Album Review – Sierra Ferrell’s “Long Time Coming”
Call it a blessing, call it a curse, or call it both. But some aspire to be something in music, and wish to have the spotlight shone squarely upon them, and labor intensively and study laboriously to achieve that goal … and then some are simply born with the gift to compel audiences, and couldn’t avoid the occupation even if they tried. It would be a cardinal sin. It’s their calling. They’re naturals—touched in that unique way. Often a little crazy, maybe even a little dangerous, it’s undeniable the talent they posses, the curiosity they pique, the infectiousness they sow, and the magic they deliver—effortlessly so in a way that is enviable, and virtually unattainable by all the rest of us. That’s why we can’t help but center our attention on them.
Such is the case for Sierra Ferrell, whose myth and mystique has preceded her for years now as this whimsical being who melds gypsy jazz and mountain music into an alluring and intoxicating concoction leaving lifted spirits and broken hearts in her wake. Todd Snider once wrote about her in 2014 after having discovered her hopping trains in West Virginia, describing his encounter more in poetry than prose, because that’s the only way to accurately describe Sierra. Rumors still swirl how Sierra was the muse for the song “Charleston Girl” written by Tyler Childers that was first featured on a Red Barn Radio live session in 2013. But nobody’s willing to confirm.
The first time yours truly saw Sierra Ferrell perform, it was at the Mercy Lounge in Nashville, and Sturgill Simpson was prowling around the wings of the place, wanting like the devil to produce her debut album for Rounder Records. He was ultimately denied. Everyone recognizes what Sierra Ferrell has, and wants to be a part of it. It’s like Janis Joplin in the 60’s. A lioness. Sierra isn’t just a singer and songwriter. She’s a force of nature.
Years of hopping trains, busking and bruising around the United States, being homeless with plenty of harrowing stories to tell has resulted in that real world authenticity baked into Sierra Ferrell’s West Virginia roots. Capturing the creative spirit of these dynamos in a recorded context is often difficult. But as the aptly-titled Long Time Coming illustrates, it’s not impossible.
A fairly wild romp through American roots music influences, and bolstered by a zesty and ambitious variety of instrumentation, Long Time Coming refuses to be categorized, aside from being distinctly Sierra. It starts with a rather suggestive shanty called “The Sea” with its watery saw and Sierra’s billowy vocals beaming you to a world of Chantilly lace and seafoam. “At The End of the Rainbow” delivers you to ragtime-era New Orleans, with blasts from horns and clarinet imbuing the experience with a Delta spirit. The accordion, drums, and Marc Ribot-style guitar of “Why’d Ya Do It” seats you right down in a French press cafe in southern France.
It’s not just the “what” of a Sierra Ferrel song, but the “when” and the “where” that ferries you away to somewhere well separated from the everyday mundanity to a colorful, lively place of enchantment. Steer credit towards producers Gary Paczosa and Stu Hibberd, and the musicians such as Chris Scruggs and fiddler Nate Leath who took Sierra’s ambitious vision for this album and made it manifest.
And don’t worry all you mountain pickers and rednecks out there, the lion’s share of Long Time Coming draws heavy on Sierra’s West Virginia roots, with ample fiddle and banjo backstopping her songs of love and testament, such as “Jeremiah” featuring Sarah Jarosz on banjo, “The Bells of Every Chapel” with Billy Strings on guitar, and two songs whose titles end in “Waltz.” You even get a Golden Era country tune in “Give It Time” complete with the double fiddle start off, and a backing chorus line.
The simple truth is that with so many of the most dynamic artists of any era, the studio may never do a fair service to representing the type of spellbinding rush that accompanies experiencing them live. And specifically with Sierra, this album was such a Long Time Coming and some of these songs have been out there for so long—especially the first two of the set, and perhaps some of the strongest of the album as well—it may not seize your attention similar to the buzz and mystique around her might have you expecting.
