Sierra Hull has the courage to voice what every artist is thinking.
“I’d be lying to say that it wouldn’t be a dream to win a Grammy,” she says, seated in her dressing room at the Beacon Theatre on Manhattan’s Upper West Side in early December, reflecting on the four nominations she’s received for A Tip Toe High Wire, the 10-track record the mandolin savant released in May.
“Sometimes it feels a little vain to say it out loud. But there’s any number of reasons why an album or songs get nominated, and you can’t put all your emotional worth in those things,” Hull continues. “If a record received no nominations, it doesn’t mean we didn’t put out a good record.”
A Tip Toe High Wire is indeed a good record. It’s also her first album in five years and the first independent LP since the Tennessee native released her debut in 2002 at age 11. Hull had released her previous five studio LPs on Rounder Records and has been nominated for Grammy honors twice before, but the four that resulted from A Tip Toe High Wire provided a high-water mark in the career of the 34-year-old.
“I have no idea what to expect,” she says. “The day before the nominations came out, I didn’t want to be too disappointed if nothing happened, and I didn’t want to be overly excited if something really good happened. The older I get, the more I’m trying to really just live in the moment, and live with gratitude. I’m grateful for the amazing things and learning to appreciate and grow when you don’t get the things you’re going for.”
Hull has played mandolin since she was 8. She grew up in Byrdstown, Tennessee, with a great-uncle next door who dabbled in music. He wasn’t a professional, but he could play “Wildwood Flower” and had a fiddle and a mandolin. Both instruments intrigued Hull. She was gifted a fiddle one Christmas, but her petite build left her too small to play it. Recognizing this, her father suggested she take up mandolin until she grew into her fiddle. He taught Hull one song and she never looked back.
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When she was 11, Hull played with Alison Krauss at the Grand Ole Opry. At the time, Gibson, the guitar company, had a high-end outlet at the adjacent Opry Mills Mall, and Hull stopped in with her father to get some new frets on her mandolin. One of the Gibson employees recognized Hull and gave her a mandolin from their Adam Steffey signature line. Steffey had played with Krauss and was a hero of Hull’s. She has had a close relationship with Gibson since. Two years ago, the company approached Hull about her own signature line. Now, an F-5G mandolin bearing Hull’s name hangs in Gibson showrooms.
“Honestly, I could say this is something that was maybe always in the back of my mind,” Hull says. “But when they hit me up about this, I was pretty stunned. It’s definitely a lifelong dream.”
Hull put her musical range on full display earlier this month when she lost her voice ahead of a taping for a national television appearance on CBS Saturday Morning. The plan had been for her to perform “Spitfire” and “Boom,” both among her Grammy nominations. But unable to sing, she and her band pivoted to an all-instrumental showcase — including “Lord, That’s a Long Way,” also up for a Best Instrumental Composition Grammy. Hull didn’t bother hiding a smile during the taping, even dancing around the studio a little, mandolin in hand. When she finished, one member of the production team told her, “That was a treat.”
Hull wrapped up December by joining the Allman Betts Band for their annual Family Revival shows, and playing with Béla Fleck a few days later, both at the Beacon Theatre. Fleck, a mentor since she met the banjo virtuoso at a teenager at a folk festival, guests on Tip Toe High Wire on the instrumental “E Tune,” and produced Hull’s 2016 album Weighted Mind, which resulted in her first Grammy nomination.
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“That record, for me, was going to be more of a singer-songwriter record,” Hull recalls. “I’d played all the instrumental music, and I love that. But I needed to show this side of me, that I love lyrics and songs.”
“I feel like I’ve been blessed to have this variety,” she continues. “To get the chance to go from the Allman thing to the Fleck thing, and have that balance between worlds, sometimes I just stop and die laughing, like, ‘Boy, yesterday was really different than today.’ But I love it. It keeps me inspired.”
Hull will get a long-overdue break from the road in January, which means she’ll be free on Feb. 1, when the Grammys are handed out in Los Angeles. But then it’s back on the road, opening for Milk Carton Kids and launching her own headlining tour in April. In between, she’s working on projects like a new instrumental collection, some live recordings, and another studio record.
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“I’ll step outside of music and think about living life,” she adds, “which is what we write songs about.”
Josh Crutchmer is a journalist and author whose book (Almost) Almost Famous will be released April 1 via Back Lounge Publishing.