May 4, 2025 • 38 mins
Join @thebuzzknight for this classic replay of an episode with musician, singer-songwriter Sierra Hull. She is a bluegrass artist who specializes in the mandolin and she has been playing live in front of audiences since she was thirteen years old. You'll get a unique glimpse inside the creative process from this immensely talented and versatile artists.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Taking a Walk the idea and the concept of improvisation immediately,
whether you're doing it or not, you're learning variations of
certain things, and then those variations start teaching you more
about the instrument and how things are laid out on
the instrument, how you can access, you know, the same
idea in three or four different ways. The same way
(00:21):
is you know, if, like I told you, I just
finished another interview before hopping on here with you, if
that person had asked me the same question, I might
give a similar answer, but I'm not going to be
exactly the same, right, But I might tell the story
the same way.
Speaker 2 (00:37):
Welcome to the Taking a Walk podcast, hosted by Buzz Night.
Buzz speaks with musicians of all genres about their music,
their creative process, and their artistic freedom. On this episode
with Sierra Hall, a true prodigy of bluegrass and a
virtuoso mandolin player who's been captivating audiences since their childhood.
(00:58):
Sierra Hall's musical journey is nothing short of remarkable. From
her grand Old Oppry debut at ten to performing at
elite venues like the White House at Kennedy Center and
Carnegie Hall, Sierra has consistently pushed the boundaries of bluegrass music.
Here's buzz with Sierra Hall on taking a walk.
Speaker 3 (01:20):
Sierra Hall, thanks for being on taking a walk.
Speaker 4 (01:23):
Thanks for having me.
Speaker 3 (01:24):
How you doing, I'm doing excellent. I'm talking to you,
so I couldn't be I couldn't be any better. What
are some of your favorite places to take a walk
around Nashville.
Speaker 1 (01:33):
Oh, man, We're lucky in the neighborhood that we live,
just kind of east of downtown where we've got lots
of nice sidewalks and connecting neighborhoods, and it's really quiet out.
Speaker 4 (01:45):
In this part of town where I live.
Speaker 1 (01:47):
I'm in the Hermitage area, and so you know, this
time of year, especially all the leaves changing and we
have tons of deer. So I grew up in the
country as a kid, and I mean lots of open
fields and woods to play in, but no sidewalks because
we didn't even have neighbors within at earshot. So so
(02:08):
very different kind of thing. But it's it's sort of
a nice hybrid of those things. I would say, where
it's nice and quiet out here where we live, but
you know, we've got lots of friendly folks in the
neighborhood out and join the weather this time of year,
and I love it. Plus, Nashville honestly is a beautiful
part of you know, the world to be able to
(02:31):
have like greenways, because it's like you're here in the city,
but at least you've got like actually quite a bit
of you know, public walking trails and things like that
all throughout the city, which is really nice.
Speaker 3 (02:43):
And do you use walking at a point in time
maybe where you're looking for a creative breakthrough, maybe you're
jammed up at that moment and you just got to
get some air and take a walk.
Speaker 4 (02:55):
Oh yeah, all the time, all the time. Yeah. Actually,
it's funny.
Speaker 1 (02:59):
The last few days here in Nashville, it's just been
really gloomy and rainy, And I just got off of
another interview before talking to you, and I was out
on my back porch just like enjoy the weather. And
so I will definitely be getting a walk or a
run in today just because finally.
Speaker 4 (03:16):
The weather's nice again. And you know, it gets.
Speaker 1 (03:18):
Dark so early this time of year that that's that's
rough for me if I can't squeeze in time to
be outside for just a little bit and get like
either a walk, long walk or a jog in. You know,
I start I start filling it within a few days
of that where I'm like, oh, I'm antsy to get
out there.
Speaker 3 (03:36):
So I got it. Yep, so old and in the way,
the super group and the album led by Jerry Garcia
was a breakthrough moment I believe for the genre of bluegrass,
and your work, along with a host of others, is
part of a, in my opinion, a new breakthrough moment.
(03:58):
Can you highlight some of that community and who has
been along for the ride with you leading the charge?
Speaker 4 (04:06):
Oh gosh, well thanks for saying that.
Speaker 1 (04:08):
Yeah, I mean, I think because I'm you know, just
young enough that I didn't get to ever meet Bill Monroe,
for example, you know, who we call the father of
bluegrass music and the guy that kind of really started
what we think of as bluegrass and along with like
Earl Scrugs and the band Flat Scrugs and that kind
of those first generation bluegrassers. But you know, between Bill
(04:30):
Monroe and Earl Scruggs, they were like, you know, creating
and sharing, you know, popularizing this this new thing. And
you know, the bluegrass community, which I feel so lucky
to have grown up as is at this point, we
think of it as this thing that's so rich in tradition, like.
Speaker 4 (04:50):
All the songs the catalog.
Speaker 1 (04:54):
Also, like you know, we think of that sort of
first generation music as it's kind of sacred to us
and a lot of ways where you know, everybody wants
to honor that as much as possible. But when you
think about, you know, Bill Monroe himself, has there even
been anybody you know with the mandolin in their hands
that's been as much of an innovator as that, you know,
(05:15):
and in the beginning of that, So like when I
think of the people, whether it's you know, David Grisman
you mentioned Olden in the way, whether it's Sam Bush,
whether it's Chris theeelely other you know, people that have
come way before me, that have already been making you know,
their own waves by using the instrument in a lot
(05:36):
of different, cool, unique ways. Of course, people of my generation,
I think, would come to the music into the.
Speaker 4 (05:46):
Mandolin with.
Speaker 1 (05:49):
Sort of like the green light to kind of just
explore and do whatever we want to do with it,
you know, because we've already seen so many examples of
our heroes who have done that, you know, and not
just with the mandolin. I mean, I've worked a lot
with Babil Fleck over the last few years. I can't
think of anybody, you know, maybe besides Earl Scroggs himself
that's you know, found new creative things to do on
(06:11):
the instrument. So you know, we've we've been talking about,
say the banjo, and there's always you know, those pioneers
that kind of come before us, that.
Speaker 4 (06:21):
Lead the way in those ways.
Speaker 1 (06:23):
And then I think as someone who feels inspired by that,
you know, just trying to figure out what that means
to me personally in ways that I can, you know,
take the instrument and the music I love and be
inspired by that to just feel not that I need
to change something or feel the pressure to create something
(06:44):
new and exciting, but just to kind of go, what
do I want to sound like? If I'm not worried
about having to fit into a box, you know, as
much as I love and am grateful to have strong
roots in a form of music that really honors the
tradition of the music.
Speaker 4 (07:02):
If that makes.
Speaker 3 (07:03):
Sense, It totally does. Who would be your bluegrass super
group if you ever formed one? Who would be with
you along for that?
Speaker 1 (07:14):
Oh gosh, does it have to be living members.
Speaker 3 (07:18):
Not necessarily, but dream as much as you want with it, living.
Speaker 2 (07:25):
Or death.
Speaker 4 (07:25):
Oh, it would be really hard.
Speaker 1 (07:27):
That's such a hard, you know, hard thing to say,
because I probably wouldn't even be in it. I just
put my own heroes in there, you know, figuring out
the super gros. I mean, you know, it's like one
of the first people that comes to mind.
Speaker 2 (07:40):
You know.
Speaker 1 (07:41):
I don't know if I could just say every instrument,
because I could, I could create ten different supergroups I'd
be excited to play in.
Speaker 2 (07:47):
You know.
Speaker 1 (07:48):
But you know, somebody like Tony Rice was one of
my biggest heroes as a youngster. I think one of
the first, you know, bluegrass artists that that really came
on to my radar when I was a young I'm
trying to think I might have even heard the album
Church Street Blues before I actually played the mandolin, but
(08:10):
it was it was somewhere around that time when I
was first starting to get into music. My dad brought
home the cassette tape of Tony Rice's Church Street Blues
and that's just him with a guitar and singing on
the record, so not even like a bluegrass record per se,
But I just fell.
Speaker 4 (08:27):
In love with it.
Speaker 1 (08:27):
So Tony's always at the top of that supergroup hero
club for me. You know, Alison Krass has been one
of my biggest heroes, so probably have to put her
in there. Of course they've done some touring together anyway,
and I know Tony was one of.
Speaker 4 (08:39):
Her biggest heroes.
Speaker 1 (08:41):
Yeah, it'd be impossible, it'd be impossible for me to choose.
Speaker 3 (08:44):
Well, that's why I asked it.
Speaker 1 (08:45):
But those two come to mind just as being like
two of my biggest heroes as a youngster.
Speaker 3 (08:49):
You know, we'll come back to some of that. Well,
congrats on the amazing rendition of a black Muddy River,
which you know, I know you've done that for for
a long time in as part of your set. How
did you first discover that?