Make no mistake though, Sierra Ferrell is one of those one in a million artists born to do this, and bred to excel at it, and forged through real life experience. There is no affectation here. This is all Sierra Ferrell. Like Todd Snider who spied her potential some seven years ago, Tyler Childers who perhaps crossed paths with her in West Virginia, and Sturgill Simpson who wanted to throw his weight behind her, Sierra Ferrell is worthy to be regarded as a generational force in country and roots music.
8.5/10
– – – – – – – – – – –
Purchase from Sierra Ferrell
Purchase from Amazon
August 20, 2021 @ 7:43 am
The wife and I were giving this a listen last night (it was on Spotify early, I guess?). It’s great fun. Really enjoyable listen.
August 20, 2021 @ 7:49 am
I love everything but the overused-trope laden album cover, and that’s pretty easy to get over.
August 20, 2021 @ 8:12 am
May be naive in this, but still think you had a big part in keeping Sierra’s name in the forefront, that may have helped bring this album to fruition.
She is very much in the tradition of Loretta Lynn (just my opinion).
Irregardless, thank you for bringing her to our attention.
August 20, 2021 @ 10:09 am
terrific review , trigger , informative and insightful . she is indeed a rare one from her unique and flawlessly -pitched vocals to the songs and arrangements . pure and unaffected . a must-listen for anyone professing to be a fan of REAL country music .
August 20, 2021 @ 10:18 am
It’s not necessarily the best versions of these songs but it’s a solid introduction for people who are not familiar with her. I never listen to records as much as performances these days since youtube is so available but this will take up residence in the car CD player for a bit.
It’s a real bummer that she doesn’t seem to be working with Nate and Audrey any more. That was a seriously solid trio and his work on this album is great. The red barn radio show they did is my favorite work from her.
August 20, 2021 @ 10:25 am
Like I referenced in the review, when you have such a long period between revelation of an artist and the album release, it runs the risk of losing a bit of momentum. You wear out the pre-release singles. You go to YouTube and hunt down whatever you can. The earlier version of the songs are the ones that live in your head, and may never be considered as good, especially with an artist such as Sierra, who is so dynamic and engaging live. Nothing is going to beat Sierra’s “In Dreams” from Gems on VHS that went viral.
August 20, 2021 @ 11:10 am
I think it’s particularly a risk with certain artists.
Sierra Farrell is more like Tyler Childers in this regard, or like Shakey Graves or Dave Matthews where particular live performances are much more highly regarded than their studio output.
Might ought to be called Tiny Desk syndrome–I realize it’s not just tiny desk, but it seems like that sort of intimate and small environment (Tiny Desk, Red Barn, Paste, GemsOnVHS/WesternAf) really highlights the expressiveness in certain artists.
August 23, 2021 @ 4:52 pm
I know nothing of Nate other than this album, which sounds great. I’ll just say Sierra’s new fiddler Josie is worth keeping an eye on. I saw her solo right before COVID hit and was kind of blown away. Glad she’s getting this opportunity.
August 20, 2021 @ 12:02 pm
This album blew Sturgills out of the water in my opinion. It won release day. That was Sturgills “final” album (we’ll see) and it wasn’t exactly his best, Cody Jinks last couple albums have been lesser than he previous ones as well, Hank III has been gone for almost a decade now. We probably still have a few more years of Colter and Childers but I don’t think they will ever reach the same level of quality as their earlier stuff (Purgatory, Colters self titled, etc…). And so, for the most part, the NeoOutlaw era of country music is over and a new era is coming to fruition here at the turn of the decade. I can say with confidence that Sierra Ferrell is a leading part of this new era and I’m excited to see just where this goes.
August 20, 2021 @ 12:37 pm
There’s always going to be a market for hard hitting, hard living music. John R Miller, Morgan Wade, and Rob Leines all just dropped kick ass albums this year.
Ferrell’s album is great, but this sound is very niche.
Calling Childers top from an album released 4 years ago, when the now 30 year old was just on an arena tour and is still sitting on an album worth of unreleased hit material, might be jumping the gun a little too.
