#trail of flowers

[krispyweiss]

Song Review: Sierra Ferrell - “Lighthouse” (Alternate Version)

Solo and acoustic and sounding more like a demo than the alternate version it’s billed as, Sierra Ferrell’s new version of “Lighthouse” is lovely in its way, even as it confirms Ferrell put the correct iteration on Trail of Flowers.

Stripped of its count-in, back-porch harmonies and languid bluegrass accompaniment, this “Lighthouse” illuminates Ferrell’s voice and her guitar playing and serves mostly as a reminder of how perfectly the album version turned out.

Grade card: Sierra Ferrell - “Lighthouse” (Alternate Version) - B

9/27/24

[bootdork]

Elk River Blues - Sierra Ferrell

[girlrry]

there r so many really good albums that dropped this year i feel like that hasn’t happened in foreverrrr

[brenna]

Pick your top 4 comfort albums. Make yours here. I was tagged by @thefuzzhead

Thank you for tagging me. This was tough, especially to pick specifically comfort albums. So I picked two long-standing ones and two newer ones that I always go back to because that's comfort to me. To always want to return.

Tagging 4 people seems to be the thing so lemme grab:

@kneelbeforeyourdogbabylon

@waitingtobebroken

@justsomebirdy

@adverbian

No pressure, and others please do this, too, if you want! Tag me if you do; I wanna see your picks.

[thisaintascenereviews]

Sierra Ferrell - Trail Of Flowers

Kacey Musgraves dropped a new album a few weeks ago, entitled Deeper Well. It’s a pleasant folk-pop album that leans into 1970s singer-songwriter aesthetics, and is even further from her country roots than most people expected. Instead of pivoting back to something that she knows works, she went to another sound, and you know what? Good on her. The album isn’t that bad, and it’s got some solid stuff on it, but let’s also be real — Kacey Musgraves isn’t the only woman in country that’s made an impact within the last decade. There are plenty of women that make the kind of country music that they wish Musgraves would make again. One such woman is Sierra Ferrell. She’s a name that’s probably very well known within the underground country scene, but mainstream audiences may not know her as well. She was featured on Zach Bryan’s last album, but more so in a backing vocal role, yet that song wasn’t one of the more popular ones (the one with Kacey Musgraves was the big single, and for good reason).

It’s been a few years since her debut, and I listened to 2021’s Long Time Coming a couple times, but I didn’t spend enough time to really sink my teeth into it. It was good from what I remember, but I always appreciated how she has a more old school sound, similarly to a lot of other artists on the rise. Her new album, Trail Of Flowers, is very much in the same vein, but like Musgraves, it weirdly leans into singer-songwriter territory. This is still very much a country album, but it has a lot of acoustic elements, too. If anything, it’s a nice mix between country, bluegrass, and folk. This record reminds me a bit of Musgraves’ new album, but it has more of a country sound.

Unlike Deeper Well, however, Trail Of Flowers is a very lovely sounding album, but it also has some substance to it. I liked Deeper Well, as I said, and it had a few good lyrics in there with a pleasant sound that ultimately felt forgettable in spots and songs ran together. Her voice was also fantastic, as Musgraves usually is, but a lot of people were wondering where the country sound went. Like I said, I’m glad she doubled down with moving into a new sound, but if you want a country album with a retro influence and great lyricism, Trail Of Flowers is perfect for you. I think that ultimately Sierra Ferrell has a better way with words on this record, and has better grasp on a good balance of sounds here. This record isn’t just an acoustic and folk album, which is fine in itself, but this album always feels fresh and interesting. No two songs sound alike, and everything feels memorable.

I really enjoy this album, but I do have a couple of issues with it, which I’ll get to later one. I still have a lot of fun with this one, and a handful of songs are some of my favorites of the year. You can tell that she had a lot of fun making this record, but this is such a fun, catchy, and authentic little album. I don’t know how else to describe it, she just sounds authentic. The lyricism is really the best part of it, though, and is what sells this album for me. Her voice does, too, which has this southern twang that is very distinct and unique. Her lyrics are very much story driven, and while this album doesn’t have a straightforward concept, a lot of the songs feel like there’s a common theme. Songs deal with southern living, whether it’s cooking chiltlins, going fox hunting, the Smoky Mountains, and a lot of other southern imagery. Songs like “American Dreaming,” “Fox Hunt,” “Dollar Bill Bar,” “Chitlin Cookin’ Time In Cheatham County,” “I’ll Come Off The Mountain,” and “Money Train” all tell stories, all the while feeling very lived in and authentic. She makes it very believable, and I really appreciate the authenticity of the album.

