Sierra Hull “Secrets” (Rounder Records) will be released tomorrow, May 6, 2008

Time is ticking and May 6 is almost here. Mark it as a date in Bluegrass History.

Why the big fuss? May 6, 2008 marks the date 16 year old mandolin prodigy Sierra Hull releases “Secrets,” her first solo album on Rounder Records.

Sierra is a one of a kind, pure gem with an astounding talent for playing our beloved Bluegrass. The technical knowledge she possesses for Mandolin and Guitar is decades beyong her years.

But wait, it gets better. The girl sings with emotion, phrasing and intonation that I can only compare to the singing on Alison Krauss’ 1987 album “Too Late To Cry.” To tell the truth, I have not heard a young female in the Bluegrass genre since Alison’s ‘87 release with more promise than Miss Hull.

“Secrets” does not disappoint the hype surrounding its release. Co-Produced by Hull and Ron Block of Alison Krauss and Union Station fame, the album is incredible. Yes, “Secrets” is jam packed with great pickers. Sierra and Block recruited some help from the guys in Union Station, Tony Rice, Chris Jones, Jim VanCleve, Stuart Duncan, Rob Ickes, Jason Moore and Cory Walker, an incredible 18 year old banjo picker that also plays in Sierra’s band Highway 111.

The real story here is Sierra herself. There is not a track on this album I do not love. It’s the first album in a while where I have not found myself using the fast forward button on the old CD player. Just one listen to the songs “The Hard Way,” and You’ll fall in love with this album. The song is mature, mellow, tasteful and beautiful.

The tune “Hullarious,” written by Sierra, is a lesson in flawless mandolin picking. Another beautiful song on the album, written by Sierra and Stacey Hull is “Two Winding Rails.” It is another testament to this young lady’s seemingly endless talent.

Obviously this is an album I believe everyone should have on the shelf and in the CD player. Sierra Hull is the real deal. “Secrets” is the first stepping stone of what I believe to be a future legend.

I am so looking forward to listening and watching Sierra Hull’s career blossom.

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Sierra Hull on stage during a showcase at Edgehill Studios Cafe in Nashville, TN March 31, 2008. Photo by Travis Tackett. Sierra Hull & Clay Hess on stage during a showcase at Edgehill Studios Cafe in Nashville, TN March 31, 2008. Photo by Travis Tackett.
Sierra Hull “Secrets” (Rounder) due out May 6, 2008
Website:
www.SierraHull.com
Upcoming Dates

• Apr 25 - MerleFest - Wilkesboro, NC
• Apr 26 - MerleFest, Wilkesboro, NC
• Apr 27 - MerleFest, Wilkesboro, NC
• May 14 - The Station Inn - Secrets CD Release Party, Nashville, TN
• May 17 - Bellbrook Bluegrass Jamboree with Ron Block, Bellbrook, OH
• May 25 - Silver Dollar City, Branson, MO
• May 30 - Graves Mountain of Music, Syria, VA

Small town girl. Sweet 16, in fact.

A stellar student, judging by her membership in the Beta Club, a national organization for the cream of the crop among America’s youths.

All that, and a bluegrass recording artist to boot. Rubbing elbows and picking in studios with some of the genre’s hottest picker,

And now, filming scenes in a movie. Not to mention, being part of its soundtrack.

That’s the whirlwind life of Sierra Hull, a Tennessee teenager with all the makings of becoming a bluegrass mandolin master. She is on the verge of releasing her first CD for Rounder, titled “Secrets.”

BluegrassJournal.com had an opportunity to hear her skills and visit with her during an industry showcase for “Secrets” at Edgehill Studios Cafe in Nashville, Tenn.

The interview follows:

Bob Dieterlen - With your upcoming album “Secrets” on the Rounder label due out on shelves May 6, what has 2008 been like for you?

Sierra Hull - It has definitely been a whirlwind, that’s for sure! I’m still in high school and with classes and my music, it gets pretty crazy.

Bob Dieterlen - So, you’re still in a public school, no home school or private tutors while your on the road?

