Sierra Hull: at The Station Inn (Nashville, TN) Wed. December 19, 2012

Sierra Hull

Bluegrass

Nashville Scene Critic's Pick …

For a variety of reasons, touring bluegrass musicians tend to lean on their recordings, especially when playing for festival audiences with little taste for experimentation or surprises. So it’s a lot of fun — and one of the perks of living in a place like Nashville — to see what happens when they’re working in a more adventuresome setting, playing less for fans and more for friends and colleagues in what amounts to every Nashville bluegrass musician’s second home. Hull in particular gets to cut loose from constraints — in her case, of being that “little ol’ gal who picks the fire out of a mandolin” — but it’s also true for Moses, a fearsome multi-instrumentalist currently holding the banjo chair in Ricky Skaggs’ band, and for Claire Lynch Band guitarist Wingate too. Holding down the low end is Phillips, a West Coaster who was already well on the way to legendary status before making the move to Nashville a few years ago. Yowza!

—JON WEISBERGER