Speaker 1 (09:04):
Though I really came to the music of the Grateful
Dead a little bit later than one might imagine. Like
I knew about Olden in the way you mentioned that,
and Jerry Garcia had been being part of that band,
but to me, I knew way less about him than
I knew about.
Speaker 4 (09:22):
David Chrisman, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1 (09:24):
Or Mass or Clemens or you know some of the
other just people in that circle that timeframe, I knew
that you know, the Pizza tapes, you know that Tony
Rice was part of, And that's kind of how I
first heard the name Jerry Garcia. But people would say
talk about The Grateful Dad obviously, like you hear you
(09:47):
hear that band name like your whole life, just because
it gets mentioned.
Speaker 4 (09:51):
And now as somebody that knows their music more.
Speaker 1 (09:53):
I mean, I was just in a store in Nashville
a couple of days ago, shopping for an event, looking
for an outfit, and all of a sudden, you know,
they come on the radio. So it's like, you know,
it's like all the things that it's probably always been around.
But I didn't really know the music of The Grateful
Bed in the same way that like, you know, super
fans would for sure or wouldn't have recognized it as such.
(10:18):
But then it was maybe like eight years ago, eight
or nine years ago I got to do a thing
with the Everyone Orchestra, which is are you familiar.
Speaker 4 (10:29):
With that project?
Speaker 3 (10:30):
I am not.
Speaker 4 (10:31):
So is this guy Matt who.
Speaker 1 (10:33):
Runs this show and he essentially serves as like a conductor,
like he'll put on a hat and like this, you know,
kind of fun outfit and he'll have like a whiteboard
and it's a fully improvised show where the audience participates
in the musicians on stage. He always gets different people
from different bands, and sometimes it might just be a
special set at a festival, pulling people from different bands
(10:55):
that are playing, and he'll just like write a key,
a musical key on the fret board like e and
he might just point at one band member and that
band member just starts riffing on something, and then he'll
conduct somebody else to be like, now you start playing
with this person. Or it might just be like slow
tempo or waltz or just like some kind of very
(11:18):
vague instruction, and then he might write like a couple
lyrics on the whiteboard and the audience starts singing the lyrics.
Speaker 4 (11:25):
It's like, it's cool.
Speaker 1 (11:26):
It's a really fun participatory kind of thing. So I
did this set with these guys, and I was looking
forward to doing that because I thought, well, this will
be fun, you know, to get to be.
Speaker 4 (11:36):
Part of the show. And they said okay.
Speaker 1 (11:38):
So for set two or it was like maybe a
second night, I can't even remember now, they're like, we
wanted we're going to do a Grateful Dead tribute set
and do some of them, and they said, will you
sing a couple like two or three songs?
Speaker 4 (11:50):
Pick out a few songs to sing, So I thought, Okay,
I mean I'm gonna be on the show. I'll dig in.
Speaker 1 (11:55):
And honestly, I had never really done like a real
deep dive, you know. Again, you hear the music of
the Grateful Dead by other people covering the songs, little
pieces that I was familiar with but didn't really know
their music too much. And then I started listening to
some of the records kind of thinking about what I
might sing on this show. And I mean I came
(12:18):
into it being like I could sing anything.
Speaker 4 (12:20):
I don't know if it'll.
Speaker 1 (12:21):
Be a deep cut or a popular track, because I
almost didn't know.
Speaker 4 (12:24):
The difference, you know.
Speaker 1 (12:26):
I just like I was coming to it rand new
and in some ways like maybe knew a song or two,
but not that much, to be honest, And I stumbled
upon Black Muddy River, which now you know, everybody's like, oh,
that's more of a deep cut or whatever, but it
was one of the first, like the studio.
Speaker 4 (12:40):
Recording that I heard. I just I just really liked the.
Speaker 1 (12:43):
Song, and I could imagine myself wanting to sing that,
so it was one of the few songs that I
picked out to sing that.
Speaker 3 (12:51):
It's wonderful, it really is, Which brings me to the
topic of improvisation, which you are amazing at. And it's
such a you know, a gift, and I want to
ask you where it sort of comes from. I was
watching you recently a performance you did. I think it
(13:11):
was Annapolis, possibly at a festival where there was a
problem with some equipment that was being fixed, and then
you and the band just took off and improvised to
kill time. It was so fascinating, it really was. It
(13:32):
was it was mesmerizing. Actually, Lord, do what you want
to do, right, right? So where did you get this
incredible gift of improvisation?
Speaker 4 (13:43):
Well, thank you for saying that.
Speaker 1 (13:45):
You know, it's one of the great things about growing
up in the bluegrass world. You know, I mentioned earlier
that there is just this deep love of the tradition
and the songs and catalog that kind of come with that.
And certainly there's you know, a set way people do
certain things, but honestly, there's this real spirit of improvisation
(14:07):
and it's if you're ever going to really become great
at playing bluegrass. That's part of the skill set that
you learn and you work on, and you know, so
much of it is built upon what we call fiddle tunes.
So like the instrumental tunes that when I was a kid,
I started learning on my instrument right away growing up
(14:27):
in this world, you know, it's like that was a
big part of the catalog I was learning, the same
way a classical musician might start to learn back pieces.
Speaker 4 (14:36):
You know, it's the same.
Speaker 1 (14:38):
Kind of thing where you're learning, you know, all these
different what we call fiddle tunes, whether they're played on
the mandolin or guitar or whatever. Just that's kind of
the slang term fiddle tune. And I was learning, you know,
all these tunes that if somebody else that grew up
on the other side of the country that grew up
playing bluegrass, they're probably learning the same tunes.
Speaker 4 (14:58):
They're just the tunes. When you go to.
Speaker 1 (15:00):
Jam session and you sit in a circle, somebody might
call a tune like salt Creek, you know, and you go, sure,
I learned salt Creek, let's play it. You know, now
you might play it slightly different than how this person
plays it. It's going to be close, but there's going
to be depending on who you learned it from or
what version you learned. It's different in that, like you know,
(15:20):
a Bach partita is written out, and as a classical musician,
you might, you know, grow up learning to play these
pieces and you're reading them as they're written.
Speaker 4 (15:30):
Note for No, bluegrass isn't so much like that.
Speaker 1 (15:32):
It's like there's, you know, a core melody and a
core recognizable thing, but you might play a slightly different
tag ending than somebody else does. And then once you
learn your version, you might learn somebody else's version or
play it with somebody else that they add it, They
add a little spin to it, just in the most
(15:53):
subtle ways. So you start kind of almost learning the
idea and the concept of improvisation immediately, whether you're doing
it or not. You're learning variations of certain things, and
then those variations start teaching you more about the instrument
and how things are laid out on the instrument, how
you can access, you know, the same idea in three
(16:15):
or four different ways. The same way is, you know,
if like I told you, I just finished another interview
before hopping on here with you, if that person had
asked me the same question, I might give a similar answer,
but I'm not going to like be exactly the same, right,
but I might tell the story the same way. And
it's very much like speaking in that way that you
(16:35):
just start to understand how to like tell a similar story,
even in these subtle ways. And so bluegrass it's kind
of just ingrained.
Speaker 4 (16:43):
You start to.
Speaker 1 (16:45):
Learn how to speak the language of the music using
your instrument, mostly over the same kind of harmonic structures
again and again, you know, mostly simple kind of folk
song for melodies, you know, you know, three four chords
that not anything crazy outside the box in terms of harmony,
(17:06):
but there is a certain kind of approach and a
language that you can tell the difference if you.
Speaker 4 (17:11):
Grew up really in it and studying that music or not,
you know. And so.
Speaker 1 (17:18):
I think it was a couple of years into playing
that I remember, you know, starting to try to attempt
to improvise for the first time. And that was because
I think I was at a jam and somebody played
a song I didn't know, and they said take a solo,
and you know, and I'm like, oh, what do you do?
You know, but you just kind of jump off the
deep end and try to take the knowledge of the
(17:40):
these tunes and songs and things that you've already been
learning and you know, trying to relate them.
Speaker 4 (17:46):
To the unknown of the thing you've not heard before,
If that makes sense.
Speaker 3 (17:51):
Yes, So it's.
Speaker 1 (17:52):
Cultivated at a young age, and I was really lucky
to have that kind of built into my early years
of you know, thinking, this is.
Speaker 4 (18:01):
Just part of it, This is just part of how
you learn the.
Speaker 1 (18:04):
Music, and being in a safe place where you're sitting
in a circle and nobody cares if you're going to
mess up a little bit, you know. And maybe I
had the gift of being young on my side too,
whereas like it'd be harder to be that vulnerable as
an adult because you feel like, well, I don't want
somebody I don't want to, you know, sound bad and
have to put all these other musicians through having to
hear me. So like that, you know, if I was
(18:26):
I don't know that I would go running up to
a gem with a saxophone since I've never played you
know what.
