Happy New Year!

Hello again friends, and Happy New Year! Hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and New Years. My Christmas was great. Seeing family is always something I look forward to! I spent a week at my mom and dad's in Byrdstown and had some good time to enjoy some time off the road. On New Years, I went downtown here in Nashville to see the music note drop. Lynyrd Skynyrd was the headline act, and it was CRAZY downtown! 55, 000 people crammed together on broadway to bring in the new year! It was a fun experience, but I will probably NEVER do that again! (A little too wild and rowdy for this gal! ;)

So here we are - 2012! I'm already very excited about this year. Lots of exciting things happening for the band. We fly out tomorrow to Portland, Oregon to play our first show of the year! I was able to play this festival about 2 or 3 years ago and it was a lot of fun. This year should be no exception! Can't wait to play again! A month off the road is great, but I'm always ready to get back at it.

Talk to you soon!

Sierra

 

The Queen of Procrastination = ME

Hey friends, It's been a while since my last post! Sorry I've been so distant. It's been a busy last few months and I am the Queen of Procrastination.

So many amazing things have happened this year and it's that time of year where I begin to look back and reflect on my many blessings. As with any year, it's been full of ups and down - lots of smiles and plenty of tears. There is such great joy in being able to do what you love for a living. As a result, it's easy to be emotionally connected to it at times. Music can be the very thing that keeps me going, pushing ahead with excitement to see what lies ahead, and then it is sometimes the thing that can be the center of my fears and disappointments. I think any musician striving to get better goes through similar times. For me at my age, it's a very confusing yet exciting time trying to discover just who I am as an artist. As frustrating as it can be sometimes, I wouldn't have it any other way! I know it's all part of a growing process and I'll be thankful for times such as these in the long run. I guess the beauty of being an artist is that you are ever growing and changing. Contentment is where I never hope to find myself. Hopefully I'll still be discovering myself as an artist my whole career! - All in all, it's been an amazing year and I'm so thankful for all that God has blessed me with. I certainly don't deserve it.

I'm very excited about the coming year. I'm already looking at the tour schedule as new dates are added and starting to anticipate another year of being on the road with great joy. Hopefully I will get better about blogging. (I always say that and usually don't! :-) BUT.. I do enjoy it and I appreciate all of you who take time to read!

Hope to write again soon... :)

Sierra

The 3 B's

So I've had the last 6 days off the road to enjoy some time with my family back in Byrdstown and also some time to get more settled at my new townhouse in Brentwood. I really like living here and I feel so happy to be back in Tennessee. (Seems like I can only live in cities/towns that start with the letter B - From Byrdstown to Boston to Brentwood, which made me think of the 3 B's) I am really excited to visit Boston again in a couple months (for a couple gigs in Sept.), but I am so happy to be within a couple hours of my family and many friends. Yesterday, I finally cooked for the first time since moving in! I had bought some really pretty Paula Dean skillets and pots for the place and finally got to try 'em out! With any job that travels a lot, you have to eat out so much you eventually just grow tired of it. I feel like the guys and I have ate at every standard place you can think of on the road about 50+ times. Just to be home long enough to cook feels nice! We're headed to Dayton, Ohio this weekend to play at the City Folk Festival. Last week we spent in California. Christian was SO happy to be back in his home state, his first time since moving out to Tennessee. We had beautiful weather and a great time at Live Oak Folk Festival in Santa Barbara, Huck Finn Bluegrass Festival in Victorville, and The Hotel Cafe in L.A. While out in Beverly Hills we go to visit Concord Music Group the label that now owns Rounder Records. Concord has some amazing artists under their label and I feel so lucky to just be associated with such nice people. They hooked us up with some of their latest releases which I've been mostly listening to since that trip - James Taylor, James Taylor & Carol King, Paul McCartney, John Mellencamp, Paul Simon, The Cars, Esperanza Spalding and a few others!

Anyways - just wanted to drop a quick line. I better get to work! Lots to do before heading out again.

More soon... :)

Sierra

Jolly Ol' England

Hello friends from London! Having a great trip so far! I'm currently sitting in the hotel drinking a cafe' mocha (from room service - pretty good! :) and listening to some British music. The trip has gotten off to a wonderful start. Had a whole day on Saturday to adjust and enjoy some sights after arriving late Friday night. This being my first trip to England, there's a lot that I've wanted to do and see, so it's great to have some free time mixed in alongside the work/real reason for the trip. I'll try to post some pictures when I get back home and actually have a chord to upload the pictures from my camera to the computer. The album hasn't been released here in the UK yet, but looks like it will be coming out on July 4th. Feels so funny to say "the album will be coming out..." when it already feels like it's been out a while for me! Anyways, the weather was beautiful on Saturday and was perfect for exploring. Today was quite rainy, but I'm hoping tomorrow, since I have the morning off, it will be nice out and I can take a guided bus tour that will visit most of the popular London sights.

