Heavy Petal Pushing, Country Royalty in Training

Making good on the promise of her fab show at Campbell Hall two years ago, retro-now country queen Sierra Ferrell brought her big old voice and spirit — and jumbo cowgirl skirt and bright red hat to match — to fill the Santa Barbara Bowl last week, on her current “Heavy Petal” tour. If she was a rapidly rising musical force two years ago, Ferrell has upped her game since, after Trail of Flowers  — released just after the Campbell Hall show — nabbed four Grammy awards, including Best Americana Album.

Among her ample charms and virtues, Ferrell is able to spread her wings, widen her audience and lure new young ears to the power of classic country, with her Dolly Parton-esque power and true twang cred. And progressive bluegrass, and beyond. At this demographically-diverse Bowl show, new fans showed up in droves, of mixed ages and demographics and some duly sporting vintage western wear, boots, and flowers in their hair. Much of the fresh new leap is thanks to her latest hit, “American Dreaming,” not to be confused with “In Dreams,” from her breakthrough 2021 album Long Time Coming. Both tunes were on the Bowl show’s hit list. 

Opening the show, the Seattle-based Brudi Brothers (yes, they are actual brothers) proved an ideal matchup, with their country roots-embracing sound, homey harmonies, and snug musicianship. They kicked off with “Silver Wave,” a fishing song providing a good place to start this down home party. The Brudi bunch found itself flung into a higher profile thanks to the power of their novelty viral hit, “Me More Cowboy than You.” Ferrell invited them back onstage during her set, to lend vocal heat and meat to her Jerry Reed cover, “A Good Woman’s Love.”

In keeping with her exotic detours from standard country music trappings, Ferrell’s stage set at the Bowl was akin to a Bedouin encampment, with three large tent-like structures. After her band, a sharp unit of Nashvillers in white cowboy outfits and red ties, set up a musical bed, the star dramatically burst through the curtains of the largest tent, in all her glory. 

Launching into “Rosemary” and soon pivoting into the calypso swagger of “Why’d Ya Do It,” her early style-swerving was a clear indication that this would be no garden variety country affair — although Ferrell can also go there with the best of them. And her band has the quick change versatility to keep up with her shifting moves and moods.

Ferrell is one of the artists in the country and Americana space finding a fruitful artistic meeting point between respect for tradition and a wholly original direction, which in her case includes side trips to calypso, so-called “gypsy jazz,” and a new dalliance with more pop-inflected country ideas (as on her new song “Paradise”). She also has a broad vocabulary as a fashion plate of her own designing: her vast garb of many colors this time around was actually tame by comparison to her Campbell Hall sartorial splendor, which had a costume change from a Mexican theme to a feathery French cabaret affair in the second half. 

Ferrell also has a good heart and takes care to advocate for tolerance and communal respect. In a pre-show announcement booming over the PA, she told the crowd, “This is an inclusive space…. Please be kind to each other and to the venue staff.” Late in the show, Ferrell championed the equal rights of humanity in the most inclusive sense: “There are no types of people better than other types. Love loves everyone.”

Her fans plainly love Ferrell. She served up a variety show of songs, including the infectious “Dollar Bill Bar” (“if I had a collar for every single sailor’s heart, I could break a hundred down at the dollar bill bar”), the luminous — and Dolly-ish — ”Lighthouse,” and her take on Tim O’Brien’s “The Garden.”

On another favorite from the latest album, the hypnotically cool “I Can Drive You Crazy,” she picked up a fiddle as the superb guitarist-fiddler Oliver Bates Craven picked up a Telecaster and the song became fittingly crazier as it went, with a repeating riff and the title lyric burrowing into an echoic chant. The set closed with another Trail of Flowers track, “Fox Hunt,” a woodsy fine uptempo romp with a wordless chant, kicking up into double time before she repeats the refrain/theme, “I’m just a hunter, just tryna’ to survive.”

Come encore time, Ferrell tipped a hat (figuratively speaking) to the sage Willie Nelson — another country artist with the power to reach across demographics — and the duet hit he had with Ray Charles, “Seven Spanish Angels.” Then, she tipped the hat back to her own songbook, which may wind up a classic country resource, for her popular tune “Jeremiah,” awash in bluegrassy goodness. 

In her Bowl debut, Ferrell came, she serenaded and she conquered, with kindness and a voice we gotta love.