Speaker 4 (18:31):
I mean at this point in my life.
Speaker 1 (18:33):
So I do think the gift of being young helps
that too, where everybody's like, oh, look, that little girl
trying to play this tune. It was it was it
was safe and encouraged, which is awesome. But I think,
you know, most people in the music community support each
other in that way, regardless of age, and it's a
very beautiful circle to kind of grow up in.
Speaker 3 (18:54):
So you're really bending genres. How well is the traditional
bluegrass world, the fans, the labels, the festivals going along
for the ride. Have there been both challenges and rewards
from bending genres like you are.
Speaker 1 (19:15):
I think there's always going to be noise, if that
makes sense, good noise and bad noise, so to speak.
And I think that you kind of can't get too
wrapped up in it one way or another, you know,
because I think for me, I you know, I kind
of I know, I keep going back to this idea
of being rooted in a community, but I do think
(19:37):
another blessing of being so, you know, such a part
of a community in terms of genre, and I know,
bluegrass can mean a lot of different things, you know,
depending on who you talk to. There's a really wide
umbrella for what we think of as bluegrass these days.
I certainly don't consider the music that I'm making now
(19:58):
to be traditional bluegrass in any you know way. I
wouldn't say that even just because of the instrumentation with
having drums and no banjo and that kind of thing.
But it's inevitably the biggest musical part of where I
come from, So it's always going to be present in
what I'm doing. There's no escaping that. It's like a
(20:18):
part of my musical core in a way that nothing
else could be. And I think because I'm so rooted
in that, and I've was lucky to get a start
at a young age with the bluegrass community, I've been
really blessed that I feel like the bluegrass community at
large has mostly hung with me, you know, and they've
(20:38):
I've felt supported still and welcomed by, you know, the
community I grew up in, without ever feeling like, well
now they're like, you know, you don't belong here or
something like that.
Speaker 4 (20:50):
I know people that have.
Speaker 1 (20:51):
Felt that way before, but I feel like I've been
really lucky to still have that. Maybe it's because those
people know how much the music really means to me,
and that I still love it and honor it even
if I choose to kind of jump into some different
waters at the same time, there's always this like love
and respect.
Speaker 4 (21:07):
That I still have for it all.
Speaker 1 (21:09):
So I don't feel like I've had any kind of
real wild pushback. If anything, I feel like it's mostly
been positive because I've been able to, you know, go
into these other areas and not only play some different
styles of music, but also introduce those people to the
music I love. You know, I'm being introduced to something
(21:29):
new and they're also being introduced to something new. And
if anything I could do would in turn make somebody
want to go back and check out the more you know,
traditional bluegrass catalog, then I love that.
Speaker 4 (21:44):
I think that's great.
Speaker 1 (21:45):
That just means more people who can come and appreciate
the thing that I love in my core so much.
Speaker 2 (21:51):
We'll be right back with more of the Taking a
Walk Podcast. Welcome back to the Taking a Walk Podcast.
Speaker 3 (22:02):
Since you're always pushing boundaries, is there a genre that
you're like curious about because you're so curious as well,
that you might tackle.
Speaker 4 (22:13):
I don't know that.
Speaker 1 (22:14):
I could just like right off the bat be like, oh,
I just really want to do this particular thing.
Speaker 4 (22:18):
It's really funny.
Speaker 1 (22:19):
I feel like most of the things I've wound up
doing have not necessarily been because I'm like, well, suddenly
I want to go do this different thing. It's almost
been just because my path has led me there, or
I've gotten a phone call I didn't expect or have something,
you know, an artist reach out to want to collaborate
(22:40):
that I wouldn't have even thought new I existed, you
know what I mean. So I think sometimes you get
introduced to things by chance, and a lot of it
has been that for me, you know, But certainly, I mean.
Speaker 4 (22:54):
Yeah, I'm so musically open.
Speaker 1 (22:57):
It's like if it's good music or somebody that's doing
something you know, exciting and genuine that wants to collaborate,
It's like, I'm I'm always excited by a new challenge
or getting to do something different.
Speaker 3 (23:12):
How do you keep so level headed with the touring
and studio work that you do?
Speaker 4 (23:20):
Oh gosh, well, it's nice of you to say that.
Speaker 1 (23:23):
It's it's tricky sometimes more more in terms of just
like you know, trying to stay balanced in reality and
not let your emotions get the best of you sometimes
because it's tricky to do the thing that you love
so much as your job, you know, And there's so
(23:43):
much that as an artist you have to like pour
your emotions into and just because you might feel one
way on one day doesn't necessarily mean that that's in
reality of like that things are suddenly different than they
were yesterday, good or bad. Like an opportunity can come
that can just make you feel like on top of
(24:04):
the world and you're like, wow, I can't believe.
Speaker 4 (24:06):
I get to do this, And then you'll find things.
Speaker 1 (24:08):
That are like terribly disappointing in being in this business too,
where something doesn't go the way you want or you
know whatever. It might be a day where you're just like,
maybe you have a day in the studio that you
leave feeling like, man, we did something amazing, or you
might leave feeling like, oh, I just couldn't get it
together today, like my hands or voice aren't working the
(24:29):
way I want them to, or you know, we're human,
so the struggle is still very real the way just
it is in life.
Speaker 4 (24:36):
I guess of.
Speaker 1 (24:37):
Riding that wave of emotions and kind of you know,
the older I get, the more I try to go,
you know, remind myself that, okay, is anything very different
today than it was yesterday, you know, and you know
tomorrow's a new day, good or bad. So so like
(24:57):
it makes me feel like the highs.
Speaker 4 (24:59):
Are not light is high.
Speaker 1 (25:01):
Like when the most epic opportunity I get called to
do something that I would be really excited about, I'm
still excited, but I find myself being like, Wow, that's
really awesome. I'm thrilled that came in, you know. But
also when like something very disappointing happens, I find myself
more so being like, well that sucks, but you know,
(25:23):
keep on swimming, girl, because this is just the business.
Speaker 3 (25:25):
You're in, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1 (25:26):
So, so the highs aren't quite as high and the
lows aren't quite as low, and you know, I don't
think it means that I care less than.
Speaker 4 (25:33):
I used to.
Speaker 1 (25:34):
I just think it means that I'm I'm sort of
able to separate the emotions a little bit better in
it to just stay more level headed than I used
to be, you know, used to be. You have a
gig that felt bad and it's like, you know, can
just tear you up, and you'll beat yourself up about it.
I mean, I'm my own worst critic, you know. Or
(25:54):
you have something that's just really exciting you're just like
floating for.
Speaker 4 (25:57):
You know, days or whatever.
Speaker 1 (25:59):
So I think that the balance now in my you know,
adulthood is a little easier to maintain.
Speaker 3 (26:06):
So you're going to be guesting some dates with the
Almond Betts Band. How do you prepare for something like
that this time around?
Speaker 4 (26:14):
I have no idea. I don't know what we're doing.
Speaker 1 (26:17):
I don't know what songs I'm gonna play with them.
It's interesting some things you really have an opportunity to
prepare for, and then some things they're very you know,
thank God for the skill sets of improvisation, and it
kind of you know, a lot of the collaborations I do,
whether it's jumping on stage with somebody at a festival
last minute or whatever. You kind of learn to be
(26:39):
able to quickly learn things or prep for things in
a little bit smaller windows of time the more you
do it, you know. So, yeah, something like this, I
don't know. I've been I got a new electric mandolin
I've been having some fun with.
Speaker 4 (26:53):
So I've just been kind of.
Speaker 1 (26:55):
Getting my little board together just in case, revamping a
couple of things there. That's about the most prep I've
done so far, which has nothing to do with the
music yet, but just you know, thinking ahead on some
of those things about Okay, how am I going to
get both instruments and you know fly with a B
and C and that kind of pre planning more than
the music itself. But I got to do a few
(27:17):
shows with those guys last year, so we already have
a few things, you know, in the catalog now we
can pull from. So I'm sure some of that will
happen again and make it a little easier even this
time around.
Speaker 3 (27:30):
So I want to mention some other collaborators that you've
worked with and just get your you know, brief reaction
to the work you did with them. First of all,
Billy Strings.
Speaker 1 (27:43):
Yeah, Billy's a dear friend actually, just well I've known
Billy for gosh, like long before anybody knew who he was,
and that it's been so awesome to kind of just
watch his you know, star just rise the way it has,
and you know how many people have come to discover
(28:05):
other artists through him too, you know, talking about that
kind of thing, which is really cool. And so anytime
we get to do something together, it's like, you know, again,
something that I've got to do for many years now,
kind of on and off with him and just did
his Halloween show a couple weeks ago now, and then
this month headed out to Austin to tape a Austin
(28:27):
City Limits special fiftieth anniversary thing with him here in another.
Speaker 4 (28:31):
Couple of weeks.
