Listen: Sierra Hull Announces New Album ‘A Tip Toe High Wire,’ Shares Preview Single “Boom”

Photo Credit: Nathan Leslie

At long last, Sierra Hull has returned to announce A Tip Toe High Wire, her eagerly anticipated fifth studio album. Set to release on March 7, the mandolin master’s forthcoming project will arrive as her first full-length release since 2020’s 25 Trips and show the fruit of five years of creative evolution and continued ascent to bluegrass stardom. To preview the new collection, Hull has shared “Boom,” the album’s introductory track and a sample of her new sonic horizons.

Beyond being her first original music since before the pandemic—save for singles, including irresistible covers of Tears for Fears’ “Mad World” and the Grateful Dead’s “Black Muddy River” in 2024—A Tip Toe High Wire is a landmark for Hull as her first self-produced and self-released album. Hull helmed production for the project alongside longtime collaborator and engineer Shani Gandhi, and rounded out the sound with contributions from her tried and true touring quartet: guitarist Shaun Richardson, fiddler Avery Merritt, bassist Erik Coveney and percussionist Mark Raudabaugh, who took their chemistry with Hull to the studio for the first time.

“​​In some ways, it feels like stepping out into a different territory,” Hull reflected on her first independently published offering.  “And leaning into that at this chapter of my career—the freedom of being able to be out on my own, to create with no walls for what feels like the first time—has helped me grow.”

Hull’s creative growth is on display in “Boom,” the first of 10 tracks on the album. Co-written by Adam Wright and recorded at Ocean Way Studios in her home city of Nashville, Tenn., the preview single defies expectations with a slow-burning, funk-inflected groove where longtime listeners might anticipate quick picking. Beyond her prodigious banjo talents, Hull also plays acoustic guitar on the track, but the larger focus is the singer-songwriter’s tender and uplifting vocal performance–though Hull does lead a transfixing jam with her expressive mandolin strums at the song’s midpoint.

In all, the “Boom” serves as riveting first page for Hull’s new chapter and stirs questions about what other sounds fans can expect on the imminent album. “Bluegrass has been such a good training ground for learning how to play my instrument,” the artist teased in a release. “And there’s a lot of areas you can kind of step into when you’ve learned to play your instrument.”

A Tip Toe High Wire is available to pre-order and pre-save now. Listen to “Boom” below, and read on for the album’s full tracklist. For more information on Hull and her 2025 tour itinerary, visit sierrahull.com.

Read Hull’s recent Relix feature here.

A Tip Toe High Wire – Sierra Hull

1. Boom

2. Come Out Of My Blues

3. Muddy Water

4. Lord, That’s A Long Way

5. Spitfire

6. Let’s Go

7. Truth Be Told

8. E Tune

9. Red Bird

10. Haven Hill