She has sense a humor, too, especially with “Dollar Bill Bar,” “Wish You Well” (which you can take as a joke or as something rather sad), or my personal favorite song on the record that always cracks me up when I hear it, “I Could Drive You Crazy,” which is about how Ferrell can’t do all of these stereotypical southern things, such as hunting or fishing, but she’s good at driving her partner crazy. A few songs don’t really do anything for me, such as “Why Haven’t You Loved Me Yet,” which is still a tongue in cheek song, or closing track, “No Letter,” but when the album works, it works well. It helps that the album is only 38 minutes, so it’s a relatively short affair, but it has a lot of heart, wonder, authenticity, and description, it feels like a loose collection of stories from someone. A few songs don’t work as well, because they fade into the background, but I do enjoy this record quite a bit.

[ophelias-lamentation]

im going ferrell over the new sierra Ferrell album.

[roseartsandfics]

Aerith -- Trail of Flowers

Here is an artwork of Aerith walking on the trail path with a bunch of flowers ^^

It's been awhile since drawing some Final Fantasy fanart ^^. And I was going to play more of Final Fantasy VII and watch Advent Children, but got tired and busy, so I played a little bit earlier ^^. My brother got the Final Fantasy VII remake and started playing it. I might think about getting Crisis Core Final Fantasy VII Reunion for Christmas since I found out (maybe spoiler alert) that it takes place before the events of FF7 ^^. I might either on the Switch or the PS4 (that I borrowed).

What y'all think?

Aerith and Final Fantasy VII ©Hironobu Sakaguchi, Yoshinori Kitase, Yusuke Naora, Tetsuya Nomura, SQUARE ENIX and Squaresoft

Artwork ©SuperShadowSilver

No copyright infringement is intended

Used: Art ink pens, Crayola colored and silly scented colored pencils, Cra-Z-Art colored pencils and 48 pack colored pencils

[sinceileftyoublog]

Evanston Folk Fest Saturday: 9/7, Dawes Park

Sierra Ferrell

BY JORDAN MAINZER

Every musician I watched on Saturday at the Evanston Folk Fest grappled with, directly or indirectly, what folk music means in 2024. I knew going in, given the prestige of the musical lineup and speakers in the interview tent, that the festival would not be one that casts off "folk" as a mere aesthetic, visual or instrumental. Indeed, even if many of the booked musicians didn't fit the general schema of the folk genre, they abided by its most important tenet: music not just by the people but for the people, independent of level of expertise.

From left to right: Oliver Bates Craven, Ferrell, Matty Meyer, Geoff Saunders, & Joshua Rilko

Headlining the night was Sierra Ferrell, a singer-songwriter from West Virginia whose unique mix of bluegrass and Latin-influenced arrangements (and, yes, wild outfits) have allowed her to garner steadily increasing crossover appeal beyond her initial viral rise. Earlier this year, she released her fourth studio album Trail of Flowers (Rounder), which managed to widen the spectrum of her sound while emphasizing--let alone not losing--her idiosyncrasies. On standout fiddle jam "I Could Drive You Crazy"--Ferrell's proclaimed greatest relationship skill--you can hear crowd chatter from a show she did on a previous New Year's Eve. Such noise was almost perfectly replicated on Saturday, as Ferrell's band (multi-instrumentalist Oliver Bates Craven, mandolinist Joshua Rilko, bassist Geoff Saunders, drummer Matty Meyer) led off with the song's melody to welcome her onto the stage. As she waltzed on, revealing her poofy pink dress and feathered-and-flowered hair, done up like an Appalachian Björk, her fans did indeed hoot and holler.