Speaker 1 (28:32):
So I feel like our paths get to cross quite
often these days, which is really fun.
Speaker 3 (28:37):
And then of course you mentioned her earlier, and she's been,
you know, so instrumental in your career, Alison Krause.
Speaker 1 (28:45):
I mean, yeah, Allison's always She's always going to be
my biggest hero. There's just I'd be lying if I
didn't say that. I think, like as a kid, I
mean I dreamed about playing with her. I drew pictures
of myself on stage with her before I met her.
You know, I heard her music and it kind of
just it it hit something in me that like I
(29:07):
don't think had I had experienced yet as a young musician.
And maybe maybe part of that too, is because as
a young female musician, I didn't have, you know, as
like all the I would say, ninety eight percent of
the music I was listening to was men were making,
and you know, there was nothing wrong with that.
Speaker 4 (29:28):
They were great.
Speaker 1 (29:29):
I was just lucky to even be welcomed in the
jam sessions. I always felt like I belonged somehow. Nobody
ever made me feel like, well, you're young, or you're
female or whatever, and that makes you different. It's like
they knew I loved it and cared about it. But
like hearing Alison when I was like nine years old,
and the record I heard of hers was not a
bluegrass record actually it was called Forget About. It was
(29:50):
the first thing I heard, which if you've not heard
that record, you should check it out.
Speaker 4 (29:54):
It's I still love.
Speaker 1 (29:56):
It, but but just the level of things, the production,
the love, like the quality in which she brings to
her performance, and you know, and recordings just kind of
blew me away. So you know, I will forever be
grateful that I got to meet her at such a
young age and the opportunities that she gave me.
Speaker 4 (30:18):
You know, if I.
Speaker 1 (30:20):
Had never met her to this day, I would still,
you know, be saying the same thing that she's she's
one of my all time favorites. But now knowing her
and the way I do, and and you know, having
been able to spend the time and learn from her
the way I have, it's just you know, there's you
never get over that.
Speaker 4 (30:37):
You know, your childhood heroes, they're always going to mean
that to you. I think, did.
Speaker 3 (30:42):
You share the pictures that you drew ever with her?
Speaker 1 (30:46):
When yeah, she's got one of them.
Speaker 3 (30:50):
How awesome is that? My god?
Speaker 1 (30:53):
Yeah, that's well, you know, it's pretty wild. Still one
of the great blessings of my life to have gotten
to know, you know, my big hero that way.
Speaker 3 (31:01):
I want to highlight some other work of yours, recent work.
First of all, a tremendous version of Tears for Fears
Mad World. That is brilliant.
Speaker 4 (31:14):
Thank you. It's just it's such a great song.
Speaker 1 (31:17):
I just I've really always loved that song since I,
you know, first, I don't even know when I first
heard it, but when I sort of got reintroduced to it,
maybe ten years ago or something like that, I you know,
certainly found myself like couldn't get the melody out of
my head and just felt like it lent itself, the
melody lent itself to the mandolin, and after a while
(31:39):
was like, Okay, I can't get the song out of
my head. I got to learn it, and then it
kind of became, especially in recent years, one of the
most requested, like.
Speaker 4 (31:47):
Covers that that I would play live.
Speaker 1 (31:49):
So it finally felt like, Okay, people had been asking
for a long time, what are you going to record that?
Speaker 4 (31:55):
What album is that on? You know, we need your
version of mad World.
Speaker 1 (31:58):
So I have just loved of the guys I'm touring
with right now and kind of felt like a good
opportunity to go in and record that and Black Muddy River,
to share that with people and tell.
Speaker 3 (32:08):
Me about the First Snowfall.
Speaker 1 (32:11):
Yeah, so the First Snowfall actually, so we just released that,
but it's actually going to be one of two tracks
that were releasing. We have another track coming out early
next month. We knew we wanted to release some kind
of holiday track, and at the time we were just
thinking about one, and I guess I can go ahead
(32:32):
and say the next track is going to be Country Christmas,
which is a Laretta Lynn cover that is just really
fun and I have always been a Loretta fan and
thought that would be a fun one to do with
the band. But then as I was kind of thinking about, well,
I'd kind of like to record that, but what else
should I do? And I was just listening to a
bunch of stuff and I came upon bing Crosby's version
(32:55):
of the First Snowfall. And this isn't a song I
had ever heard before, but I just was like, man,
what a gorgeous song. Now.
Speaker 4 (33:03):
His version of the song is.
Speaker 1 (33:04):
Very different than what I ended up doing with it.
I kind of flipped it a little bit just to
be something that I thought would work well with my
band and sort of fit with the mandolin and all
those kind of things. His is almost like this very slow,
you know, orchestral vocal forward version.
Speaker 4 (33:23):
Check it out if you have it.
Speaker 1 (33:24):
But I loved the melody and I loved like when
I was a kid, I mean that feeling of when
especially being here in Tennessee.
Speaker 4 (33:32):
I mean, if it just flurries, the kids get out
of school.
Speaker 1 (33:36):
So so snowfall was just an exciting thing as a
young kid to start to see happening. And then when
we would eventually get enough that you could go out
and break out the sled, my dad would even we
lived in the country and had a big field by
our house, so my dad would hook the he would
hook the sled up to the four wheeler and pull
(33:56):
my brother and I around the field in it, you know,
And just those memories of being out there, you know,
tempting to build a snowman, or being pulled on the
four wheeler by my dad with my brother, and yeah,
those are just really beautiful family memories. So that song
just like I could picture it, you know, the storyline.
Speaker 4 (34:16):
It just felt so you know, imaginative in that way.
Speaker 3 (34:21):
I see that tremendous acoustic guitar behind you there. Oh yeah,
and I've heard you play some pretty shocking, incredible acoustic guitar.
Could you ever envision doing a project specifically, you know,
just just guitar? Yeah?
Speaker 4 (34:42):
Maybe.
Speaker 2 (34:42):
So.
Speaker 1 (34:43):
I mean I've been so slow to make albums, to
be honest. The fact that we're like rolling out music
and actually I have a new record coming in the
early part of the first quarter of next year. So
this season of actually like putting out music and being
more in the studio to put some things out is
really exciting for me. And so I'm about to master
(35:07):
the new record in just a few days, so we're
almost done with that, which is really exciting. But yeah,
like I think that starts getting my wheels turning about
what the next thing is.
Speaker 4 (35:17):
You know.
Speaker 1 (35:17):
So I've always loved the guitar. I mean, you know,
I mentioned Tony Rice earlier as being one of my
first early influences. So like myself and anyone else who
picks up the instrument, you know, I've sat down and
learned my fair share of Tony Rice solose over the years,
and as a songwriter, I've always loved the context of
(35:38):
using the instrument that I've played guitar on. I guess
every record I've made so far, I've played some guitar
for sure, but yeah, it's not something that I've gotten
the works, but you know, it's definitely crossed my mind
to time or two.
Speaker 3 (35:54):
So in closing when we're hopefully speaking again in the
future and knowing how important for you continuous learning is
if when that happens, hopefully, what will you have learned
from now to that point that you're still you know,
(36:16):
passionately craving well.
Speaker 1 (36:19):
I think that's the beauty of it, right, Like there's
there's almost no way to know what I will have
learned by then, and I think that mystery is part
of the excitement, is like nobody really knows what's around
the corner, good, bad or otherwise, you know, and part
of it is the journey and the excitement of knowing
(36:39):
there's an endless amount of things to discover. It's part
of the thing that I think keeps me intrigued and
excited by getting to do this as my life's work
is that every stage I stand on is different.
Speaker 4 (36:54):
Every audience I get to play too is different.
Speaker 1 (36:56):
Every collaboration, shoot, every every moment of playing a song.
Even with my band on tour, there is a lot
of that improvisation and from night to night, like anything
can happen, and there's some nights where that might be
you might have a tricky moment, and then other nights
that it'll be a really magical thing that we all
walk away feeling like we learned something from whatever happened
(37:18):
on the stage. And I mean, I know there's gonna
be other music that's released between now in the next
five to ten years that's gonna also inspire me to
do something different with my own music, even as just
a music lover. The things that you learn from listening
to all the great things other people are doing. So yeah,
I have no idea, and I guess that's the exciting
part of it is that you know, hopefully I will
(37:41):
continue to learn a lot and be given the opportunity
to continue to be in positions with you know, great musicians.
You know they always say, surround yourself by people who
know more than you do. And boy, I've been lucky
to be in a lot of rooms like that throughout
my whole career, so hopefully that'll continue to be the case.
Speaker 3 (38:01):
Oh, thank you for the music. Thank you for the
time and sharing your story. I'm so grateful that you
took the time to be on Taking a Walks here.
Speaker 4 (38:10):
Thank you, Buzz, thanks for having me.