August 20, 2021 @ 1:34 pm
“Ferrell’s album is great, but this sound is very niche.”
So is Colter Wall’s, and strangely it hasn’t held him back at all. I had to eat my words when I said I thought his ceiling was low.
August 20, 2021 @ 2:26 pm
That’s a fair point. Admittedly, I never imagined Wall’s popularity either. And honestly, I still don’t get it. I recognize and respect the talent, but I just don’t enjoy the music.
In Ferrell’s case, it feels like there have been a lot of acts trying to pull off that sound, but just fall a little short. Recently, that Hannah Juanita album you highlighted comes to mind – though, “Call Yourself My Man” was an absolute banger. Ferrell brings some uniqueness to the fold that’s hard to put your finger on, but it’s definitely there.
I hope it works out for her though. The world needs more real artists.
August 20, 2021 @ 1:17 pm
Maybe it’s just my personal opinion, but I think Colter set a new high water mark with his most recent…
August 20, 2021 @ 4:21 pm
Haven’t quite got the opinion that Cody has went downhill the last couple albums. I’ve felt that everything he releases is gold. The only complaint I do agree with is that none of the albums have sounded as good as “Adobe Sessions.” I think Cody’s issue is that he’s the greatest consistent artist of our times, and is so constantly good he’s under closer sincerity. It’s about like someone saying in the 70s that Waylon is going downhill, because he hasn’t made anything as good as “Dreaming my Dreams” in his last few. Just my opinion anyways. I’m impressed with every album Cody does, and a lesser Cody Jinks album is almost certainly going to be better than whatever else is being released in the independent realms at the time.
August 20, 2021 @ 12:15 pm
To be honest, I went into this one expecting it to be boring based on what I had heard from her in the past, and was pleasantly surprised.
Entire album plays well, great writing and composition. Loved the horns in “at the end of the rainbow” and “Far away across the sea”. The latter felt ska-punk influenced, oddly enough.
I expect this one is going to be on a lot of end of year lists.
August 20, 2021 @ 12:39 pm
I like the album a lot, it doesn’t sound like anything and everything else. I’m glad I didn’t over play the early release tunes so they’re recognizable but still fresh. Thanks to Trig’s tip I got a ticket to the show and looking forward to it.
August 20, 2021 @ 2:53 pm
Have seen her twice this summer,in Kentucky and in Oregon. Started listening to her in the past year, after I heard Todd Snider tout her. Absolutely blown away. Hopefully the good people at Rounder let her continue to create her own sound. It’s quality enough to not have to play to any certain type of audience. She’s not tied to a genre, nor does she need to be. She can sing anything she wants to, and should. She has the taste and feel to know what sounds good. Her live shows are f’ing nails.
August 20, 2021 @ 3:33 pm
Re-post with less autocorrect:
For the love of God, please stop using the term gypsy jazz to describe these old timey lisping country/Americana women.
Gypsy jazz is a very specific and very famous form of 30’s and 40’s swing, that has absolutely nothing to do with the sound of that she and Melissa Carper and some of the other current Ameripolitan or Americana women are doing. Seriously.
Gypsy jazz is a genre. “Gypsy” is a specific ethnicity, generally Muslim people in Europe who speak various forms of Romani and who make a wide array of folk and world/popular music all their own, with a couple of exceptions such as Gypsy Jazz (French Romani musicians who made swing jazz in the ’40s and thereafter) and Bulgarian wedding music jazz (Eastern European Roma who made a completely unrelated and amazing form of jazz in the ’80s). These forms of jazz have their own fans across the world, and it has absolutely nothing to do with the sound that’s happening here in this Americana that Sierra, Melissa Carper, and other people who are probably influenced by Western swing and older American music, are inventing.
The rest of the Gypsy people’s music is more Middle Eastern sounding than anything remotely close to this. The singing style almost universally involved some kind of belting. I highly recommend all of you check it out, phenomenal stuff. It has nothing to do with country music.
