Heavy rains doused Artpark in Lewiston, Wednesday Sept. 2 but headline performer Sierra Ferrell and her opener, the Brudi Brothers, responded by storming the venue with a high-energy –albeit delayed — performance to their fans’ delight.
Mother Nature’s late-summer storm, which included several tornado warnings, didn’t seem to dampen the enthusiasm of Ferrell’s fans, many of whom came dressed al la Ferrell with floral wreaths on their heads, flouncy miniskirts or peasant dresses.
The moisture in the air didn’t ruin the flowers in their hair, but Ferrell’s intrepid fans had their mettle and loyalty tested when severe weather engulfed the Niagara County venue shortly before the scheduled show time.
As fans gathered between 6 and 7p.m, so did black clouds, and severe thunderstorms were reported two miles away and moving quickly. Consequently, lawn seats were off limits till further notice. Then came the rain, and more rain, and more and nature’s sound and light show in full force.
Artpark, and Ferrell’s loyal fans, in my opinion, handled the challenges gracefully with concert goers pressing in under the overhang (and still getting wet), staff covering the sound boards in the mainstage auditorium with tarps several rows in from the storm-sieged back windows, and good public safety communication from the management.
Guests with seats inside the Mainstage Theater made their way down the aisles looking outwardly wet, but sunny on the inside, with excitement and anticipation radiating.
Ultimately, Ferrell’s opening act, the Brudi Brothers, took the stage at 7:30 p.m. after a half-hour delay. The Seattle-based brothers, George, Conrad and Johannes, warmed the crowd with comedic, brotherly banter and their almost anachronistic blend of folk, country and rock ‘n’ roll.
The long-legged trio took turns chiming in with teasing quips and anecdotes, but it was Conrad who initially provided lead vocals and first served as spokesman.
After their second number, “Moon Over Montana,” Conrad commented about the “cowboy tune” which included howling yodels and sounded a bit like a soundtrack from a 1950s or 60s pioneer-themed Disney movie, or even the theme song from Rawhide.
“Sometime in my lifetime, people have gone from laughing at yodeling to cheering for it,” he said to an audience which responded both ways.
“People don’t think we’re brothers,” he added. “These two (pointing to himself and fair-haired brother Johannes) look like Mormon missionaries, and this one (referring to dark-haired George) looks like the one we’re trying to convert.”
The line was one of several western-humor one liners, such as, “Anything east of Idaho is ‘the east’ to us.”
The band, which normally features George on upright bass, Conrad on dobro and Johannes on guitar, has been touring with the talented Eleni Govetas on fiddle and drums/percussion, to make their sound even fuller. Throw in Conrad’s harmonica-playing, bird and train impersonations and what appeared to be trumpet beat-boxing in “Serpent Lullaby,” and you’ve got a quirky, multi-instrumental Americana mix that reportedly was a busking favorite on the streets of Seattle before making it nationally.
Their debut album, See You Soon, came out in 2020, and their EP, Dark and Stormy, was released in 2025. The brothers pulled favorites from both for their performance at Artpark, at one point thinking their set time had been shortened by weather delays but continuing to play at least three more crowd-pleasing tunes after the miscue.
Perhaps the Brudi Brothers’ best-known crowd favorite was “Me More Cowboy Than You,” which went viral after it came out in 2025, and which George described as a song “about people who dress like cowboys but aren’t really cowboys.” They wrote it after their mother was seriously injured as a cowgirl, he said.
The brothers closed with a dynamic rendition of their title EP cut, “Dark & Stormy,” with Govetas playing both fiddle and drums and keeping time on the rim of a drum by tapping her fiddle bow. The boys each added their flourishes, as well, with George twirling his upright bass and some stylized picking from Conrad and Johannes on their respective instruments.
Ferrell’s crew used the downtime between the Brudi Brothers act and Ferrell’s to erect a backdrop of medieval-style tents, the center-most of which led down a few steps from a riser. They also put fresh flowers on the edge of the stage which were distributed late in the show.
Tornado warnings and continued electrical activity unfortunately contributed to an announcement for lawn guests to return to their cars until 8:40p.m. Shortly before 9 p.m., the Mainstage Theater’s back hatches were closed and, presumably, lawn-seat ticket holders were allowed shelter in the back.
Ferrell’s band members, dressed in tan pants, white Western shirts with red kerchiefs and cowboy hats, took the stage first while Ferrell, clad in a floral-print mini dress with a ruffled skirt, red stockings, sparkly boots and a garland of red flowers cascading down her hair, made her entrance through curtains in the backdrop’s center-most tent at 9:05 p.m.