Ferrell

Likewise, no matter the studio sheen of Trail of Flowers (or "Fox Hunt" being thumping enough to soundtrack an NFL cut to commercial), live, its songs fit seamlessly into a set that seemed intimate despite the large crowd. Album opener "American Dreaming" has found a second life as a song to be played near the end of the show, a crowd singalong due to its catchy melody and commonly felt story of a person unable to sit still. For touring musician Ferrell, who started out as train-hopping, van-dwelling, busking nomad, the only difference now is she can better afford nightly lodging. When performing, her unmistakably raspy voice takes even sharper twists and turns: During "Chittlin' Cookin' Time in Cheatham County", she occupied the shrillness of Joanna Newsom, flutters of Josephine Foster, and barroom gurgle of Tom Waits from moment to moment. Later, during Kris Kristofferson's "Me and Bobby McGee", but in the style of its most famous iteration by Janis Joplin, you half-expected Ferrell to do a Joplin impression. She has the skills, but instead, she made it her own, a true folk singer who can sing a song from the collective consciousness, but not showy enough to discourage others from joining in.

Rilko

Craven, Meyer, Farrell, & Saunders

Craven, Meyer, Farrell, Saunders, & Rilko

Hiss Golden Messenger

Hiss Golden Messenger

Midway through his solo set, Hiss Golden Messenger's MC Taylor let the crowd know he was going to do a cover of a folk song. "I was a folklorist in my former life, so I feel qualified to play it," he quipped. The song was Grateful Dead's "Bertha", and it received such rapturous applause that Taylor joked he should have led off with it. First, Taylor's always qualified to play Dead songs. His venerable band has been interpolating "Franklin's Tower" into Lateness of Dancers bop "Lucia" for years, and he's beginning to release live recordings on his Bandcamp page at the pace of a certain band that was oft-bootlegged. More importantly, though, at this point, Hiss Golden Messenger has developed a catalog of contemporary folk classics. As soon as Taylor came on stage, introduced by Evanston mayor Daniel Biss, an eager crowd member requested "Sanctuary", to which a chuffed Taylor requested patience, replying, "We'll get there!" As Hiss Golden Messenger studio songs and full-band performances expand in length and sound, they always sound good stripped down, too, from newer tunes like "Shinbone" to favorites like "Biloxi". Of course, it's the biggest treat to hear songs from acoustic masterpiece Bad Debt, an album he'll play in full next month at SPACE. Taylor gave the Evanston Folk Fest crowd a preview of what's to come with "Balthazar's Song", a tune that could make you melt on the coldest day of the year.

Hiss Golden Messenger

Hiss Golden Messenger

Mayor of Evanston, Daniel Biss

Willi Carlisle

And then there was the artist who, perhaps expectedly, most reckoned with the idea of what folk music means, Arkansas-based singer-songwriter Willi Carlisle. Sure, some of it was tongue-in-cheek, asking what an upper-middle-class Chicago suburb was doing deciding what constitutes a folk festival, but for the most part, Carlisle framed folk music as being in constant battle with that which represents an existential threat to, well, regular folks: capitalism, empire, and the patriarchy. Carlisle is a captivating storyteller and musician, reciting his poetry at a breakneck pace and ad-libbing, too, switching between banjo, fiddle, guitar, and a capella. I'm glad he's released a taste of what his shows are like with Tales From Critterland (Signature Sounds), which features three of the many songs he played on Saturday, plus their proper introductions: "The Arrangements", inspired by and dedicated to his and all bad fathers, "Critterland", which came from his attempt to live in an intentional community, and Steve Goodman's "The Ballad of Penny Evans". It was that last one that was the song of the day on Saturday, perfect for time and place. Let's acknowledge the elephant in the room: Goodman's best known in Chicago for writing the song that plays at Wrigley Field after the Cubs win. The crowd at Evanston Folk Fest was likely more familiar than is the average Chicagoan with Goodman's penchant for writing incredibly moving and righteous songs, but for those who weren't, Carlisle's show-stopping version of Goodman's anti-Vietnam War ballad surely gave them the chills. On Tales From Critterland, Carlisle explains how Goodman lifted the melody from a song about slavery, sung from the point of view of the slaveowner, repurposing a great melody for a song with complete opposite levels of morality, an exercise in the evolution of songs. On Saturday, Carlisle simply dedicated his performance to all the Palestinians murdered by a despotic Israeli government. It was a moment that most spoke to folk music's true power, that of "This machine kills fascists" protest, an ability to foresee unfortunately everlasting societal ills, and a dare to hope for a better world.