Sierra Ferrell is a fantastic musician but she has nothing to do with gypsy jazz, or anything related to either those two terms.
August 20, 2021 @ 5:57 pm
I appreciate your perspective here, and the insight. But let’s take a deep breath and not freak out. First, I am not using this term unilaterally. This is a term the artists have also adopted. Second, I am not saying that Sierra Ferrell or Melissa Carper are “Gypsy Jazz artists.” I would called them American roots artists. BUT, they take inflections and influences from gypsy jazz in regards to swing-style music, vocal and instrumental tones, and use this to evoke that gypsy jazz era in their music. Ultimately, it’s just a term to help succinctly describe what listeners can expect when they hear this album. I respect if others disagree, but I think it’s effective in that regard. Diagramming what the term means is probably a worthy exercise, but not necessarily in the context of an album review.
August 21, 2021 @ 9:04 am
During my first trip through this album I recalled an earlier installment of this argument. How about “vagabond jazz” as an alternative?
Great album, BTW. Having heard a few of the songs before, it did have a bit of an anthology vibe at first. Production is impeccable, and Sierra has one heck of an instrument in that voice.
August 21, 2021 @ 1:15 pm
Meh, “gypsy jazz” is fine: it’s two-beat early jazz-style played on string instruments with a fondness for minor keys. That’s definition enough to make a parallel to some of what Ferrell is doing.
I’ve followed that style for twenty years now, and yes, Ferrell is actually closer to vaudeville-era jazz than Django, Waso, Fapy Laftertin, the Rosenbergs, Bireli Lagrene, Adrien Moignard, and all the rest. Their level of musicianship is frightening. Antoine Boyer, Josh Meader … the list goes on and on of absolute virtuosos.
But because of the two-beat bass, easy swing, and Django’s love of Louis Armstrong, gypsy jazz has a solid following in New Orleans. Maybe that’s where Sierra caught the bug
It’s a natural tradition for country players with guitar, fiddle, and upright to check out.
Sierra Ferrell has a lot in common with Janet Klein, a tongue-in-cheek arty girl from San Fran or somewhere who sings “naughty songs” and other novelties from the Twenties and Thirties. Kind of a camp thing, right on the edge of parody, like Melissa Carper.
Country musicians, especially guitar players, have been listening with good reason to Django Reinhardt since forever.
August 23, 2021 @ 9:18 pm
You’re over thinking it.
August 20, 2021 @ 5:35 pm
I’m glad someone else was thinking this too. Nothing against either Miss Ferrel or Carper — both of whose music I do enjoy. But the vocal affectation can sometimes be a bit…much.
The term “gypsy” is also considered most anymore as a slur by many people but most importantly the Roma people themselves. And I agree, applying the term to this music is wrong. Sure some of the songs have an old slightly jazzy Parisian cafe vibe to them evoking notes of Reinhardt and Grappelli (thanks especially to the fiddle and the time signature), but they certainly aren’t that type of jazz, even though she at times commands the listener’s attention much like an archetypical chanteuse.
Using the aforementioned word in the Jerry Jeff sense as to describe a well travelled individual makes sense. She had that in spades. But her music is eclectic and very much Americana. And I enjoy it.
These are songs she has been doing for years, and she has these songs down to a science — as is often the case with debut albums. They represent the wide variety of influences she has and the miles she’s travelled. And while I enjoy this music, the album isn’t the most even in my opinion. I’m eager to see what her future albums do.
August 21, 2021 @ 1:20 pm
“The term “gypsy” is also considered most anymore as a slur by many people but most importantly the Roma people themselves.”
I’d be interested to know where you heard this. The guys I know who are Manouche and Sinti aren’t offended at all. To them it’s just a useful marketing term. Of course they are part of a group that is shat on by literally everyone, which sucks.