Sierra Hull - Yes, I still go to public school. Actually, I have been off for a week attending the Beta Club convention in Nashville this week. ( The National Beta Club is a club that recognizes academic achievement, promotes character, develops leadership skills, encourages service involvement, and provides technological advantages to students in grades 5-12.)

Bob Dieterlen - Your 16 now. What grade are you in?

Sierra Hull - I’m a junior in high school. So, I have a whole other year before graduation, but I see the light at the end of the tunnel!

Bob Dieterlen - Some in the profession get out of school early to pursue their music. Do you think that’s something you would be interested in?

Sierra Hull - No, I don’t have any plans on quitting or getting a GED or anything like that. I plan on finishing what I started and toughing it out. I really like school and it is important for me to finish. But, it’s hard when I am missing so much school to try to stay caught up. I do look forward to getting out though so I can concentrate fully on playing my music.

Bob Dieterlen - Where are you originally from?

Sierra Hull - I’m from a town about two hours north east of Nashville called Byrdstown in Tennessee. It’s a small town where I still live.

Bob Dieterlen - How did you get into playing bluegrass?

Sierra Hull - My dad always liked bluegrass, but it was not unusal to hear a rock station playing on the boom box. Actually, when he started getting into bluegrass, it was kind of a shocker for my mom because he went from listening to rock to buying tapes of Larry Sparks. Larry is pretty hardcore traditional bluegrass, so I guess that was a pretty big jump! My brother and I also sang in church, but it was when I was eight that my dad bought a mandolin for himself and started taking lessons that really sparked my interest in playing bluegrass.

Bob Dieterlen - You also have a band, right?

Sierra Hull - Yes, Sierra Hull & Highway 111.

Bob Dieterlen - Will you be touring this summer promoting your new album “Secrets”?

Sierra Hull - Yeah as much as possible, with school still going on it’s kind of hard, because I feel like I have to try to promote a record in half the time that most people get because of my schooling. But, we are going to try to tour as much as we can. Actually, we are going to Japan to play, around the end of July. It should be real fun and interesting. I have never had the chance to do anything like that before, so I’m really looking forward to it.

Bob Dieterlen - Ron Block (AK & Union Station) produced your album, and played banjo and guitar with you tonight. Because Union Station is not touring this summer, will Ron be playing with your band?

Sierra Hull - Well Ron’s doing his own shows this summer, and sometimes if one of us is not busy, we will sit in together, but no, Ron will not be touring with us. Actually, Corey Walker plays banjo in my band Highway 111. He also did most of the banjo work on “Secrets”. Corey is 18 years old and from Florida. He is a great, great banjo player, and I’m not just saying that! He truely is one of the best on the scene today. I’m lucky to get the opportunity to play with him.

Bob Dieterlen - What’s coming up for you as far as professionally?

Sierra Hull - Well actually, I recently was asked to be a part of a new movie being made about the life of Billy Graham. It’s a movie being directed by Robbie Benson. Anastasia Brown from Nashville Star called me about a small part in the movie. I am playing Billy Graham’s sister, Catherine Graham. The movie is called “Billy Graham, The Early Years.”

I also just recorded for the (soundtrack) album at John Carter Cash’s studio. He’s kind of producing the music side of the movie. I was in the studio with Ronnie Bowman, John Cowan, Ronnie McCoury and two or three others. It was a blast. I recorded “Just As I Am”. It was kind of Billy’s theme song. I’m real excited about the whole thing.

Bob Dieterlen - Have you filmed anything yet?

Sierra Hull - Not yet. I go in April and in May for the filming, so I have’nt got to do all that yet. It should be a very interesting experience!

Bob Dieterlen - Do you listen only to bluegrass or have other types of music had an influence on you?

Sierra Hull - I think it’s good not to be closed minded to just one type of music. Some people get caught up into saying “bluegrass, that’s the only type of music there is.” and I understand where they are coming from, cause bluegrass is really where my heart and sole lie. I love bluegrass and I love playing it, but I think it’s good to pull influences from every kind of music.

