Let’s Go is an uptempo string band pop song with Aoife O’Donovan pitching in on vocals. Haven Hill is a bluegrass ballad, giving a nod to the cemetery where Hull’s mother-in-law is buried, and a reminder to make the most of the time we have. There are a couple of instrumental numbers to note. E Tune features Bela Fleck in, not surprisingly, the key of E. Lord, That’s A Long Way was also inspired by the favorite mother-in-law and her exclamation whenever she asked how far away Hull and her husband lived.
For me, the highlights of the album tend to be when bluegrass is more of an influence than the main style. Muddy Water admonishes us to accept yourself for what you are and don’t try to be anything else. It co-stars Lindsay Lou on vocals and runs more to the folkie vein. Spitfire tells the tale of Hull’s own grandmother. After losing 3 loves of her life, a son, and a kidney, she is the poster image of resilience, and a constant source of inspiration. Redbird has the slowest tempo of all the tracks and maybe does the best at featuring Hull’s vocals. It’s about the joy of spring and the symbolic freedom of being a bird. Boom has a groove that just makes it hard to sit still when it’s playing.
Sierra Hull is one of a handful of artists, along with Molly Tuttle, Billy Strings, A.J. Lee and few others, who seem destined to bring bluegrass into mainstream awareness with instrumental prowess and vocals far, far away from the high lonesome roots of the genre. Combining traditional licks with progressive elements and borrowing from country, jazz and pop, A Tip Toe High Wire is primary evidence of why the audience for string band music is growing so fast.
About the author: I've actually driven from Tehatchapee to Tonopah. And I've seen Dallas from a DC-9 at night.