August 21, 2021 @ 2:03 pm
Voice Of Roma, for one (a nonprofit that supports Romani musicians in the US and does cultural programs to bring attention to human rights issues that Roma in Eastern Europe face. They’re highly involved with the folk music scene as this is one of the few places where people in the US learn positive things about Roma people). They put on a bunch of music and dance events in the US and work with human rights organizations and American Roma communities and also musicologists and others who study the culture.
http://www.voiceofroma.com/about/who_we_are.html
I studied a different form of Romani music with one of the Bulgarian Roma music teachers in the US and have met a ton of Roma musicians here, as well as studied a bunch of the relevant history. My impression is that many of these folks are fine referring to themselves as Gypsy but those folks really really really HATE the way the term is misapplied to white hippies or other romanticised stuff like that. I think the only reason people are using ‘gypsy jazz’ to refer to SIerra’s brand of Americana is not because it sounds remotely like Django’s take on American jazz, but more because so many people have attached the ‘gypsy’ romantic label to traveling hippie gals and other bohemians.
August 20, 2021 @ 5:50 pm
This album is kinda badass.
August 20, 2021 @ 7:12 pm
I’m jealous of the people hearing these songs for the first time…I think I’d heard all of them besides “Far Away Across the Sea” prior to the album release, but I still love it. And the awesome thing is, judging by the couple live videos I’ve seen online, she hardly sings a song the same way consistently live. I’ve heard versions of “Made Like That” that are far more upbeat and loved them, but I really like the album version. Hopefully in the future the album releases will be full of more new content that she hasn’t played live a ton of times, but it was bound to happen this way for her debut. Still a timeless album that I will be listening to years from now, and honestly can’t wait until my vinyl arrives next week (which, side note, I was expecting to have to wait like 6 months after release for it, so I was pleasantly surprised when I saw it had shipped today).
August 20, 2021 @ 8:23 pm
Great review, Trig.
This gal is a goddess.
August 20, 2021 @ 9:04 pm
You are awesome Trig! Damn good album, don’t be afraid of the darkness, don’t be afraid of the light!! Big statement from this girl. Her shows are just as good as the album. Great work!!! Support good music and the usps!!!
August 21, 2021 @ 2:30 am
I feared this album could have been a little too hipster for my tastes but was blown away!!
Production, sound, writing…Stellar!
Definitely hear the jazz manouche influence Trig points out.
Killer album.
August 21, 2021 @ 6:40 am
I think much of the appeal of Sierra Ferrell is Sierra herself. I found Sierra a while back on Instagram after another artist mentioned her. Her posts were quirky and funny, so I went to Bandcamp to check out her music. Initially I didn’t care for it much, but enjoyed Sierra’s posts so much I purchased the albums and the music grew on me. I noticed the albums were pulled from Bandcamp prior to this release, so this album will be the only music any new fans will have access to. I personally like the album, but I have to agree with some of the other comments that I’m not sure the album will appeal to an audience large enough to make her more than a niche Americana favorite. Sierra herself though, and her larger than life persona may help her beat the odds.
August 21, 2021 @ 7:59 am
I don’t get this at all.
August 21, 2021 @ 3:26 pm
Go to the Spotted Cat in New Orleans: https://www.spottedcatmusicclub.com/ and then drive around the country playing pickup music with anyone you meet.
August 21, 2021 @ 2:51 pm
Ive been watching her live performances on youtube for the past year or so, and am just blown away by how naturally she produces beauty. her singing is brilliant, emotive, and she seems to do it effortlessly. My only wish is that she doesnt get chewed up and distorted by the “machine”…. i really want this artist to keep it pure. she’s amazing.
August 22, 2021 @ 7:53 am
sierra’s guitar playing is interesting, skilled but not overly technical plays some bass lines, and melodies, lively rhythm, which is not metronome like…..
probably quite difficult to emulate since is uniquely her style.
it works very well in a solo, and small group setting. she seems to have a thousand guitars.
great review.
August 22, 2021 @ 12:14 pm
Anyone know why Nate Leath and Audrey MacAlpine are not touring with her at this time?
August 23, 2021 @ 6:51 am
Sierra and Nick Shoulders should write a song together, and it would be the most perfect, bizarre country song ever.