By Lauren Daley, BOSTON GLOBE CORRESPONDENT APRIL 01, 2016
Think of: Emmylou Harris’s voice and stage presence, Bill Monroe’s mandolin skills. The next Alison Krauss.
What caught our eye: When mandolin prodigy Sierra Hull was 8, she wowed veteran bluegrass musicians in rural Tennessee. At 10, Hull was asked to play at the Grand Ole Opry; at 11, she was invited back by Alison Krauss. Hull signed to Rounder Records at 13, and a few years later became the first bluegrass musician to receive a Presidential Scholarship to Berklee College of Music. Now 24, the kid wonder has come into her own as an artist. On her fourth album, the Béla Fleck-produced “Weighted Mind,” Hull proves as deft a songwriter as she is a mandolinist. The 2011 Berklee grad makes two stops in Massachusetts this month, including one at her alma mater.