Review: In sold-out show, Sierra Ferrell gives Clearwater a peek at roots music's next big thing [PHOTOS]

Sierra Ferrell and her crew roll in a Prevost entertainer coach, which over the next few weeks takes her to South Florida and the Midwest, plus a handful of festival dates in Canada and the west coast.

Seeing the bus parked on the side of the Bilheimer Capitol Theatre in Clearwater last Tuesday night, it was hard not to think about how far the 34-year-old songbird has come from her days touring in a van, and before that as a busker and train boxcar hopper who spent her childhood in public housing and eating off food stamps (a backstory she alluded to before performing a still-unreleased song, “Fox Hunt”).

After Ferrell’s much-anticipated 23-song set in front of a sold-out theater with just 739 fans, it’s easy to believe that she’ll be traveling with more than one Prevost soon enough.

With plenty of company, too.

Ferrell’s music attracts fans with a wide swath of tastes. Outside and inside the Cap on Tuesday were an array of band shirts—Cannibal Corpse, Hank III, Beastie Boys—plus sundresses, Stetson hats and Davy Crockett coonskin caps. There were fledgling ZZ Top beards, Willie Nelson braids, and little kids in cowboy boots. The guy in the Grateful Dead dancing bear collared shirt must’ve lost his shit when Ferrell and the band took on “​​Cold Rain and Snow” with the help of opening act Two Runner.

For her part, Ferrell was again the best dressed person in the room, and took the stage in a rose gold sequin dress Loretta Lynn would’ve loved and with big brown hair Dolly Parton would probably die for.

Ferrell’s voice, however, is unrivaled in modern roots music.

Despite being flanked by an ace band featuring Josh Rilko on mandolin, Geoff Saunders on bass, and Oliver Bates Craven playing fiddle and guitar, it was impossible to set your gaze on anyone but Ferrell who breezed through a nearly two-hour show that teased a forthcoming full-length (“Why Haven’t You Loved Me Yet”), found her fencing with the fiddle bow (“I’d Do It Again”) and showcasing an ability to tell stories in the fashion of Seeger and Baez before her (“Rosemary”).

More than once, Ferrell also let her guard down and showcased an uncanny sense of humor with banter (“Oh yeah, I play fiddle on this one,” she said before “I Can Drive You Crazy”) and songwriting (“American Dreamin’”, while poignant enough to be played at an inauguration, also included the line, “I’d take better care of myself, stop drinking—from the bottom shelf…”).

She asserted herself, too.

After a slowed-down, smoky take on “Made Like That,” someone in the crowd yelled, “You’re the countriest thing out there.”

“Sometimes,” Ferrell quietly responded. “But I’m a lot of things in one.”

An absolute truth in every way.

Ferrell has an effortless, mouthy drawl at times (“Bells of Every Chapel”). At other points of the set, like on “Why’d Ya Do It,” her fingers run nonchalantly around the fretboard. The music can go from country, to jazz, to bluegrass and even Flamenco in the blink of an eye.

She turned other artists' songs into hers completely for “Don't Let Your Deal Go Down” by Foggy Mountain Boys, a touching take on “Years” by John Anderson, and a rousing encore cover of The Beatles’ “Don’t Let Me Down” where she fell to her knees and belted out a classic country vocal that channeled the soul of Aretha and a little bit of the grit from late legends Tina Turner and Amy Winehouse.

On a nearly half-time run through “West Virginia Waltz,” the band hit high harmonies that took a seat only to the timbre, range and control in her voice. On that cut from Ferrell’s 2021 album Long Time Coming, she sings, “No one holds a flame to you.”

Right now in roots music—if you can even put her in a box—no one can hold a candle to Ferrell. And if we’re lucky, she’ll be carrying the torch for a long time to come.

Sierra Ferrell setlist
Silver Dollar
Give It Time
Bells Of Every Chapel
Why’d Ya Do It
West Virginia Waltz
Why Haven't You Loved Me Yet
Made Like That
I'd Do It Again
Fox Hunt
Rosemary
The Garden
American Dreamin’
Cold Rain and Snow (Grateful Dead, w/Two Runner)
I Can Drive You Crazy
Far Away Across The Sea
Whispering Waltz
Don't Let Your Deal Go Down (Foggy Mountain Boys)
Jeremiah
The Sea
At the End of the Rainbow
In Dreams
—
Years (John Anderson)
Don’t Let Me Down (The Beatles)

Two Runner setlist
Wild Dream
[fiddle tune]
It’s Nothing
Run Souls
Devil's Rowdydow
Shakin' Down the Acorns
Modern Cowboy
Red Sunrise
(Unknown)
Burn It To The Ground