To Be Continued....

Sierra

A Little Mudd Never Hurt Nobody

Hello from DelFest in Cumberland, Maryland!

The guys and I have been here the past two days hanging out listening to some great music and sloshing through the muddy fields! We played two sets here this weekend. One yesterday and one today. Yesterday, we made it off the Grandstage just before the rain hit. The Travelin' McCoury's w/ special guest Ronnie Bowman played right after us and put on a really great show, but unfortunately had to cut the set a little short and make a run for it when the rain and lightening came busting in. After the rain had done its do, we pretty much needed a canoe to get back to the van! However, today the sun was beaming down, and the the fans up here definitely aren't afraid of a little dirt, or rain for that matter! :) My boots are terrible looking after this weekend! Check 'em out!! Needless to say, I'm so thrilled we got to be part of this wonderful festival. We love Del and all the McCoury's and hope we can come back again sometime!

Since my last post, I've officially moved from Boston and am about to move into my new place near Nashville after this trip! I'm really pumped. I'm not sure when I'll actually end up having time to do much though! We've got a busy next few weeks ahead of us! I'm flying to London on Friday for about 5 days to do some promo for the new album. I've never been to England, so I'm really looking forward to the trip! I'll try to post more on that soon!

Oh - and before I forget...We went into the studio last week and recorded and filmed 3 songs for a live in the studio video for Rounder and CMT.com. We did two songs from the new album and a cover song by Adele. More details on that to come soon as well!

We head out bright and early for Nashville tomorrow. It'll be a long trip home, but I'm thrilled I'm just able to be part of the road trips these days and I'm not flying EVERY weekend!

Anyways - I hope everyone has a wonderful Memorial Day weekend.

Til next time...

Sierra

 

Winding Down The Days

Hey Friends and Neighbors.. Hope this post finds you all doing well, enjoying Spring and the wonderful weather it brings!  Today I was able to actually get outside here in Boston without a jacket on! (First time this year).  It's so lovely to be seeing flowers in bloom and enjoying some beautiful sunshine!  Even with the good spirit that Spring seems to bring along I must say, it's been a crazy week here in college land.  It's the end of the semester, so it goes without saying that stress is also in the air as final tests and projects are becoming due.  But - we only have about a week left!

As I've mentioned before it's my last semester here at Berklee, and I must admit that it is a little bittersweet.  I can't start to explain how excited I am to move back to Tennessee and to really get focused on my career.  At the same time, I will certainly miss being here in Boston where I've made many wonderful friends.  I've learned so much in my time here at Berklee.  Even with all the touring I've been doing these past couple of years, I still feel that I've grown so very much and I am so grateful that the school gave me this special opportunity.  I will never forget this experience and I can't wait to come back and visit this great city in the future!  I've had a couple of weeks off with the band, which has been nice, but I really started thinking tonight about how much I am dying to get back out on the road!  These days, 3 weeks off is a LONG time.  It has certainly been nice to get a little break from the ruggedness of the road.  Since I've had a couple weekends in Boston, I've made a point to hang with friends, visit some churches, and I even got to do some sight seeing (something I hadn't done since being here).  Brad Paul, from Rounder and his wife and sons took me out for a fun day on the Freedom Trail.  It was SO cold out that we nearly froze to death, but hey - at least I can say I went on the Freedom Trail now! :)

This Friday, I am thrilled to say that my roommate and I are going to see the Red Sox play!  Since living up here I haven't had time to go see a game.  It will be a great way to top off my last weekend in Bean-town.  We have awesome seats thanks to Bill Nowlin at Rounder!  This weekend I also get to spend boxing up my stuff and getting it ready to ship to Nashville.  Unfortunately, I will miss my graduation ceremony because we will be on the road next weekend, BUT, Roger Brown (Berklee President) has been so kind as to work something out that will allow me to be part of the commencement ceremony next year! (More news to come as it gets closer!)

Anyways, I do hope that everyone had a wonderful Easter.  I particularly thought this year about how lovely it is to celebrate that day.  Even without being able to be with my family this year, I still found myself very thankful to remember the true meaning of Easter.

