ALBUM REVIEW: Sierra Ferrell Blazes Her Own Path Forward on ‘Trail of Flowers’

The funny thing about dreams coming true is that the wanting never stops. Wanting to feel settled but wanting to chase every opportunity is sort of the conundrum of trying to “make it” as an artist, and really for anyone who has ever felt the cosmic pull toward greatness. This is the line Sierra Ferrell finds herself straddling on her latest release Trail of Flowers, a full-hearted collection of songs sung straight from the chest.

Sierra Ferrell (photo by Bobbi Rich)

Though Ferrell is a long way from her days of roughing it, hitchhiking, and train-hopping, that scrappy drive to survive remains fully intact, ever-searching, always running toward something. Sometimes on Trail of Flowers, Ferrell is wistful about it, as with album opener “American Dreaming,” an anthem to soundtrack that unglamorous rise to the top. In other moments, it’s coded in something less heady, but more gritty and real, like “Fox Hunt,” a feisty, fiddle-laden dust-up channeling the energy of a hunter’s quest to catch their prey, “just trying to survive.”

Even the love songs are especially yearning, like the desperate pleas for recognition in “I’ll Come Off the Mountain,” eagerly awaiting a suitor’s attention in “Why Haven’t You Loved Me Yet?,” and the longing for something different on “Dollar Bill Bar,” the album’s sweet standout ode to dizzy nights at the dive that always end the same way.

That unending exploration extends to Ferrell’s sound, too, as she continues to prove her knack for keeping one foot in the past and the other firmly planted in the present. Her clear passion for that old-time rootsy sound never holds her back from exploring what else she’s capable of in a wide-ranging space of country, pop, and even soul, all of which suit the loveliest creaks and rasps in her rich voice. Enlisting artists like Melody Walker, Nikki Lane, and Lukas Nelson for vocal harmonies in all the right places, Ferrell executes a murder ballad or a Great Depression-era cover as fiercely as a melodic boot-stomper or a bare-bones folk song. With all of Ferrell’s best instincts at play, Trail of Flowers knows no bounds.

Sierra Ferrell’s Trail of Flowers is out March 22 on Rounder Records.