Sierra Hull

Sierra Hull displayed prodigious gifts across bluegrass instruments, vocals, and original material from the outset, completing her first recording at age eleven. She has collected multiple International Bluegrass Music Awards, while the star-studded 2017 album Weighted Mind earned a Grammy nomination for Best Folk Album.

Born in 1991, Hull received a mandolin from her grandmother at eight and began playing guitar the next year. Raised in the rural Tennessee community of Byrdstown, she participated in family jam sessions and entered local talent contests by 2001. Alison Krauss, herself a child prodigy on the fiddle, befriended and mentored her, resulting in performances that astonished audiences on the bluegrass festival circuit through Hull’s inventive and fluid mandolin style. After issuing the self-released Angel Mountain in 2002, she signed with Rounder Records at thirteen, the label permitting her to advance at her own speed. She soon added singing to her stage appearances, her voice carrying the same refreshing clarity that marked her mandolin work. She toured with Sierra Hull & Highway 111, whose members included her brother Cody Hull on guitar, Cory Walker on banjo and Dobro, and John Fox on bass.

Rounder released her first album for the label, Secrets, in 2008, co-produced by Krauss and Ron Block. As her focus shifted toward songwriting, she authored seven of the twelve tracks on the 2011 sophomore release Daybreak. In subsequent years she appeared as a guest artist on projects by Rhonda Vincent, Mac Wiseman, and Brandon Heath, and contributed duet vocals to “Love Song” on the debut album from Big Virginia Sky. Produced by Béla Fleck and featuring Alison Krauss, Ethan Jodziewicz, Abigail Washburn, and Rhiannon Giddens, her third solo album Weighted Mind appeared in late January 2016. It received strong notices and earned Grammy and International Bluegrass Music Association Album of the Year nominations. The IBMA named Hull Mandolin Player of the Year in 2016, repeating the honor in 2017 and 2018.

Co-produced by Hull and Shani Gandhi, whose credits include the Mountain Goats, Sara Watkins, and Dwight Yoakam, 2020’s 25 Trips extended the boundaries of bluegrass and folk with contributions from Viktor Krauss, Molly Tuttle, Mindy Smith, and multi-instrumentalist husband Justin Moses.