My thoughts and prayers go out to all of my friends down south who have experienced such devastating weather and those in Alabama who have lost loved ones as a result.

Thanks as always for reading!

-Sierra

What Do You Say?

Good people! It’s been a whirlwind of events since the last blog last month! There is no way I’ll be able to cover everything, so I’m going to start at the present and do some rewinding.

I’m currently with the band riding down the road headed to Delaware where we will play a show tonight at the Grand Opera House. On this trip so far, we’ve played in Rockville, MD at the Institute of Musical Tradition and last night in Roanoke, VA at Kirk Avenue Music Hall. It’s so wonderful being so busy this month in support of the new album. It’s been such a busy time, I’ve barely had time to think, but I am so blessed with everything that’s been happening to say the least. Daybreak was finally released! It feels so great to have some new music out there for you guys to hear and so wonderful for the band and I to have new songs to perform live. It truly is a breath of fresh air! Of course, I’m already feeling the excitement of what the next album will bring. It’s interesting to make an album, wait for it to come out, and then when it finally does, it feels like the next chapter in the book and I can’t help but want to read ahead some times. That’s good to some degree I suppose, but it’s important for me not to get too ahead of myself. I’ve come to find that the more I tend to do that, the more distracted I become from enjoying this wonderful ride that God is allowing me to be on. I am so thankful for his grace and for allowing me to do what I love. I know that He will lead me exactly where I’m supposed to be.

This month we had the record come out of course, and we have done some fun things as well. We shot a music video for the song “Easy Come, Easy Go”, which can be seen here on the website, or you may be able to catch it on CMT or GAC. It was my first video, and I really enjoyed getting to work with so many wonderful people. We shot it at Two Rivers Mansion in Nashville and worked with director, David McClister. Just last week we officially celebrated the release of the album with a release show in Nashville at the Belcourt Theater, followed by a private party and release event at ASCAP the next evening. It was SO wonderful to see so many great friends out for that show, including my mom, granny, aunt, and friend, Jesse.

In other thought, I’ve also been super busy around the new album doing tons of interviews and when touring as much as we have been recently, I’ve started to realize how little it takes to wear out the voice. Even as I write this, I have to remember not to be using my voice so much just talking and goofing off with the guys. And well, when you talk as much as I tend to, it’s easy to forget. It’s really made me realize how important it is to get plenty of rest, eat well, stay hydrated, and to try not to overuse my voice.

Throughout the rest of this trip, we are headed back to VA tomorrow for a show at Mockingbird Roots Music Hall in Staunton, then on to Sellersville, PA for a show with the Seldom Scene at the Sellersville Theater. Then, we’ll head to Corbin, KY for a show at The Arena opening for the legendary George Jones, and then after a much needed day off, we will be playing on Woodsongs in Lexington, KY at the Lexington Theater. After that, I’ll get to fly back to Boston after being away for over three weeks! I’m really looking forward to seeing all my friends. I can’t say, however, that I’m looking forward to making up the mid-terms that I missed, but hey! I’m lucky to be able to go to such an amazing school, much less one that will allow me to tour as much as we do. I won’t complain!! :)

Anyways – well, looks like we are getting close to the venue, so I’m going to say goodbye for now! I’ll be compiling some photos from our recent journey for a little photo blog, and Christian will have a couple “On the Road” video blogs coming soon as well! Be sure to check back to the website often for updates! Thanks as always for reading!

God Bless,

Sierra

Breakfast With The President, Gasoline & Banjos

National Prayer Breakfast Well friends, it’s been an interesting and busy week to say the least. I haven’t seemed to catch up on sleep yet, and the coming week doesn’t seem so promising either! Oh well, “I’m young right? Who needs sleep?” – Unfortunately, my sore throat doesn’t agree so much!

Anyways, it seems like only a few days ago that I was writing about my trip with the band to Washington, D.C. This past week I returned to D.C. to perform with Alison Krauss and Dan Tyminski at the National Prayer Breakfast. I flew last Monday into Nashville for a rehearsal before flying with everyone to D.C. Thank goodness that I did, or I probably wouldn’t have made it out of Boston for a few days because of the big snow storm. Luckily for me – school was cancelled on Tuesday and Wednesday (which means I don’t have a load of work to make up – YAY!)