It kinda helps you (as a musician) to find your own voice, find you. I’m really still working on that some, still workin on me. I mean I’ve listened to everything, Journey, Air Supply, Def Leppard, and things like that. Even one of dad’s favorites, ZZ Top! In the same breath, I listen to people like Larry Sparks and Doyle Lawson.

We used to drive to and from church listening to Doyle sing gospel on the car radio. My brother and I always tried to sing like Doyle Lawson and Quicksilver in the car. I feel like I’m just now finding my singing voice. I mean, I’ve been playing mandolin for eight years, and I have always been thought of and thought of myself as just a mandolin player. I did sing harmonies with my brother, but mostly worked on mandolin. In the last couple of years, I have really tried to work more on my singing because it has totally become a big part of me and a big part of what I want out of my music. I really want people to be able to think of me as a singer who can also play mandolin, rather than a mandolin player that can sorta sing! (Laugh)

Bob Dieterlen - You’re a heck of a guitar player to, let’s not forget that!

Sierra Hull - Well thanks! I’ve been playing guitar a little less time than mandolin.

Bob Dieterlen - Anything else in the arsenal?!

Sierra Hull - No not really. Well actually fiddle really was the first instrument I tried to learn to play, but I had a full size and it was too big for my hands. But because my dad was learning to play mandolin, he showed me a couple of tunes on the mandolin. Because the mandolin and fiddle are tuned the same, he thought that would help me learn the fiddle. I’ve been playing mandolin ever since! I still play fiddle a little bit, but I would not consider myself a fiddle player.

Bob Dieterlen - I noticed by your style of picking that you must have listened to alot of Adam Steffey. What others are your biggest influences?

Sierra Hull - Yeah definitely Adam. I listened to alot of Chris Thile of course. He’s really turned some heads and made people say “wow, you really can do that, you can do that on a mandolin?” Andy Leftwich is another, Sam Bush, Wayne Benson, Alan Bibey, and of course Doyle Lawson. But I would have to say influence-wise definitely Adam Steffey and Chris Thile.

Bob Dieterlen - Have you ever had the chance to play with Chris Thile at all?

Sierra Hull - Yeah, I met Chris the first time at MerleFest. See I was and still am a huge Allison Krauss fan. She, hands down, has had the biggest influence on my music. My parents found out Allison would be at Merlefest, and decided to take me. We had no idea how big the festival would be. We had never been to a festival like that before.

Bob Dieterlen - Let me interrupt, how old were you at the time?

Sierra Hull - I was 10 and really hadn’t done much traveling to festivals or anything at that point. I remember how big the festival was and thinking there is no way I will ever get to meet Allison.

My parents and I ended up running into Chris Thile right after he got off stage, and I asked him to sign my mandolin strap. Afterward, another little girl that was there asked me to play a song for her, so I started playing a song and Chris walked over and knelt down to listen to me, and said “holy crap your good, do you want to play?!” He was really great! He jammed with me for almost two hours the first time meeting me. He was just really nice. It was really cool that someone like Chris would take the time out to stop what he is doing and sit and play that long with a little kid. What was really cool was he ended up taking me backstage to meet Allison. It was a dream come true! It is a great memory.

Bob Dieterlen - What is it about bluegrass that you love the most?

Sierra Hull - There’s just something about bluegrass and the people involved that makes it such a great environment to learn music and play. I would never have gotten as far as I have, had it not been for all the people I have met along the way. I feel so blessed to be a part of this music.

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Sierra Hull record release showcase at Edgehill Studios Cafe in Nashville, Tenn. March 31, 2008. (L-R) Clay Hess, Sierra Hull and Ron Block. Photo by Travis Tackett.

Next Monday we’ll have an interview online with Sierra Hull. BluegrassJournal.com’s Bob Dieterlen and Myself had the opportunity to attend a showcase for Hull’s upcoming album “Secrets” (Rounder), set for a May 6 release, here in Nashville, Tenn. a couple weeks back.

