Country singer Sierra Ferrell and her band performed at the State Theatre on Thursday. Photo by Robert Ker

Country singer Sierra Ferrell took the long road to appear on the State Theatre stage on Sept. 12. She left her West Virginia home at a young age to tour with a group of traveling musicians, busking in city centers and playing on boxcars and truck stops from Seattle to New Orleans. In a distinctly 21st-century twist to the ramblin’ woman trope, her performances were uploaded to YouTube, where they soon went viral. After settling in Nashville, she began releasing records and collaborating extensively, winning over fans with her sharp songwriting and crystalline singing voice.

Ferrell’s adherence to Americana tradition was foregrounded the moment she took the stage. Wearing a flouncy, ruffled pink dress, surrounded by men wearing identical suits and hats, and performing before a local floral arrangement, she began the concert playing fiddle and leading her band through the ballad “I Could Drive You Crazy.” As an introduction it worked wonderfully, first showcasing her voice – often remarkably similar to Dolly Parton’s in a concert setting – and inviting crowd participation before giving room for her full band to expand on the sound with a hoedown-like breakdown.

Her stage show had two general formations: one in which the band was spread apart and performing on instrumentation like a rock band, and one in which the band was huddled together in more of a bluegrass formation (with upright bass and snare drum). As is typical with these kinds of shows, the audience seemed to favor the latter arrangement, particularly on a one-two punch of her own “The Garden” followed by a cover of Parton’s “Here I Am.”

She was comfortable and generous with her cover songs; one of the concert’s peaks was her take on Kris Kristofferson’s “Me and Bobby McGee” (which was popularized by Janis Joplin, another touchstone for Ferrell’s singing). Her original songs, particularly those from her 2024 album Trail of Flowers, made the strongest impact, however, whether it was the hushed reverie of “Lighthouse” or the barroom stomper “Dollar Bill Bar.” For “American Dreaming,” she detailed the lonesome life on the road, with the audience joining in for the “whoas” that decorate the chorus. The song has the widescreen, windswept feel of the music of country superstar Zach Bryan (her duet partner on his hit song “Holy Roller”). The way in which the sold-out audience embraced the new material suggests that there is a long, promising road in front of Ferrell, too.

Robert Ker is a freelance writer in Portland. He can be reached at bobzker@gmail.com.