Sierra Ferrell Brings A ‘Trail Of Flowers’ To Her Stellar NPR Tiny Desk Concert

The Appalachian Queen is gracing NPR Studios for a Tiny Desk Concert.

Over the years, Tiny Desk Concert has been one of my favorite series. NPR brings in artists from all walks of life to perform in a highly intimate space. The short-form concerts pack bands into an office space but really showcase the talent of everyone who performs behind the desk. We have seen knockout performances from Tyler Childers, Charley Crockett, Sturgill Simpson and more. And now, they have featured one of my favorite female artists, Sierra Ferrell.

Sierra Ferrell showcased songs from her latest project, Trail Of Flowers, and brought the album’s name to life in the studio setup. She adorned the desk and herself with beautiful pastel flowers, bringing life to the project name and highlighting the ethereal spirit Ferrell has about her.

Ferrell brought her band to accompany her and opened the four-track set with her old-timey fiddle song “I Can Drive You Crazy.” Opening with this track highlights the bluegrass/traditional sound that put Ferrell on the map and how she can blend traditional folk roots with modern lyrics, leading to her unboxable, genre-bending sound. Following “I Can Drive You Crazy,” she dives into the lead single off Trail Of Flowers, “Dollar Bill Bar.” The fun-loving heartbreak tune details a woman sought after at the local watering hole but frequently turns men away.

The song’s punchline is that she could “break a hundred” if she had a dollar every time she broke someone’s heart at the “Dollar Bill Bar.”

“Honey, if I had a dollar for every single sailor’s heart

I could break a hundred down at the Dollar Bill Bar…”

While the focal point of her set includes songs off the tracklist of her latest album, for her third song, she revisited her debut album to perform one of her early hits, “In Dreams.” This song skyrocketed Ferrell into the limelight and put her on the fast track to fame. She then closes out her set with the anthemic track “American Dreaming,” which quickly became a fan favorite from Trail Of Flowers.

“The American dream is different to everybody. I think it’s important for us to take a step back and look at the big picture of things and see what’s going on behind the stages of everything going on in life. Because life is a stage, right? Maybe we should start paying attention to some details.”

She tells the audience before opening up the song with the acapella melody. The beautiful song highlights the struggle of chasing your dream on the road but also the loneliness that often accompanies being away from your friends and family for long stints of time.

Vocally, Ferrell sounds just as good as she does on the studio cuts of each song. Her natural vocal talent always blows me away, no matter how many times I’ve seen her live or watch video performances. It’s spot on each time. She blows the roof off this Tiny Desk Concert, showing everyone in that room that she is a tiny but mighty talent.

I’ve said it before, and I’ll keep yelling it from the mountaintops. We are in the Era of Sierra, and I can’t get enough of it.