After the performance Bob sat down and talked with Sierra at length. In the interview, Sierra discusses the hazards of juggling a music career and high school at the same time, her foray into the world of acting, with a part in an upcoming movie about Billy Graham. Sierra also talks about her influences and shared a story about meeting Chris Thile and Alison Krauss for the first time.

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BlueHighway “Through the Window of a Train” (Rounder)

Burlington, MA – Rounder Records is pleased to announce that many of its artists will be performing at MerleFest on April 24–27 in Wilkesboro, NC. MerleFest began in the spring of 1988 and has grown from two flat-bed trailers and 4,000 attendees to 13 stages with more than 81,500 festival participants. This “one time, one night, one man show,” according to MerleFest Executive Director B. Townes, has turned into one of the largest American roots festivals in the country. A complete list of Rounder performances is below. For more information and stage schedules, visit www.merlefest.org.

Blue Highway (Thursday & Friday, April 24 & 25)
One of the most esteemed groups in contemporary bluegrass, Blue Highway excels at every facet of the music, from instrumental dexterity to impeccable vocal interplay to literate, powerful songwriting. Individually, Jason Burleson (banjo, guitar, mandolin), Rob Ickes (Dobro), Shawn Lane (mandolin, fiddle, vocals), Tim Stafford (guitar, vocals), and Wayne Taylor (bass, vocals) are at the forefront of the genre, appearing on innumerable projects as sidemen, songwriters, and solo artists. Their latest album, Through the Window of a Train was released in February and finds the band continuing to grow and mature in all areas. Blue Highway has released eight acclaimed albums, received a Grammy nomination for their album Wondrous Love, topped the Bluegrass Unlimited radio charts, and won an astonishing 13 International Bluegrass Music Association awards (individually and collectively).

Blue Highway “Through the Window of A Train” CD Review on BluegrassJournal.com

Sierra Hull & Highway 111 (Friday & Saturday, April 25 & 26)

Beginning at eight years old, Sierra Hull has become an adored and respected young mandolin picker in bluegrass circles. Since then, the 16-year old Hull has competed in and won numerous mandolin and guitar championships, showcased at The International Bluegrass Music Association’s World of Bluegrass, and was a featured performer on the Great High Mountain Tour, which included an all-star bluegrass lineup (with Alison Krauss, Ralph Stanley, and others), that performed songs from the soundtracks of O Brother Where Art Thou and Cold Mountain. On May 6, Rounder Records will release Secrets, her national debut album. Secrets was co-produced by Hull and Ron Block (Union Station) and features Block, Dan Tyminski, Barry Bales, Jerry Douglas, Stuart Duncan, Tony Rice, Jim VanCleve, Rob Ickes, Chris Jones, Jason Moore, and 17-year-old banjo whiz Cory Walker (who is also in Sierra’s band, Highway 111).

The Claire Lynch Band (Saturday & Sunday, April 26 & 27)

Claire Lynch has long been recognized as a creative influence in bluegrass music – first for her early years with Alabama’s Front Porch String Band (which was labeled as “a musical force to be reckoned with” by John Starling) and later for her superb singing and songwriting. Two of her five albums on Rounder have been nominated for a Grammy® and, among her many other nominations, she won the IBMA Award for “Female Vocalist of the Year” in 1997. Her latest album, Crowd Favorites, was released in October and is a collection of some of the most-requested songs from Claire Lynch’s impressively rich repertoire.

Claire Lynch “Crowd Favorites” CD Review on BluegrassJournal.com

Tony Rice (Friday & Saturday, April 25 & 26)

Tony Rice spans the range of acoustic music, from straight-ahead bluegrass to jazz-influenced new acoustic music, to songwriter-oriented folk. He is perhaps the greatest innovator in acoustic flatpicked guitar since Clarence White. Over the course of his career, he has played alongside J.D. Crowe and the New South, David Grisman (during the formation of “Dawg Music”), led his own groups, collaborated with fellow picker Norman Blake and recorded with his brothers. Rice remains one of bluegrass’ top instrumentalists, bringing originality and vitality to everything he plays.

