Sierra Green was born and raised in New Orleans 7th ward where she began singing in the church choir at the age of 8. The 7th ward is a mecca for talent, spawning legends including Jelly Roll Morton, Allen Toussaint, & Frank Ocean, rappers Mannie Fresh & Mia X, and film stars Tyler Perry & Sidney Bechet. Hope rings throughout the community. Families are close; music is relevant; and everyone knows someone who made it out and became famous. Music, Art, & Talent remain fresh and abundant in the 7th ward, and Sierra Green and the Giants are the latest breakout. As a teen Sierra began busking on Frenchmen Street, one of the musical centers of the Crescent City, which taught her quickly how to keep an audience. Before long Sierra graduated to clubs, establishing the best residency in town playing a couple of nights a week to a packed Frenchmen Street house. In New Orleans when you have the best gig in town the best players gravitate toward you, and you eventually end up with the best players in town. These are Sierra Green’s Giants. Sierra’s summer was filled with excitement as she and her Giants, featuring William West on drums, Mike Perez on bass, Paul Provosty on guitar, Brandon Nater on trumpet, Maurice Cade on trombone, and David Ludman on saxophone, worked with New Orleans’ legendary producer David Torkanowsky on a blazing new EP called The Torch Sessions. The band recorded five tracks, including an impressive and passionate version of The Meter’s “Break in the Road” and the chance to project her own style into “Promised Land,” a song by the Revivalists’ David Shaw. On the crawling “One Thing” Sierra takes her gloves off with a powerful performance channeling the depth of her passion and range. Sierraowns Nina Simone’s anthem for liberation “Feeling Good.” You can feel the euphoria that comes from being liberated from oppression, something that is common in New Orleans’s 7th ward. “He Called Me Baby” is a perfect track to express the direction and soulful sound that you can expect Sierra to deliver throughout her career. Powerful horns to accent the groovy bass and piano lines and a vocal you can compare to any of the legends of 1960’s Motown. One common thread which runs through all these tracks is Sierra’s hunger and passion to change her own life while changing others with the power of her voice and her music.
I had the pleasure of hanging out with Sierra Green shortly before she and the Giants headlining the Marquette Waterfront Festival here in Madison, Wisconsin on Sunday June 9th at 6:30pm. We get into what the people getting down at the festival can expect to get when Sierra & the Giants hit the stage. There is going to be moments to move, groove and dance your faces off. She may or may not have endorsed hopping up on stage to shake it in front of all. This sound has both the love of STAX Records and the New Orleans flavor seem to fit into any place that is ready for a party. We get into the new album to drop this fall, we went seed to flower on how that turned from sessions to ready to spin. Find out what Sierra’s grandma and I have in common, it has everything to do with how her voice can change the mood and we talk about what would be a setlist if I left the studio and Sierra hopped in. Get Ready To PARTY!