Alison Krauss And Sierra Hull

Ok! On with my story - The actual breakfast was an early morning event in which we played two hymns – I Know Who Holds Tomorrow and Abide With Me. The event takes place every year at the Washington Hilton and is hosted by all of Congress and attended by the President. This year was the 59th annual. There were about 3,500 people packed in the ballroom and reportedly representatives from over 150 different countries. Though I don’t tend to be extremely political, I was so thrilled to be part of an event all about something that does mean so much to me – Prayer. It was also a pleasure to get to meet, Randall Wallace, writer of some excellent movies such as, Brave Heart, We Were Soldiers, Pearl Harbor. He gave an amazing keynote speech at the breakfast. We also played 4 songs at the closing dinner later that night which was very fun as well! I was able to meet author, William P. Young, who wrote The Shack, who also gave a very touching speech about his faith. It’s of course always such a joy to get to sing with two of my favorite singers ever – Dan and Alison. I’m always reminded just how much I LOVE to sing harmony in a situation like that. We did two accapella songs at the closing dinner – so fun!

Dan

I think if you do a search on youtube there are a couple videos from the performance that morning that were on C-SPAN. :)

After flying back to Nashville I had to make a quick run over to the office to meet the guys for our band rehearsal. We were supposed to rehearse with our new banjo player, but unfortunately got a call from him that morning letting me know that he had decided to accept a job with a different band. Not exactly good news, and it’s unfortunate for us as it felt good to finally hire someone and we were all pumped to rehearse. BUT, I truly do believe that all things work together for the good of those who love the Lord! And as I fail to do so often, I believe we should praise Him even in times when things don’t go our way. I know He knows what’s best for this band and will see things through as he sees best. The guys and I certainly wish Jessie the best! We ended up rehearsing both Friday and Saturday. I really love the new material. It’s so fun and refreshing to play these new tunes, and I really hope you guys will like them! I’m really excited to get out and play a bunch in March in support of the new record. With the release date being moved back to the earlier date, it really forced our booking agency to get on the ball and start booking, booking, booking. I’m really happy with the progress they have made the last few weeks and it will be GREAT to be out on the road with a brand new album! Our wonderful and faithful friend, Ron Block will be going out with us on the March Tour – what a shame! ;) haha

Sierra Hull Daybreak

Ok – so enough serious talk – let’s get REALLY serious. I did something dumb today. Ran out of gas on I-40. There’s really no excuse for something like this other than my lack of responsibility. I’ve mostly been in Boston for the past year and a half, and my car stays in Nashville so that when I fly in to work/ect. I have a car! Well, at the end of last summer my fuel gauge stopped working and always says I’m on empty. My gaslight is ALWAYS on. So, I took my car to Nissan where I have it serviced and they quoted fixing it for like $400. I decided at the time since I was hardly driving it that I would just wait to have it fixed. Not long ago, I got an extended warranty in the mail from Nissan saying that this was a problem with many of the year models like mine and that I could get it fixed for free! (Sweet, huh?) Except, I’ve not been home long enough to get it done! SO, I always have to remember to fill up. Before driving to Alison’s for rehearsal I put $30 worth in the tank, which normally does me just fine for a short trip into Nashville. I guess $30 just doesn’t get you as far as it used to these days. Anyways, I was driving to Cookeville, TN to meet my mom for lunch before I flew out today. Luckily my brother and two of his friends had drove down to Nashville for the weekend to go to SPBGMA and were following me and able to rescue me! I had given my brother a birthday card right before we started driving and it had $20 dollars in it. Thankfully so, because he used that $20 bucks to buy me a gas jug! Hahaha Anyways – boring story.

Gas

My own little personal version of TripleA!

Ok folks, that’s all for now. I’m currently soaring through the air on a big Southwest plane headed back to Boston! Yes, that’s correct. I booked a flight during the Super Bowl. I know.. I’m so not cool!!

As always, thanks for reading! :)

Sierra

Ready, Set.. GO!