Speaker 2 (38:13):
Thanks for listening to this episode of the Taking a
Walk podcast. Share this and other episodes with your friends
and follow us so you never miss an episode. Taking
a Walk is available on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
and wherever you get your podcasts.
Taking a Walk the idea and the concept of improvisation immediately,
whether you're doing it or not, you're learning variations of
certain things, and then those variations start teaching you more
about the instrument and how things are laid out on
the instrument, how you can access, you know, the same
idea in three or four different ways. The same way
(00:21):
is you know, if, like I told you, I just
finished another interview before hopping on here with you, if
that person had asked me the same question, I might
give a similar answer, but I'm not going to be
exactly the same, right, But I might tell the story
the same way.
Speaker 2 (00:37):
Welcome to the Taking a Walk podcast, hosted by Buzz Night.
Buzz speaks with musicians of all genres about their music,
their creative process, and their artistic freedom. On this episode
with Sierra Hall, a true prodigy of bluegrass and a
virtuoso mandolin player who's been captivating audiences since their childhood.
(00:58):
Sierra Hall's musical journey is nothing short of remarkable. From
her grand Old Oppry debut at ten to performing at
elite venues like the White House at Kennedy Center and
Carnegie Hall, Sierra has consistently pushed the boundaries of bluegrass music.
Here's buzz with Sierra Hall on taking a walk.
Speaker 3 (01:20):
Sierra Hall, thanks for being on taking a walk.
Speaker 4 (01:23):
Thanks for having me.
Speaker 3 (01:24):
How you doing, I'm doing excellent. I'm talking to you,
so I couldn't be I couldn't be any better. What
are some of your favorite places to take a walk
around Nashville.
Speaker 1 (01:33):
Oh, man, We're lucky in the neighborhood that we live,
just kind of east of downtown where we've got lots
of nice sidewalks and connecting neighborhoods, and it's really quiet out.
Speaker 4 (01:45):
In this part of town where I live.
Speaker 1 (01:47):
I'm in the Hermitage area, and so you know, this
time of year, especially all the leaves changing and we
have tons of deer. So I grew up in the
country as a kid, and I mean lots of open
fields and woods to play in, but no sidewalks because
we didn't even have neighbors within at earshot. So so
(02:08):
very different kind of thing. But it's it's sort of
a nice hybrid of those things. I would say, where
it's nice and quiet out here where we live, but
you know, we've got lots of friendly folks in the
neighborhood out and join the weather this time of year,
and I love it. Plus, Nashville honestly is a beautiful
part of you know, the world to be able to
(02:31):
have like greenways, because it's like you're here in the city,
but at least you've got like actually quite a bit
of you know, public walking trails and things like that
all throughout the city, which is really nice.
Speaker 3 (02:43):
And do you use walking at a point in time
maybe where you're looking for a creative breakthrough, maybe you're
jammed up at that moment and you just got to
get some air and take a walk.
Speaker 4 (02:55):
Oh yeah, all the time, all the time. Yeah. Actually,
it's funny.
Speaker 1 (02:59):
The last few days here in Nashville, it's just been
really gloomy and rainy, And I just got off of
another interview before talking to you, and I was out
on my back porch just like enjoy the weather. And
so I will definitely be getting a walk or a
run in today just because finally.
Speaker 4 (03:16):
The weather's nice again. And you know, it gets.
Speaker 1 (03:18):
Dark so early this time of year that that's that's
rough for me if I can't squeeze in time to
be outside for just a little bit and get like
either a walk, long walk or a jog in. You know,
I start I start filling it within a few days
of that where I'm like, oh, I'm antsy to get
out there.
Speaker 3 (03:36):
So I got it. Yep, so old and in the way,
the super group and the album led by Jerry Garcia
was a breakthrough moment I believe for the genre of bluegrass,
and your work, along with a host of others, is
part of a, in my opinion, a new breakthrough moment.
(03:58):
Can you highlight some of that community and who has
been along for the ride with you leading the charge?
Speaker 4 (04:06):
Oh gosh, well thanks for saying that.
Speaker 1 (04:08):
Yeah, I mean, I think because I'm you know, just
young enough that I didn't get to ever meet Bill Monroe,
for example, you know, who we call the father of
bluegrass music and the guy that kind of really started
what we think of as bluegrass and along with like
Earl Scrugs and the band Flat Scrugs and that kind
of those first generation bluegrassers. But you know, between Bill
(04:30):
Monroe and Earl Scruggs, they were like, you know, creating
and sharing, you know, popularizing this this new thing. And
you know, the bluegrass community, which I feel so lucky
to have grown up as is at this point, we
think of it as this thing that's so rich in tradition, like.
Speaker 4 (04:50):
All the songs the catalog.
Speaker 1 (04:54):
Also, like you know, we think of that sort of
first generation music as it's kind of sacred to us
and a lot of ways where you know, everybody wants
to honor that as much as possible. But when you
think about, you know, Bill Monroe himself, has there even
been anybody you know with the mandolin in their hands
that's been as much of an innovator as that, you know,
(05:15):
and in the beginning of that, So like when I
think of the people, whether it's you know, David Grisman
you mentioned Olden in the way, whether it's Sam Bush,
whether it's Chris theeelely other you know, people that have
come way before me, that have already been making you know,
their own waves by using the instrument in a lot
(05:36):
of different, cool, unique ways. Of course, people of my generation,
I think, would come to the music into the.
Speaker 4 (05:46):
Mandolin with.
Speaker 1 (05:49):
Sort of like the green light to kind of just
explore and do whatever we want to do with it,
you know, because we've already seen so many examples of
our heroes who have done that, you know, and not
just with the mandolin. I mean, I've worked a lot
with Babil Fleck over the last few years. I can't
think of anybody, you know, maybe besides Earl Scroggs himself
that's you know, found new creative things to do on
(06:11):
the instrument. So you know, we've we've been talking about,
say the banjo, and there's always you know, those pioneers
that kind of come before us, that.
Speaker 4 (06:21):
Lead the way in those ways.
Speaker 1 (06:23):
And then I think as someone who feels inspired by that,
you know, just trying to figure out what that means
to me personally in ways that I can, you know,
take the instrument and the music I love and be
inspired by that to just feel not that I need
to change something or feel the pressure to create something
(06:44):
new and exciting, but just to kind of go, what
do I want to sound like? If I'm not worried
about having to fit into a box, you know, as
much as I love and am grateful to have strong
roots in a form of music that really honors the
tradition of the music.
Speaker 4 (07:02):
If that makes.
Speaker 3 (07:03):
Sense, It totally does. Who would be your bluegrass super
group if you ever formed one? Who would be with
you along for that?
Speaker 1 (07:14):
Oh gosh, does it have to be living members.
Speaker 3 (07:18):
Not necessarily, but dream as much as you want with it, living.
Speaker 2 (07:25):
Or death.
Speaker 4 (07:25):
Oh, it would be really hard.
Speaker 1 (07:27):
That's such a hard, you know, hard thing to say,
because I probably wouldn't even be in it. I just
put my own heroes in there, you know, figuring out
the super gros. I mean, you know, it's like one
of the first people that comes to mind.
Speaker 2 (07:40):
You know.
Speaker 1 (07:41):
I don't know if I could just say every instrument,
because I could, I could create ten different supergroups I'd
be excited to play in.
Speaker 2 (07:47):
You know.
Speaker 1 (07:48):
But you know, somebody like Tony Rice was one of
my biggest heroes as a youngster. I think one of
the first, you know, bluegrass artists that that really came
on to my radar when I was a young I'm
trying to think I might have even heard the album
Church Street Blues before I actually played the mandolin, but
(08:10):
it was it was somewhere around that time when I
was first starting to get into music. My dad brought
home the cassette tape of Tony Rice's Church Street Blues
and that's just him with a guitar and singing on
the record, so not even like a bluegrass record per se,
But I just fell.
Speaker 4 (08:27):
In love with it.
Speaker 1 (08:27):
So Tony's always at the top of that supergroup hero
club for me. You know, Alison Krass has been one
of my biggest heroes, so probably have to put her
in there. Of course they've done some touring together anyway,
and I know Tony was one of.
Speaker 4 (08:39):
Her biggest heroes.
Speaker 1 (08:41):
Yeah, it'd be impossible, it'd be impossible for me to choose.
Speaker 3 (08:44):
Well, that's why I asked it.
Speaker 1 (08:45):
But those two come to mind just as being like
two of my biggest heroes as a youngster.
Speaker 3 (08:49):
You know, we'll come back to some of that. Well,
congrats on the amazing rendition of a black Muddy River,
which you know, I know you've done that for for
a long time in as part of your set. How
did you first discover that?
Speaker 1 (09:04):
Though I really came to the music of the Grateful
Dead a little bit later than one might imagine. Like
I knew about Olden in the way you mentioned that,
and Jerry Garcia had been being part of that band,
but to me, I knew way less about him than
I knew about.