Carlisle

[musiconspotify]

Sierra Ferrell - Trail Of Flowers (2024) … full-hearted collection …

[thebowerypresents]

Sierra Ferrell Is Like a Dream at Webster Hall

Sierra Ferrell – Webster Hall – May 15, 2024

When Sierra Ferrell took the stage last night, it felt as if the entire sold-out Webster Hall had entered a collective dream state. The backdrop behind the stage showed a wooded scene, Ferrell was dressed in the style of Marie Antionette with a massive dress and stylish wig, and when she sang it was with a voice that seemed to have traveled from another era to fill the room. She opened with “Silver Dollar,” off her 2021 release, Long Time Coming, the band, dressed in matching hats and dreamlike sparkling red ties, joining in with fiddle and mandolin solos, the audience losing their minds in admiration. This dream world was somehow 18th Century France and the Grand Ole Opry in its heyday, a wooded fairy tale in the middle. Quite a voice.

Ferrell mixed in plenty of songs off her latest release, Trail of Flowers: “I’ll Come Off the Mountain” showing her impressive vocal range, “Chitlin Cookin’ Time in Cheatham County” a more jazzed country with a ripping electric guitar solo. The band expertly moved through multiple configurations, going quiet with just mandolin and brushed drums on the poignant “Whispering Waltz,” crowding the front of the stage for some extra country oomph on “Jeremiah,” the audience returning the favor by clapping along, leaving Ferrell alone for a lovely “Rosemary,” surrounding her single-microphone-style for a bluegrass-y “The Garden.” “I Could Drive You Crazy” had Ferrell joining on fiddle, multiple changes eventually melting into an extended outro while she walked offstage and the band played the traditional “Make Me a Pallet on Your Floor.”

When she returned, her outfit had become even more dreamlike, a dazzling blue pixie who shot an arrow at the backdrop, which dropped to reveal a dreamy night sky. The second half of the set built on the first, finding the spot on the western music genre family tree where country, jazz and rock all met. The energy kicked up a notch on songs like “The Sea,” which started off at a sultry pace and then triple-timed with frantic mandolin and fiddle solos, slowed back down for bass and drum solos and then ratcheted back up again. The show ended, appropriately, with “In Dreams,” Ferrell singing, “I hope I’m in your dreams / The way you are in all of mine,” as if to every single person in the room. —A. Stein | @Neddyo

(Sierra Ferrell opens for the Avett Brothers tonight at Forest Hills Stadium.)

(Sierra Ferrell opens for the Avett Brothers at The Stage at Suffolk Downs in Boston tomorrow.)

(Sierra Ferrell opens for the Avett Brothers at Westville Music Bowl in New Haven, Conn., on 5/21.)

(Sierra Ferrell opens for the Avett Brothers at CMAC in Rochester, N.Y., on 5/24.)

Photos courtesy of Katie Dadarria | @dadarria

[krispyweiss]

Song Review: Sierra Ferrell - “I Could Drive You Crazy” (Live, 2023)

Sierra Ferrell doesn’t need much to drive an audience crazy - yes she can.

At FreshGrass 2023, Ferrell employed two fiddles, the bass with the bow, mandolin and some backgrounds to perform the then-unreleased “I Could Drive You Crazy.” It was captured on professional video and just released in a melancholic rendering unlike the more playful version that appears on Trail of Flowers, though Ferrell’s miming of blowing out candles on her date’s birthday cake foreshadows where “Crazy” was heading.

This is mountain music with a twist - the twist being that the woman is the one doing the messed-up stuff in this number.

Took all your gold from your chester (sic) drawer/I can drive you crazy, yes, I can, she sings

Grade card: Sierra Ferrell - “I Could Drive You Crazy” (Live, 2023) - A-

7/8/24

[wanderlandjournal]

Wild garlic season

Etsy shop

[petitworld]

Courtmacsherry, West Cork, Ireland by Keith Kingston

[brenna]

this is what happens when you let me on ebay

sierra ferrell - trail of flowers candyland vinyl

[geopsych]

On the 23rd of September in 2019 I walked along the Delaware River near Portland Pennsylvania at sunrise and I’ll never forget the extraordinary light.