The stellar career of bluegrass musician Sierra Hull was launched when she began playing mandolin at eight years old. At age 10 she made her Grand Ole Opry debut, and at 11, she performed again at the Opry, this time with her hero and mentor Alison Krauss, who like Hull was a child musical prodigy.
Born in the tiny Tennessee community of Byrdstown on Sept. 27, 1991, Hull showed an early interest in music, which her parents Stacy and Brenda Hull, encouraged by taking her to perform and compete in bluegrass festivals.
“Hull quickly became noted on the national festival scene for her fluid, inventive picking, winning several mandolin and guitar championships in the process,” says Hull’s biography on the website for the Kennedy Center where she played at age 16.
She delivered her first album, “Angel Mountain,” which contained three original songs penned by Hull, in 2002 at age 11. She’s already played Carnegie Hall by age 12, and at 17 she became the first bluegrass musician to receive a Presidential Scholarship at the Berklee College of Music.
It was during the International Bluegrass Music Association Festival that Rounder Records discovered the extraordinary talent of the petite young girl and signed her to a recording contract at age 12. Krauss was a co-producer for Hull’s first album release for the label, “Secrets,” in 2008, which reached No. 2 on the Billboard Top Bluegrass Albums Chart. The album garnered the first of her many nominations for Mandolin Player of the Year.
She was a featured performer along with her musician brother, Cody, in 2004 on the Great High Mountain Tour, which included an all-star bluegrass lineup performing songs from the soundtracks of the hit movies “O Brother Where Art Thou” and “Cold Mountain.”
She has received multiple International Bluegrass Music Association (IBMA) Awards, which honored Hull with the “Recorded Event of the Year (with other artists)” for the work, “Proud To Be A Daughter of Bluegrass,” in 2010.
An active member of IBMA, Hull has performed regularly at the organization’s annual showcases of young talent beginning at age 10. As co-host with Ryan Holladay of IBMA’s educational DVD “Discover Bluegrass: Exploring American Roots Music,” Hull played an integral part in their effort to introduce young audiences to this uniquely American genre.
She made extensive festival appearances and numerous performances at the IBMA conventions, as well as participating in IBMA-sponsored workshops and teen showcases. She also co-hosted with Holladay and performed at the prestigious Carnegie Hall Family Concert Series held in Isaac Stern Hall.
On ”Daybreak,” her 2011 second release on Rounder Records, again co-produced by Krauss, the 20-year-old composed seven of the 12 songs.
Also in 2011 she played at the White House with Krauss and Dan Tyminski.
“It was a really amazing trip! It was my first time getting to be at the White House, and it’s always so great to get to play with Alison and Dan,” she told Bluegrass Today. “I feel really blessed to have been able to experience something like that.”
In January of 2016 Hull released her Grammy nominated LP, “Weighted Mind,” produced by Bela Fleck. The album has 12 original written songs by Hull herself.
“In some way, I was needing to run from the thing that everybody thought I was being,” she said, best illustrating her point in the lyrics of one of her songs. “If you won’t go where I’m going, then I’ll have to go alone. Choices and changes/ I’m tired of trying to be someone else.”
Krauss, who provided additional guest vocals for “Weighted Mind,” has nothing but praise for Hull.
“I think she’s endless,” Krauss is quoted as saying on Hull’s website. “I don’t see any boundaries. Talent like hers is so rare, and I don’t think it stops. It’s round.”
In 2016 IBMA named Hull “Mandolin Player of the Year,” and in 2017 Hull and various artists were awarded again with the “Recorded Event of the Year.”
When she was 22 she received the Bluegrass Star Award, which is presented by the Bluegrass Heritage Foundation to a bluegrass artists who advances traditional bluegrass music and brings it to new audiences while preserving its character and heritage.
Even when she was studying at Berklee College of Music, she continued to tour on her own. She’s also guested with such diverse performers as Indigo Girls, Garth Brooks and Gillian Welch and performed alongside legends like Ricky Skaggs, Brad Paisley and Marty Stuart.
“Articulate and engaging on-stage and off, Hull has emerged as a leading light in a new generation of bluegrass musicians,” states the Kennedy Center bio. “Despite the praise and acclaim that swirls around her, Sierra Hull remains humble, down to earth and gracious. It is this good nature that has already endeared her to so many.”
At age 23, she’s concentrating as much on songwriting as performing.
In a recent Twitter post she shared the first track called “Beautifully Out Of Place,” along with the story of how it was written.
“I found myself feeling particularly frustrated while trying to figure out what kind of album I wanted to make next,” she said. “My husband Justin [Moses, whom she married in 2017] said to me ‘Sierra, I believe in you. At some point, you’re gonna have to learn to really believe in yourself.’ A few minutes later, I picked up an instrument and the song basically wrote itself.”
Regarding the new album, Rounder Records pointed out that “its songs continually shift in genre, encompassing everything from bluegrass to folk-pop to ethereal alt-rock” saying that “25 Trips remains rooted in the sophisticated musicianship that Hull has cultivated almost her entire life.”
Hull said that she was not sure what category the album falls into but what she most enjoyed about making it was getting to show the wide variety of music she loves.
“Sierra is a remarkably talented, beautiful human being,” Krauss has said of Hull. “Success could not come to a more worthy person. I adore her.”
Story by Sasha Kay Dunavant
Photo: Byrdstown native Sierra Hull was celebrated with a Tennessee Music Pathways marker on Aug.16, 2024, at the Dale Hollow Lake Tourist Information Center.