Sierra Ferrell, the rising star alt-country/bluegrass wower, blew into town last week at Campbell Hall, bedecked in a double wide skirt. After her ace band, in hats and vests, warmed up the already ready to twang crowd instrumentally, Ferrell emerged with guitar and her ample, many-colored real estate of a garment. After a few tunes, Ferrell addressed the skirt factor onstage, quipping “I could have told you I was hiding another person under here …”
Fashion statements aside, the captivating West Virginia–bred and itinerant crooner sprang to musical life onstage, ready to twang and swing in her own very special way. Without a doubt, this magical concert, part of an especially rich and diversified UCSB’s Arts & Lectures season, was one of the high points of the musical year here.
Her voice, sometimes flecked with traces of Dolly Parton (both the slick and the backwoods-y Dolly), is clear and empowered by some deep old values, and her mostly acoustic approach and strong songwriting chops heed a vintage virtuousness. Those qualities won her a spot in the broader public ring after the release of 2019’s lauded and aptly named Long Time Coming.
Coming just before the release of her potent new album Trail of Flowers (officially dropping on Friday, March 22), this was Ferrell’s Santa Barbara debut performance. And it was a winsome event on every level — including sartorially, with a mid-show costume change into a cheeky, poofy, white variation of a Cupid ensemble. But Ferrell’s left-of-Nashville ideas, extending from her neo-classic country and new bluegrass as heard in her now classics “Whispering Waltz” and “Bells of Every Chapel” (with Billy Strings guesting on the album Long Time Coming), extend into moments of Roma-ish swing tunes and quirky theatrical touches.
Her Bjork-esque shift into Cupid garb, for instance, came directly after she and the boys gathered around a single microphone for a cozy ‘30s-radio-style performance of “The Garden” and “I Could Drive You Crazy.” The stripping-down effect is also a quest for old school country music authenticity deployed by Alison Krauss and Union Station, another artist eager to find common ground between the old and new in country.
Songs from the new record were as instantly impressive as any of the old ones, especially in the form of “Dollar Bill Bar,” and “I Could Drive You Crazy.” True, that.
Before the final tune, “Jeremiah,” Ferrell had some rambling but true points to make, related to the business of sharing live musical experiences and being human. “In the end,” she advised, “we’re all just spiritual beings. We all just have to be good people.”
Capping things off in another slight genre left turn, she returned to deliver the compelling raspy brilliance of her encore rendition of Kris Kristofferson’s Janis Joplin–made hit “Me and Bobby McGhee.”
On Sunday night out Goleta way, we in the rapt house had a clear sense that Ferrell is on a rightful ascent into much higher public ranks, and that this relatively intimate encounter might yield to her next local appearance in the bigger digs of, say, the Arlington. We say yes to that notion: that venue’s kitschy architectural adornments would even suit her taste in fancy pants postmodern accouterments.
Whatever the venue, she’s welcome back to the 805 any old time.
