Sierra Ferrell: Tiny Desk Concert

Ann Powers | August 14, 2024 Sierra Ferrell is the May Queen of American roots music — no matter what month it is. For her summertime stop at the Tiny Desk, the West Virginia native adorned herself in garb befitting Florence Pugh’s star turn in Midsommar, a trail of cloth pansies encircling her eyes. Ferrell, whose 2024 album is appropriately called Trail of Flowers, quickly showed that her finery wouldn’t get in the way of a stellar musical performance; her fiddling in this set’s first song “I Could Drive You Crazy” anchored both the band and the entire performance in the technically challenging yet boisterous, bluegrass-meets-old-timey sound that’s made Ferrell a fast-rising star alongside friends like Billy Strings and Zach Bryan. Focusing on the music, only pausing for some whimsical banter about the legendary city of tunnels that lies beneath Washington, D.C., Ferrell showed how her blend of warmth, chops and inventiveness is remaking Americana music. A former busker who learned roots music dur