After only a year of releasing music, pop singer and songwriter Sierra Spirit will tour with 90s legend David Gray.
Spirit was discovered by her label, Large Music, after one of her tracks was featured on a Spotify playlist. Spirit’s songs are inspired by the journals and notebooks she kept as a child that cataloged her experience growing up as a Native American in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Now that her music has quickly found an audience, Spirit will open for Gray on their Feb. 7 stop at the Moore Theatre.
While Spirit’s recordings are fully instrumentalized by her producers, her performance will consist of only her and an electric guitarist. The stripped back nature of the performances will allow more room for the lyrics of her songs to be heard.
“I’ll Be Waiting,” a song about Spirits’ grandmother, has lyrics that are really impactful for the musician.
“I released a song last year called “I’ll be Waiting” about the passing of my grandmother who I was really close to,” Spirit said. “She was basically my guide and lifeline into learning about native culture. She was just such an incredible natural born storyteller. When I play that song live it really hits me because it’s a huge part, if not the entire reason that I am a writer. So, everytime I play that song it puts me back there.”
Spirit released “I’ll Be Waiting” on her “Coin Toss” EP. After releasing the EP and a few singles over the course of 2024, she has already managed to rack up over 20 thousand monthly listeners on Spotify. This newfound success is particularly impactful to the family members that supported her.
“They’re just so incredibly happy and supportive and constantly gabbing about me to anybody that they can really get a hold of, which is really sweet,” Spirit said. “I’m glad they’re so supportive and happy.”
With so much of Spirit’s music being inspired by her upbringing in Native American culture, Spirit is glad to potentially motivate and inspire other Native Americans.
“I never thought a life like this was possible, especially for an indigenous person,” Spirit said. “There might not have been a ton of space for us before, but one thing that I learned from making music is that if that space doesn’t exist, make that space for yourself. I think the next generations of kids are going to see a whole new world of possibilities for things that just didn’t seem feasible or possible even when I was a kid.”
Get tickets to see Sierra Spirit at the Moore Theatre on Feb. 7 at www.stgpresents.org/events/david-gray/
