Sierra Ferrell opened the Gesa Credit Union Pavilion’s summer season on Sunday evening with a performance that felt built to set the tone for the months ahead. Backed by the Brudi Brothers, she moved from a full-band set to a stripped-down run through "In Dreams," turning the season opener into a showcase for her voice, her guitar work and the kind of stage presence that kept the crowd leaning in.
The Brudi Brothers got the night started first, with Conrad Brudi on lead vocals, George Brudi on electric bass and Johann Brudi on lead electric guitar, while Eleni Govetas added fiddle and drum kit. When Ferrell came out in a polka dot dress, she worked through fiddle, mandolin, upright bass, banjo, pedal steel guitar, harmonica and harmonies, then told the crowd about loving one another and remembering that we are all just people at the end of the day.
That message matched the show’s sound, which leaned hard into vintage Americana. Ferrell, described as an excellent guitarist and fiddler, sang with the ease of someone who never seems to force a note, but the set was also carefully shaped around the same old-world traveler imagery that has followed her work for years. Flowers, roots and road-worn longing sat inside the performance, giving it the feel of a story being told as much as a concert being played.
The centerpiece came near the end, when Ferrell led the crowd through a stripped-down "In Dreams" with only two guitars, herself and the mandolin. The song has been described as the biggest of her career so far and the one that changed its course, which gave the moment extra weight for a Sunday crowd watching the Pavilion’s summer calendar begin. By then, the question was less whether Ferrell could command a room than how high she had just set the bar for the venue’s season.
The Brudi Brothers, longtime buskers from the Seattle area and a biological trio, had already come through the Pavilion circuit before, opening for Wyatt Flores at Washington State University in September. This time, they were the first act of a season opener that left the audience with an early marker: a strong local-supported bill, a singer many fans now count among the best live vocalists working, and a headliner who can make a simple version of "In Dreams" feel like the whole night is tilting toward her.