The Dan Tyminski Band (Sunday, April 27)

Dynamic on stage, down to earth off stage, Dan Tyminski has the voice, instrumental chops, and charisma to be counted among the most recognizable and popular male vocalists on today’s bluegrass and country music scenes. Since 1994, his ace instrumental skill (mainly on guitar, but also on mandolin) and burnished, soulful tenor singing has been a key component of Alison Krauss and Union Station, arguably the most visible and successful bluegrass band in the modern era. Prior to that, he rose to national prominence as a member of bluegrass favorite, the Lonesome River Band. With Union Station on hiatus for most of 2008, Tyminski has formed a new incarnation of the Dan Tyminski Band, with whom he is releasing his new album Wheels on June 17. This new edition includes longtime Union Station associate Barry Bales (bass), former Union Station and Mountain Heart member Adam Steffey (mandolin), sideman extraordinaire Ron Stewart (banjo, fiddle), and newcomer Justin Moses (fiddle, dobro).

Rhonda Vincent & The Rage (Saturday, April 26)
The reigning queen of bluegrass, Rhonda Vincent, was born with music inside of her. She inherited timeless bluegrass strains from her family and the hills of her Missouri homeland. You can hear them echo every time she sings, or when she runs her hands across a mandolin, guitar, or fiddle. Yet Vincent’s music is a transformation of tradition – a very modern manifestation of her roots in classic bluegrass, refracted through her very real experiences as a bandleader, musician, songwriter, mother, wife, and woman. Rounder released her latest album Good Thing Going in January and it is Vincent’s most personal album to date. With hope, resilience, and gratitude, Vincent presents a set of songs that range from timelessly straight-ahead bluegrass to effervescent swing and heartfelt ballads.

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Sierra Hull “Secrets” (Rounder Records) will be released May 6, 2008

Burlington, MA – For the past 20 years, May has been regarded as Worldwide Bluegrass Music Month, an idea that began in 1987 with Bob Wolff, a performing arts consultant from NYC and an enthusiastic bluegrass fan. Wolff proposed the idea – after he had attended the International Bluegrass Music Association (IBMA) Fan Fest in Owensboro, KY – as a means to develop a larger audience for bluegrass music. Wolff recalls, “My concept was that if people got to stand as close to the musicians as the musicians were to each other, there was no way that they could go away anything but fans. If a friend invited them to an event, perhaps paying the price of attendance, it would be likely they would return to another and, if these folks left that group or that show with some way to get news of bluegrass events they could attend, they would become part of the audience.”

With the help of fans around the world, May 1988 was chosen as the First Annual Worldwide Bluegrass Music Month. Though recognized by the IBMA in 1989, the concept is not supported by any one association; it is solely organized by bluegrass devotees who ensure that May is filled with bluegrass activities in their neighborhoods.

Now a resident of Milton, MA, Bob Wolff had this to say about WWBGMM, “My theory was that if more people were introduced to bluegrass music, the audience would grow. It seemed to me to be very important that the audience grow if I were going to be able to continue to hear the music. The music is so very captivating. It is not the particular month that matters; it is the opportunity to get non-fans to hear the music that counts!”

2008 Rounder Bluegrass Releases

• Jan. 8 — Rhonda Vincent Good Thing Going
• Jan. 15 — IIIrd Tyme Out Footprints: A IIIrd Tyme Out Collection
• Jan. 15 — The SteelDrivers The SteelDrivers
• Jan. 29 — Dailey & Vincent Dailey & Vincent
• Feb. 12 — Blue Highway Through the Window of a Train
• Apr 8 — Longview Deep in the Mountains
• May 6 — Sierra Hull Secrets
• May 20 — James King Gardens in the Sky: The Bluegrass Gospel of James King
• Jun 17 — Dan Tyminski Band Wheels
• Jun 24 — Danny Paisley & The Southern Grass The Room Over Mine
• Jul 15 — The Grascals Keep On Walkin’
• Jul 29 — Michael Cleveland & Flamekeeper

Listen to samples here.

-From Rounder

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