Acclaimed troubadour Sierra Ferrell is not the only young singer-songwriter to react enthusiastically at the mere mention of Bob Dylan and the underappreciated American folk music master Elizabeth "Libba" Cotten.
But it is her level of enthusiasm that distinguishes Ferrell, whose earthy yet slightly exotic country, bluegrass, swing, folk and tango songs sound all the more vital for embracing an era that predates rock 'n' roll.
The West Virginia native reacted excitedly when told by her interviewer that gospel-music legend Mavis Staples and Elvis Costello are confirmed to perform in May at the opening of the Bob Dylan Center in Tulsa.
That excitement led her to apologize a moment later, while answering an unrelated question, for suddenly sounding distracted.
"I'm sorry," Ferrell said. "I was messaging my management about that Dylan thing. I would absolutely go to that!"
Singing out, over the phone
She reacted with similar excitement when asked if she was a fan of Cotten, who died at the age of 94 in 1987 — several years before Ferrell was born.
Cotten sang in a plaintive homespun voice. She developed a unique guitar style, which became known as "Cotten picking," by playing a right-handed instrument turned upside down to accommodate her being left-handed.
When asked about Cotten's best-known song, Ferrell's response was immediate.
In a voice suffused with quiet grace and grit, Ferrell began to sing the first two verses of Cotten's "Freight Train" — a cappella, over the phone — beginning with: Freight train, freight train, run so fast/ Freight train, freight train, run so fast/ Please don't tell what train I'm on/ They won't know what route I'm going ...
That she knows this rustic song, word for word, is not surprising given Ferrell's abiding passion for American roots music. Moreover, Cotten's classic could have been written for Ferrell, who — in her 20s — would sometimes travel cross-country by hopping on and off freight trains.
The image of a guitar-toting hobo riding the rails is one that the young Dylan created, as a fiction, the better to burnish his Woody Guthrie-inspired mythology. For Ferrell, covert freight train rides were a way of life — at least for a while.
"You have to go where the crew changes take place, because that's when the trains stop and you can get on," she said.
"There are three lines that go across America, the high line, the low line, and mid line. I rode the mid line because that had the biggest freight train yard."
Was riding the freights — a storied and still-illegal American tradition — intimidating or exciting for the then-budding musician, who longed to leave West Virginia behind?
"It was a little of both," said Ferrell, who later lived in a van and earned money busking from Seattle to New Orleans. "Riding the trains was a good way to see some beautiful countryside."
Did she ever serenade her captive audience of fellow freight-train hoppers?
"Absolutely!" Ferrell said. "Most of the time, I would have a nylon-stringed guitar with me. One time, a friend of mine's dog had puppies on a train and the puppies peed all over the place. That was definitely not very charming!
"It was fun while it lasted and I'm glad it happened. Not the puppy part, but the 'be good to people, be kind and do what's genuinely right' part."
Shania Twain to Grateful Dead
Ferrell was only 5 or 6 when her father and her mother split up. When she was 7, she began performing Shania Twain hits in a hometown Charleston, West Virginia, bar that Ferrell's mom took her to.
"I listened to a lot of radio stuff and my mom had cassette tapes of 10,000 Maniacs and Tracy Chapman," Ferrell recalled. "I liked all the boy bands and a lot of R&B. I loved Alicia Keys and sang a lot of her stuff, and also Mariah (Carey) and Celine (Dion)."
Next came stints playing clarinet in her school's marching band and singing in its choir. By her late teens, she was a vocalist in 600 Lbs. of Sin, a Charleston-based Grateful Dead cover band.
"To be honest, I didn't even know who the Dead were when I joined the band," said Ferrell, who quit 600 Lbs. when the other members discouraged her from playing guitar.
"Music was just a gradual evolution for me. At one point when I was a kid, I was walking around Charleston and saw some street performers singing all these old, minor-key songs. And for some reason that hit me.
"Music is my only thing, and I get goosebumps every day from music. That's just how it is. When I write a song, if it doesn't give me goosebumps, if I don't feel some sort of strong emotional bond and it doesn't feel special to me, it won't be special for anyone else."
A feeling of melancholy infuses many of the songs on Ferrell's 2021 breakout album, "Long Time Coming." The sequel to the two indie albums she produced herself and sold while busking, it explores matters of the heart and life's ups and down with finely honed skill and unmistakable poignancy.
Her songs are enhanced on "Long Time Coming" by such gifted musicians as dobro great Jerry Douglas, young guitar star Billy Strings, and four-time Grammy Award-winning singer Sarah Jarosz.
"Each person brings their own thing," Ferrell said of her collaborators. "You might be hanging out with some people and playing a song with them. And if you take just one person away, and add another, it's different.
"None of the people in my band now played on my album, so the songs sound different live. And a lot of songs on the album were already several years old and had changed a lot along the way. Especially for me, being a busker, I'm out there playing my songs four, five or six times a day. You get bored playing it the same way, so you add different flavors."
Ferrell cites Billie Holiday, Nina Simone and Ronnie Spector as three of her favorite singers. She has described her music, which is steeped in tradition but not bound by it, as "Past Life."
"My voice sounds really old," Ferrell said.
"It took me a long time to enjoy my voice, which is still really hard for me to do. Singing is something I love to do, and people can love or hate it. I hope they love it."
Old or new, and however they are categorized, Ferrell's best songs are enchanting.
This holds true whether she's performing a snappy mambo ("Why'd Ya Do It"), a thigh-slapping bluegrass ditty ("Silver Dollar"), a ragtime-flavored ode ("At the End of the Rainbow"), or the gentle swing tune ("The Sea") that opens her latest album.
"I want people who listen to my music to feel things very deeply," she said.
"My music comes from my heart and soul, and people can receive it any way they want. Music is sort of therapy for a lot of people. I want them to walk away from my shows just feeling relieved and at ease that everything will be okay, and that we're all humans and all have emotions.
"And that it's okay to cry. I want people to cry."
'I guess I'm just lazy'
Many musicians have toiled at day jobs to finance their artistic pursuits. Some have been inspired by their day jobs to write songs. Ferrell is not one of them.
"Well, honestly, whenever I have worked any sort of day job, it's been bad!" she said with a laugh. "I guess I'm just lazy. The good thing about day jobs is the people you work with, hanging out with them and having fun.
"I've been a waitress. I've worked at fast-food places and clothing stores. I've baked food and been a line cook. And none of that is for me. Some people love doing those kinds of things, and that's great. It takes a village and I do the singing part."
Ferrell's music career didn't gain traction until she moved to Nashville, Tennessee, a few years before the advent of the COVID-19 pandemic. Her two self-produced albums and the success of her grassroots music videos on YouTube helped pave the way to her getting signed by Rounder Records.
"At the end of the day, it's about knowing people and making connections," she said.
"I didn't realize how much of a team you really need until I got picked up by Rounder. It was like: 'Oh, you need a manager. You need an agent. You need an accountant. You need a lawyer and music publishing.' It really is like building a team, and then hoping you can stay with that team. You can't put yourself alone in a corner."
She chuckled.
"I'm just as awkward as heck!" Ferrell said. "I need to interact with people to build a bond with them. Music lets me do that."
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