Speaker 4 (09:22):
David Chrisman, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1 (09:24):
Or Mass or Clemens or you know some of the
other just people in that circle that timeframe, I knew
that you know, the Pizza tapes, you know that Tony
Rice was part of, And that's kind of how I
first heard the name Jerry Garcia. But people would say
talk about The Grateful Dad obviously, like you hear you
(09:47):
hear that band name like your whole life, just because
it gets mentioned.
Speaker 4 (09:51):
And now as somebody that knows their music more.
Speaker 1 (09:53):
I mean, I was just in a store in Nashville
a couple of days ago, shopping for an event, looking
for an outfit, and all of a sudden, you know,
they come on the radio. So it's like, you know,
it's like all the things that it's probably always been around.
But I didn't really know the music of The Grateful
Bed in the same way that like, you know, super
fans would for sure or wouldn't have recognized it as such.
(10:18):
But then it was maybe like eight years ago, eight
or nine years ago I got to do a thing
with the Everyone Orchestra, which is are you familiar.
Speaker 4 (10:29):
With that project?
Speaker 3 (10:30):
I am not.
Speaker 4 (10:31):
So is this guy Matt who.
Speaker 1 (10:33):
Runs this show and he essentially serves as like a conductor,
like he'll put on a hat and like this, you know,
kind of fun outfit and he'll have like a whiteboard
and it's a fully improvised show where the audience participates
in the musicians on stage. He always gets different people
from different bands, and sometimes it might just be a
special set at a festival, pulling people from different bands
(10:55):
that are playing, and he'll just like write a key,
a musical key on the fret board like e and
he might just point at one band member and that
band member just starts riffing on something, and then he'll
conduct somebody else to be like, now you start playing
with this person. Or it might just be like slow
tempo or waltz or just like some kind of very
(11:18):
vague instruction, and then he might write like a couple
lyrics on the whiteboard and the audience starts singing the lyrics.
Speaker 4 (11:25):
It's like, it's cool.
Speaker 1 (11:26):
It's a really fun participatory kind of thing. So I
did this set with these guys, and I was looking
forward to doing that because I thought, well, this will
be fun, you know, to get to be.
Speaker 4 (11:36):
Part of the show. And they said okay.
Speaker 1 (11:38):
So for set two or it was like maybe a
second night, I can't even remember now, they're like, we
wanted we're going to do a Grateful Dead tribute set
and do some of them, and they said, will you
sing a couple like two or three songs?
Speaker 4 (11:50):
Pick out a few songs to sing, So I thought, Okay,
I mean I'm gonna be on the show. I'll dig in.
Speaker 1 (11:55):
And honestly, I had never really done like a real
deep dive, you know. Again, you hear the music of
the Grateful Dead by other people covering the songs, little
pieces that I was familiar with but didn't really know
their music too much. And then I started listening to
some of the records kind of thinking about what I
might sing on this show. And I mean I came
(12:18):
into it being like I could sing anything.
Speaker 4 (12:20):
I don't know if it'll.
Speaker 1 (12:21):
Be a deep cut or a popular track, because I
almost didn't know.
Speaker 4 (12:24):
The difference, you know.
Speaker 1 (12:26):
I just like I was coming to it rand new
and in some ways like maybe knew a song or two,
but not that much, to be honest, And I stumbled
upon Black Muddy River, which now you know, everybody's like, oh,
that's more of a deep cut or whatever, but it
was one of the first, like the studio.
Speaker 4 (12:40):
Recording that I heard. I just I just really liked the.
Speaker 1 (12:43):
Song, and I could imagine myself wanting to sing that,
so it was one of the few songs that I
picked out to sing that.
Speaker 3 (12:51):
It's wonderful, it really is, Which brings me to the
topic of improvisation, which you are amazing at. And it's
such a you know, a gift, and I want to
ask you where it sort of comes from. I was
watching you recently a performance you did. I think it
(13:11):
was Annapolis, possibly at a festival where there was a
problem with some equipment that was being fixed, and then
you and the band just took off and improvised to
kill time. It was so fascinating, it really was. It
(13:32):
was it was mesmerizing. Actually, Lord, do what you want
to do, right, right? So where did you get this
incredible gift of improvisation?
Speaker 4 (13:43):
Well, thank you for saying that.
Speaker 1 (13:45):
You know, it's one of the great things about growing
up in the bluegrass world. You know, I mentioned earlier
that there is just this deep love of the tradition
and the songs and catalog that kind of come with that.
And certainly there's you know, a set way people do
certain things, but honestly, there's this real spirit of improvisation
(14:07):
and it's if you're ever going to really become great
at playing bluegrass. That's part of the skill set that
you learn and you work on, and you know, so
much of it is built upon what we call fiddle tunes.
So like the instrumental tunes that when I was a kid,
I started learning on my instrument right away growing up
(14:27):
in this world, you know, it's like that was a
big part of the catalog I was learning, the same
way a classical musician might start to learn back pieces.
Speaker 4 (14:36):
You know, it's the same.
Speaker 1 (14:38):
Kind of thing where you're learning, you know, all these
different what we call fiddle tunes, whether they're played on
the mandolin or guitar or whatever. Just that's kind of
the slang term fiddle tune. And I was learning, you know,
all these tunes that if somebody else that grew up
on the other side of the country that grew up
playing bluegrass, they're probably learning the same tunes.
Speaker 4 (14:58):
They're just the tunes. When you go to.
Speaker 1 (15:00):
Jam session and you sit in a circle, somebody might
call a tune like salt Creek, you know, and you go, sure,
I learned salt Creek, let's play it. You know, now
you might play it slightly different than how this person
plays it. It's going to be close, but there's going
to be depending on who you learned it from or
what version you learned. It's different in that, like you know,
(15:20):
a Bach partita is written out, and as a classical musician,
you might, you know, grow up learning to play these
pieces and you're reading them as they're written.
Speaker 4 (15:30):
Note for No, bluegrass isn't so much like that.
Speaker 1 (15:32):
It's like there's, you know, a core melody and a
core recognizable thing, but you might play a slightly different
tag ending than somebody else does. And then once you
learn your version, you might learn somebody else's version or
play it with somebody else that they add it, They
add a little spin to it, just in the most
(15:53):
subtle ways. So you start kind of almost learning the
idea and the concept of improvisation immediately, whether you're doing
it or not. You're learning variations of certain things, and
then those variations start teaching you more about the instrument
and how things are laid out on the instrument, how
you can access, you know, the same idea in three
(16:15):
or four different ways. The same way is, you know,
if like I told you, I just finished another interview
before hopping on here with you, if that person had
asked me the same question, I might give a similar answer,
but I'm not going to like be exactly the same, right,
but I might tell the story the same way. And
it's very much like speaking in that way that you
(16:35):
just start to understand how to like tell a similar story,
even in these subtle ways. And so bluegrass it's kind
of just ingrained.
Speaker 4 (16:43):
You start to.
Speaker 1 (16:45):
Learn how to speak the language of the music using
your instrument, mostly over the same kind of harmonic structures
again and again, you know, mostly simple kind of folk
song for melodies, you know, you know, three four chords
that not anything crazy outside the box in terms of harmony,
(17:06):
but there is a certain kind of approach and a
language that you can tell the difference if you.
Speaker 4 (17:11):
Grew up really in it and studying that music or not,
you know. And so.
Speaker 1 (17:18):
I think it was a couple of years into playing
that I remember, you know, starting to try to attempt
to improvise for the first time. And that was because
I think I was at a jam and somebody played
a song I didn't know, and they said take a solo,
and you know, and I'm like, oh, what do you do?
You know, but you just kind of jump off the
deep end and try to take the knowledge of the
(17:40):
these tunes and songs and things that you've already been
learning and you know, trying to relate them.
Speaker 4 (17:46):
To the unknown of the thing you've not heard before,
If that makes sense.
Speaker 3 (17:51):
Yes, So it's.
Speaker 1 (17:52):
Cultivated at a young age, and I was really lucky
to have that kind of built into my early years
of you know, thinking, this is.
Speaker 4 (18:01):
Just part of it, This is just part of how
you learn the.
Speaker 1 (18:04):
Music, and being in a safe place where you're sitting
in a circle and nobody cares if you're going to
mess up a little bit, you know. And maybe I
had the gift of being young on my side too,
whereas like it'd be harder to be that vulnerable as
an adult because you feel like, well, I don't want
somebody I don't want to, you know, sound bad and
have to put all these other musicians through having to
hear me. So like that, you know, if I was
(18:26):
I don't know that I would go running up to
a gem with a saxophone since I've never played you
know what.
Speaker 4 (18:31):
I mean at this point in my life.