Well, folks.. I feel like this past week really got me back into travel mode after a pretty good vacation for the holidays. The past week started out by flying back up to Boston and getting settled for my 4th semester at Berklee. (Yes, 4th! Hard to believe it's already here!) This semester will be my final semester at Berklee as I will be graduating with a special Artist Diploma in Performance. I actually found out that I won't be fully complete with my credits in time to graduate in May, BUT the school is so amazingly supportive and they are going to work with me to finish my remaining credits online/telecommute so that I can still make the move to Nashville during the summer. I am so blessed to go to a college with such a wonderful group of supporters. The teachers at Berklee truly want to see their students succeed and I'm so thankful they have worked so hard to help me with all the craziness that is my schedule both at school and on the road. Anyways... on to this past week - I flew up to Boston late last Sunday night just in time to get my things unpacked, clothes washed and then repacked to leave the next morning for NYC. The last month or so, I've been working on producing the music excerpts for a new stage show called Appalachia Tour. Here's a little info about the production from the website that explains better than I could:

THE STORY BLUEGRASS MOONSHINE birth of NASCAR

Inspired by the book Driving with the Devil–engaging storytelling, live bluegrass music and historical film footage tell the story of the Appalachian mountain people; their heritage, their migration south from the whiskey-taxing Northeast to Appalachia, and how their moonshine-making ways and legendary ‘runners’ became the renegade drivers of NASCAR...

Tour Banner

A moving story of how ‘moonshiners’ and their need for fast cars created a sport the south could call its own–true blue American originals in the foothills of Appalachia where moonshine and bluegrass music were a way of life–creations of the Scots-Irish migrants.

Storyteller Baxter Black and superb live music combine perfectly to create the ultimate NASCAR history experience and a spectacular entertaining stage performance.

When asked to work on this project, the idea came up to find 3 Berklee musicians to perform the music on the road as the show tours the performing arts centers alongside the cities in which the official NASCAR races are held. So.. auditions were held, and Courtney Hartman, Trent Freeman and Lukas Pool were selected! They are doing a great job in setting the mood for the story line. I think it's going to be a really cool show to see especially for anyone that is interested in NASCAR. The story will be told by Baxter Black, a true gentleman and a real cowboy. (www.baxterblack.com) Check it out!

Lukas, Trent & Courtney during a rehearsal in New Haven, CT.

Baxter during a filming of the show at the American Movie Company in NYC.

After leaving New York, I had a couple days back in Boston before flying to D.C. to perform last night with the band at The Kennedy Center. It was our first show of the year, so it felt very much like getting back in the swing of performing again, but we really had a great time. We had a big crowd and of course, it was just an honor to get to play at such a renowned venue.

A view from the Millennium Stage during sound check...

Here's a clip from the show:

I have so many things on my mind and heart musically. I certainly want to grow so much this year as a musician and especially a singer. I can't wait to see how we grow as a band this year as well. We are very excited to announce our newest member of the band, Jessie Baker. Jessie is an awesome musician and we can't wait to work with him! He will play his first show with the band in March! So excited and inspired to to work on some new things.

Jessie Baker

 

Check out Jessie Baker jumps to Highway 111.

Well, that's all for now... more to come soon! :)

Sierra

2011

MicrophonesWell, here we are! 2011! So hard to believe how quickly this past year flew by. As I look back at all the blessing in my life, I'm always brought down to earth in a hurry. It's easy to sometimes get so busy and not realize all the amazing ways God is blessing us. My life has changed so much in the last few years. I feel like I've been hit with life right in the face! Good and bad! This age I am in can be tough in so many ways, but extremely rewarding and exciting. More responsibilities. More worries along the way at times. More searching and LOTS of praying to make the best decisions possible. BUT, with it comes true independence, which can be a very inspiring thing in itself. As most of you already know, I've spent the past year and a half mostly in Boston going to Berklee College of Music. It's been amazing. I've made so many friends and what seemed like a somewhat last minute and scary move to make in Sept. of '09 has proven to be a decision I don't at all regret. This month, I'll be going into my fourth and final semester there. I'll be graduating in May with a special Artist Diploma in Performance. I will certainly miss Boston, but I'm also looking forward to getting on with the next chapter in my life. I'm excited to be making plans to move to Nashville in May as well, something I've been dreaming of doing since I was a little girl. It will also be very nice to be back home in beautiful Tennessee as well, and closer to my family.

I'm very anxious and excited about this year for so many reasons. One big reason, is having a new album coming out. Daybreak will be released on March 8th! The band and I just spent the last 3 days in Nashville rehearsing the new material. It's very refreshing to have new songs and ideas after playing off of mostly one album for the past couple of years. I can't wait to get back on the road with those guys. I feel like we are really starting to gel as a band, but we still have SO much to work on. I couldn't ask for better friends or musicians to work with. We will play our first 2011 tour date on Jan. 22 at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. which we are all looking forward to!

Well folks, more news and updates to come soon. I just wanted to share a few thoughts and wish everyone a blessed new year! Can't wait to see you guys out on the trail somewhere soon!

All the Best, Sierra