The crowd roared its appreciation and remained standing for most of the hour-plus-long set.
Throughout her energetic performance, Ferrell brought powerful vocals, mixed tempos, “ooh-ooh” crooning, eclectic musical styles (from blue grass to gypsy rock), and lots of instrumental diversity, She also made frequent references to her Christian faith and mores.
At one point, an announcement in Ferrell’s voice requested that audience members show respect to one another.
We’re all going to die someday…and we’re gonna be shown our lives, and we’ll see if our lives were honorable. Do we treat others with respect and kindness? Kindness goes a long way…hate won’t last forever.
Sierra Ferrell
Her band members contributed vocal harmonies, a few choreographed steps and oodles of talent on fiddle and electric guitar (Oliver Bates Craven), drums/percussion (Matt Myers), mandolin (Josh Rilko), bass and guitar (Geoff Saunders), and banjo, guitar and pedal steel (George Guthrie).
Ferrell showed her comfort on guitar, fiddle, concertina and even train and bird whistles in addition to dancing, jumping and twirling while playing and belting out vocals.
The band led off with the energy-charged, sassy “Dollar Bill Bar” with Ferrell on guitar and closing with the slow, bluesy lyric: “You’re better off alone.”
Next, the band converted to full country/bluegrass with fiddle, mandolin, and banjo for “Kickin’ Up Dust” in lieu of the first number’s more dominant guitars.
A swag of colored lights was lit on the proscenium arch for the third number, “Money Train,” which Ferrell commenced by calling out, “Last Call, All Aboard” and blowing a wooden train whistle.
Ferrell’s mixture of music genres is accentuated by her pacing, which ranges from fast to slow and back again in some songs and verges on exotic and theatrical in “gypsy rock” numbers such as “Rosemary”, which starts off as an almost-spoken ballad, speeds up, gains instrumentation and builds to a crescendo, falls off suddenly for a spoken question (“But do you know…?”), then races to a clomping end. It’s very entertaining to watch Ferrell’s body language as she navigates all these tempo changes.
The evening saw other theatrics, such as Ferrell tossing yellow roses to audience members, a dueling guitar duet with one of her band mates, a banjo solo, audience accompaniment for “Ooh-ooh-oohs” in several numbers, a sort of howling in “Silver Dollar” and a mixed-tempo collaboration with the Brudi Brothers on the country rock-styled “One Woman Man.” Yet there was a balance of tender, more spiritual tunes, such as “Lighthouse, “Years and “Trying to Love You,” as well.
One of my personal favorites, was a saucy, extended version of “I Could Drive You Crazy,” in which Ferrell seemed to slow down for what appeared to be a sultry closing, then roared back with more high-energy phrasing.
Ferrell ventured into a mix of gypsy and Spanish-flavored guitar strains that morphed into tango rhythms for “Why’d Ya Do It” before showcasing her band’s instrumental virtuosity in a series of interludes that were part of “Don’t Let Your Deal Go Down.”
Ferrell closed the main part of the show with words of warning to the audience prior to the allegorical “Fox Hunt.” “All over the world there’s some kind of evil,” she said. “But we can help change things by paying attention to where we spend our money…We can make a difference.”
“Fox Hunt” featured Ferrell banging on a big bass drum lettered “Heavy Petal Music” then sawing on the fiddle as she kept a marching beat in her sparkly boots. The tempo sped up with some fast banjo and mandolin picking before a dramatic slowdown and flashing lights, a refrain of “Oh, oh,ohs” and a powerful bluesy finish.
At curtain call, Ferrell donned her trademark floral head wreath to do two encores, the first, a Dolly Parton cover, “Here I Am,” and the second, a full-blown, blue grass romp, “Jeremiah.”
At the very end, Ferrell greeted front-row audience members and gave out some final advice: “Take care of your neighbors; say your prayers; call your mamas. I love you so much!”
Setlist: Dollar Bill Bar, Kickin’ Up Dust, Money Train, Rosemary, Silver Dollar, Lighthouse, Years (John Anderson cover), In Dreams, Without You, I Could Drive You Crazy, Why’d Ya Do It, Banjo Solo, Don’t Let Your Deal Go Down (Charlie Poole The North Carolina Ramblers cover), One Woman Man (with the Brudi Brothers, George Jones/Johnny Horton cover), Trying to Love You, American Dreaming, Fox Hunt.
Encore: Here I Am (Dolly Parton cover), Jeremiah
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