Speaker 1 (18:33):
So I do think the gift of being young helps
that too, where everybody's like, oh, look, that little girl
trying to play this tune. It was it was it
was safe and encouraged, which is awesome. But I think,
you know, most people in the music community support each
other in that way, regardless of age, and it's a
very beautiful circle to kind of grow up in.
Speaker 3 (18:54):
So you're really bending genres. How well is the traditional
bluegrass world, the fans, the labels, the festivals going along
for the ride. Have there been both challenges and rewards
from bending genres like you are.
Speaker 1 (19:15):
I think there's always going to be noise, if that
makes sense, good noise and bad noise, so to speak.
And I think that you kind of can't get too
wrapped up in it one way or another, you know,
because I think for me, I you know, I kind
of I know, I keep going back to this idea
of being rooted in a community, but I do think
(19:37):
another blessing of being so, you know, such a part
of a community in terms of genre, and I know,
bluegrass can mean a lot of different things, you know,
depending on who you talk to. There's a really wide
umbrella for what we think of as bluegrass these days.
I certainly don't consider the music that I'm making now
(19:58):
to be traditional bluegrass in any you know way. I
wouldn't say that even just because of the instrumentation with
having drums and no banjo and that kind of thing.
But it's inevitably the biggest musical part of where I
come from, So it's always going to be present in
what I'm doing. There's no escaping that. It's like a
(20:18):
part of my musical core in a way that nothing
else could be. And I think because I'm so rooted
in that, and I've was lucky to get a start
at a young age with the bluegrass community, I've been
really blessed that I feel like the bluegrass community at
large has mostly hung with me, you know, and they've
(20:38):
I've felt supported still and welcomed by, you know, the
community I grew up in, without ever feeling like, well
now they're like, you know, you don't belong here or
something like that.
Speaker 4 (20:50):
I know people that have.
Speaker 1 (20:51):
Felt that way before, but I feel like I've been
really lucky to still have that. Maybe it's because those
people know how much the music really means to me,
and that I still love it and honor it even
if I choose to kind of jump into some different
waters at the same time, there's always this like love
and respect.
Speaker 4 (21:07):
That I still have for it all.
Speaker 1 (21:09):
So I don't feel like I've had any kind of
real wild pushback. If anything, I feel like it's mostly
been positive because I've been able to, you know, go
into these other areas and not only play some different
styles of music, but also introduce those people to the
music I love. You know, I'm being introduced to something
(21:29):
new and they're also being introduced to something new. And
if anything I could do would in turn make somebody
want to go back and check out the more you know,
traditional bluegrass catalog, then I love that.
Speaker 4 (21:44):
I think that's great.
Speaker 1 (21:45):
That just means more people who can come and appreciate
the thing that I love in my core so much.
Speaker 2 (21:51):
We'll be right back with more of the Taking a
Walk Podcast. Welcome back to the Taking a Walk Podcast.
Speaker 3 (22:02):
Since you're always pushing boundaries, is there a genre that
you're like curious about because you're so curious as well,
that you might tackle.
Speaker 4 (22:13):
I don't know that.
Speaker 1 (22:14):
I could just like right off the bat be like, oh,
I just really want to do this particular thing.
Speaker 4 (22:18):
It's really funny.
Speaker 1 (22:19):
I feel like most of the things I've wound up
doing have not necessarily been because I'm like, well, suddenly
I want to go do this different thing. It's almost
been just because my path has led me there, or
I've gotten a phone call I didn't expect or have something,
you know, an artist reach out to want to collaborate
(22:40):
that I wouldn't have even thought new I existed, you
know what I mean. So I think sometimes you get
introduced to things by chance, and a lot of it
has been that for me, you know, But certainly, I mean.
Speaker 4 (22:54):
Yeah, I'm so musically open.
Speaker 1 (22:57):
It's like if it's good music or somebody that's doing
something you know, exciting and genuine that wants to collaborate,
It's like, I'm I'm always excited by a new challenge
or getting to do something different.
Speaker 3 (23:12):
How do you keep so level headed with the touring
and studio work that you do?
Speaker 4 (23:20):
Oh gosh, well, it's nice of you to say that.
Speaker 1 (23:23):
It's it's tricky sometimes more more in terms of just
like you know, trying to stay balanced in reality and
not let your emotions get the best of you sometimes
because it's tricky to do the thing that you love
so much as your job, you know, And there's so
(23:43):
much that as an artist you have to like pour
your emotions into and just because you might feel one
way on one day doesn't necessarily mean that that's in
reality of like that things are suddenly different than they
were yesterday, good or bad. Like an opportunity can come
that can just make you feel like on top of
(24:04):
the world and you're like, wow, I can't believe.
Speaker 4 (24:06):
I get to do this, And then you'll find things.
Speaker 1 (24:08):
That are like terribly disappointing in being in this business too,
where something doesn't go the way you want or you
know whatever. It might be a day where you're just like,
maybe you have a day in the studio that you
leave feeling like, man, we did something amazing, or you
might leave feeling like, oh, I just couldn't get it
together today, like my hands or voice aren't working the
(24:29):
way I want them to, or you know, we're human,
so the struggle is still very real the way just
it is in life.
Speaker 4 (24:36):
I guess of.
Speaker 1 (24:37):
Riding that wave of emotions and kind of you know,
the older I get, the more I try to go,
you know, remind myself that, okay, is anything very different
today than it was yesterday, you know, and you know
tomorrow's a new day, good or bad. So so like
(24:57):
it makes me feel like the highs.
Speaker 4 (24:59):
Are not light is high.
Speaker 1 (25:01):
Like when the most epic opportunity I get called to
do something that I would be really excited about, I'm
still excited, but I find myself being like, Wow, that's
really awesome. I'm thrilled that came in, you know. But
also when like something very disappointing happens, I find myself
more so being like, well that sucks, but you know,
(25:23):
keep on swimming, girl, because this is just the business.
Speaker 3 (25:25):
You're in, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1 (25:26):
So, so the highs aren't quite as high and the
lows aren't quite as low, and you know, I don't
think it means that I care less than.
Speaker 4 (25:33):
I used to.
Speaker 1 (25:34):
I just think it means that I'm I'm sort of
able to separate the emotions a little bit better in
it to just stay more level headed than I used
to be, you know, used to be. You have a
gig that felt bad and it's like, you know, can
just tear you up, and you'll beat yourself up about it.
I mean, I'm my own worst critic, you know. Or
(25:54):
you have something that's just really exciting you're just like
floating for.
Speaker 4 (25:57):
You know, days or whatever.
Speaker 1 (25:59):
So I think that the balance now in my you know,
adulthood is a little easier to maintain.
Speaker 3 (26:06):
So you're going to be guesting some dates with the
Almond Betts Band. How do you prepare for something like
that this time around?
Speaker 4 (26:14):
I have no idea. I don't know what we're doing.
Speaker 1 (26:17):
I don't know what songs I'm gonna play with them.
It's interesting some things you really have an opportunity to
prepare for, and then some things they're very you know,
thank God for the skill sets of improvisation, and it
kind of you know, a lot of the collaborations I do,
whether it's jumping on stage with somebody at a festival
last minute or whatever. You kind of learn to be
(26:39):
able to quickly learn things or prep for things in
a little bit smaller windows of time the more you
do it, you know. So, yeah, something like this, I
don't know. I've been I got a new electric mandolin
I've been having some fun with.
Speaker 4 (26:53):
So I've just been kind of.
Speaker 1 (26:55):
Getting my little board together just in case, revamping a
couple of things there. That's about the most prep I've
done so far, which has nothing to do with the
music yet, but just you know, thinking ahead on some
of those things about Okay, how am I going to
get both instruments and you know fly with a B
and C and that kind of pre planning more than
the music itself. But I got to do a few
(27:17):
shows with those guys last year, so we already have
a few things, you know, in the catalog now we
can pull from. So I'm sure some of that will
happen again and make it a little easier even this
time around.
Speaker 3 (27:30):
So I want to mention some other collaborators that you've
worked with and just get your you know, brief reaction
to the work you did with them. First of all,
Billy Strings.
Speaker 1 (27:43):
Yeah, Billy's a dear friend actually, just well I've known
Billy for gosh, like long before anybody knew who he was,
and that it's been so awesome to kind of just
watch his you know, star just rise the way it has,
and you know how many people have come to discover
(28:05):
other artists through him too, you know, talking about that
kind of thing, which is really cool. And so anytime
we get to do something together, it's like, you know, again,
something that I've got to do for many years now,
kind of on and off with him and just did
his Halloween show a couple weeks ago now, and then
this month headed out to Austin to tape a Austin
(28:27):
City Limits special fiftieth anniversary thing with him here in another.
Speaker 4 (28:31):
Couple of weeks.
Speaker 1 (28:32):
So I feel like our paths get to cross quite
often these days, which is really fun.
Speaker 3 (28:37):
And then of course you mentioned her earlier, and she's been,
you know, so instrumental in your career, Alison Krause.
