This weekend’s entertainment: Sierra Hull
Sierra began playing as an eight year old prodigy, and has quickly become one of bluegrass music’s youngest favorites.
Sierra Hull Performs With Alison Krauss at age 11
Sierra Hull was out at the grocery store with her mama when Alison Krauss called. Her father, Stacy, delivered the message as soon as Sierra came in the door. Krauss, the bluegrass icon and Sierra’s hero, wanted to know if she might be interested in playing the Grand Ole Opry.
“I’m like, `no way,’ ” Sierra says, recalling that moment almost two years ago.
The mandolin player had good reason to have her doubts. Krauss, the fiddler and singer, has won 14 Grammys, sold millions of albums, and become a modern-day bluegrass superstar through the “O Brother, Where Art Thou?” soundtrack. Sierra lived in rural Tennessee, where a good day might mean jumping on a trampoline with her friends or hunting for deer with her dad. And she was just 11 years old.
But this was no joke. Krauss had been given a copy of the girl’s self-produced CD by Ron Block, Krauss’s banjo player.
“When I heard the CD, I thought, `She’s really good,’ ” Krauss says. “When I heard her in person, I was laughing, thinking, `This is a freak show.’ “
Sierra and Carl Berggren playing Roanoke