Speaker 1 (28:45):
I mean, yeah, Allison's always She's always going to be
my biggest hero. There's just I'd be lying if I
didn't say that. I think, like as a kid, I
mean I dreamed about playing with her. I drew pictures
of myself on stage with her before I met her.
You know, I heard her music and it kind of
just it it hit something in me that like I
(29:07):
don't think had I had experienced yet as a young musician.
And maybe maybe part of that too, is because as
a young female musician, I didn't have, you know, as
like all the I would say, ninety eight percent of
the music I was listening to was men were making,
and you know, there was nothing wrong with that.
Speaker 4 (29:28):
They were great.
Speaker 1 (29:29):
I was just lucky to even be welcomed in the
jam sessions. I always felt like I belonged somehow. Nobody
ever made me feel like, well, you're young, or you're
female or whatever, and that makes you different. It's like
they knew I loved it and cared about it. But
like hearing Alison when I was like nine years old,
and the record I heard of hers was not a
bluegrass record actually it was called Forget About. It was
(29:50):
the first thing I heard, which if you've not heard
that record, you should check it out.
Speaker 4 (29:54):
It's I still love.
Speaker 1 (29:56):
It, but but just the level of things, the production,
the love, like the quality in which she brings to
her performance, and you know, and recordings just kind of
blew me away. So you know, I will forever be
grateful that I got to meet her at such a
young age and the opportunities that she gave me.
Speaker 4 (30:18):
You know, if I.
Speaker 1 (30:20):
Had never met her to this day, I would still,
you know, be saying the same thing that she's she's
one of my all time favorites. But now knowing her
and the way I do, and and you know, having
been able to spend the time and learn from her
the way I have, it's just you know, there's you
never get over that.
Speaker 4 (30:37):
You know, your childhood heroes, they're always going to mean
that to you. I think, did.
Speaker 3 (30:42):
You share the pictures that you drew ever with her?
Speaker 1 (30:46):
When yeah, she's got one of them.
Speaker 3 (30:50):
How awesome is that? My god?
Speaker 1 (30:53):
Yeah, that's well, you know, it's pretty wild. Still one
of the great blessings of my life to have gotten
to know, you know, my big hero that way.
Speaker 3 (31:01):
I want to highlight some other work of yours, recent work.
First of all, a tremendous version of Tears for Fears
Mad World. That is brilliant.
Speaker 4 (31:14):
Thank you. It's just it's such a great song.
Speaker 1 (31:17):
I just I've really always loved that song since I,
you know, first, I don't even know when I first
heard it, but when I sort of got reintroduced to it,
maybe ten years ago or something like that, I you know,
certainly found myself like couldn't get the melody out of
my head and just felt like it lent itself, the
melody lent itself to the mandolin, and after a while
(31:39):
was like, Okay, I can't get the song out of
my head. I got to learn it, and then it
kind of became, especially in recent years, one of the
most requested, like.
Speaker 4 (31:47):
Covers that that I would play live.
Speaker 1 (31:49):
So it finally felt like, Okay, people had been asking
for a long time, what are you going to record that?
Speaker 4 (31:55):
What album is that on? You know, we need your
version of mad World.
Speaker 1 (31:58):
So I have just loved of the guys I'm touring
with right now and kind of felt like a good
opportunity to go in and record that and Black Muddy River,
to share that with people and tell.
Speaker 3 (32:08):
Me about the First Snowfall.
Speaker 1 (32:11):
Yeah, so the First Snowfall actually, so we just released that,
but it's actually going to be one of two tracks
that were releasing. We have another track coming out early
next month. We knew we wanted to release some kind
of holiday track, and at the time we were just
thinking about one, and I guess I can go ahead
(32:32):
and say the next track is going to be Country Christmas,
which is a Laretta Lynn cover that is just really
fun and I have always been a Loretta fan and
thought that would be a fun one to do with
the band. But then as I was kind of thinking about, well,
I'd kind of like to record that, but what else
should I do? And I was just listening to a
bunch of stuff and I came upon bing Crosby's version
(32:55):
of the First Snowfall. And this isn't a song I
had ever heard before, but I just was like, man,
what a gorgeous song. Now.
Speaker 4 (33:03):
His version of the song is.
Speaker 1 (33:04):
Very different than what I ended up doing with it.
I kind of flipped it a little bit just to
be something that I thought would work well with my
band and sort of fit with the mandolin and all
those kind of things. His is almost like this very slow,
you know, orchestral vocal forward version.
Speaker 4 (33:23):
Check it out if you have it.
Speaker 1 (33:24):
But I loved the melody and I loved like when
I was a kid, I mean that feeling of when
especially being here in Tennessee.
Speaker 4 (33:32):
I mean, if it just flurries, the kids get out
of school.
Speaker 1 (33:36):
So so snowfall was just an exciting thing as a
young kid to start to see happening. And then when
we would eventually get enough that you could go out
and break out the sled, my dad would even we
lived in the country and had a big field by
our house, so my dad would hook the he would
hook the sled up to the four wheeler and pull
(33:56):
my brother and I around the field in it, you know,
And just those memories of being out there, you know,
tempting to build a snowman, or being pulled on the
four wheeler by my dad with my brother, and yeah,
those are just really beautiful family memories. So that song
just like I could picture it, you know, the storyline.
Speaker 4 (34:16):
It just felt so you know, imaginative in that way.
Speaker 3 (34:21):
I see that tremendous acoustic guitar behind you there. Oh yeah,
and I've heard you play some pretty shocking, incredible acoustic guitar.
Could you ever envision doing a project specifically, you know,
just just guitar? Yeah?
Speaker 4 (34:42):
Maybe.
Speaker 2 (34:42):
So.
Speaker 1 (34:43):
I mean I've been so slow to make albums, to
be honest. The fact that we're like rolling out music
and actually I have a new record coming in the
early part of the first quarter of next year. So
this season of actually like putting out music and being
more in the studio to put some things out is
really exciting for me. And so I'm about to master
(35:07):
the new record in just a few days, so we're
almost done with that, which is really exciting. But yeah,
like I think that starts getting my wheels turning about
what the next thing is.
Speaker 4 (35:17):
You know.
Speaker 1 (35:17):
So I've always loved the guitar. I mean, you know,
I mentioned Tony Rice earlier as being one of my
first early influences. So like myself and anyone else who
picks up the instrument, you know, I've sat down and
learned my fair share of Tony Rice solose over the years,
and as a songwriter, I've always loved the context of
(35:38):
using the instrument that I've played guitar on. I guess
every record I've made so far, I've played some guitar
for sure, but yeah, it's not something that I've gotten
the works, but you know, it's definitely crossed my mind
to time or two.
Speaker 3 (35:54):
So in closing when we're hopefully speaking again in the
future and knowing how important for you continuous learning is
if when that happens, hopefully, what will you have learned
from now to that point that you're still you know,
(36:16):
passionately craving well.
Speaker 1 (36:19):
I think that's the beauty of it, right, Like there's
there's almost no way to know what I will have
learned by then, and I think that mystery is part
of the excitement, is like nobody really knows what's around
the corner, good, bad or otherwise, you know, and part
of it is the journey and the excitement of knowing
(36:39):
there's an endless amount of things to discover. It's part
of the thing that I think keeps me intrigued and
excited by getting to do this as my life's work
is that every stage I stand on is different.
Speaker 4 (36:54):
Every audience I get to play too is different.
Speaker 1 (36:56):
Every collaboration, shoot, every every moment of playing a song.
Even with my band on tour, there is a lot
of that improvisation and from night to night, like anything
can happen, and there's some nights where that might be
you might have a tricky moment, and then other nights
that it'll be a really magical thing that we all
walk away feeling like we learned something from whatever happened
(37:18):
on the stage. And I mean, I know there's gonna
be other music that's released between now in the next
five to ten years that's gonna also inspire me to
do something different with my own music, even as just
a music lover. The things that you learn from listening
to all the great things other people are doing. So yeah,
I have no idea, and I guess that's the exciting
part of it is that you know, hopefully I will
(37:41):
continue to learn a lot and be given the opportunity
to continue to be in positions with you know, great musicians.
You know they always say, surround yourself by people who
know more than you do. And boy, I've been lucky
to be in a lot of rooms like that throughout
my whole career, so hopefully that'll continue to be the case.
Speaker 3 (38:01):
Oh, thank you for the music. Thank you for the
time and sharing your story. I'm so grateful that you
took the time to be on Taking a Walks here.
Speaker 4 (38:10):
Thank you, Buzz, thanks for having me.
Speaker 2 (38:13):
Thanks for listening to this episode of the Taking a
Walk podcast. Share this and other episodes with your friends
and follow us so you never miss an episode. Taking
a Walk is available on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
and wherever you get your podcasts.
Host
Lynn Hoffman
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