On the album cover to her eighth full-length release, a drawing of Sarah Pierce stands with guitar in hand, content, the sun creating a vibrant yellow background. It seeps into the back cover, where a photo shows her in a sunflower-print dress. Even before listening to the album's first seconds, one can envisage a song list full of felicity, wisdom, and warmth. The opening "Bring It On" sews all of these elements together, connecting a breezy guitar and sunny vocals to an inspirational belief to "live my life loud and proud" and experience new trails in a relationship no matter if "some people say my head's in the clouds." The repetition of "bring it on" serves as a catalyst for the remainder of the album where love, courage and tenacity are preponderant.

Mountain dulcimer, mandolin, dobro, fiddle, accordion, drums, and Wurlitzer electric piano are some of the instruments that enliven the folk flourishes, rock-pop, and light country terrain. Pierce's voice sounds like a cross between Natalie Merchant, Shawn Colvin, and Stevie Nicks, although it roughens on the dark tragedy of "Pearl Handled .44." With "Pearl," Pierce performs spoken interludes above a languid backdrop, recounting the tale of a heroine who is shot by her lawman lover on accident. Another number, "I Like a Man," is dressed with a slow gait with Hammond B3 organ and bluesy guitar licks, recalling the Southern soul music ballads of the 1960s. With these exceptions, the sunny disposition of Bring It On reigns dominant. "Love Being In Love," "Butterfly Tattoo," "Twenty Dollar Silver Plated Ring," and "Our Love's a Little Crazy" are upbeat affairs, while a theme of female strength and endurance informs "Wild And Gnarly Ride" and "Cowgirls Ride." The latter has a pronounced country theme and mentions celebrated pop-country chanteuse Patsy Cline.

While Bring It On may touch on overused imagery at times, it does hold up through Pierce's vocals and lyrical relation to the album's generally bright vibe on relationships and self-love. And although the album has a strong country music propensity, it has touches of blues music and noticeable folk and rock-pop leanings to broaden the stylistic palette. As Pierce has indicated: "I truly respect and love all styles of music."

-- Jeff Boyce, Jupiter Index Magazine- http://www.jupiterindex.com.

Singer, songwriter and guitarist Sarah Pierce came to Austin for the first time on a trip. While here, the sense of belonging was so strong that she decided to make the city her home. Now, Pierce is on tour for "Bring It On," her eighth record, which has cracked the top ten in charts like the Main Country, Country Indie and Roots charts. We sat down with her to learn more about how she started, what keeps her going and how she approaches music.

1. When and why did you get started in music?

Music was in my heart from the day I was born, I just did not know it until I started to sing. I tried to join the choir in elementary school but I got kicked out because the teacher said I sang like a boy (I am an alto and being a little girl, I was not supposed to have such a low voice). I went home (I grew up on cattle ranches), cried, and then got on my bay mare Gigi and rode out with the cows. They were my audience for a long time. Later, my stepfather would listen to me singing along to records in my room and when I was twelve or thirteen, he asked me to come and sing a song with his band (he was a bass player in a local country band in rural Colorado). I went, sang a Patsy Cline song, the audience went nuts, they asked me to sing more with their band, and that's what I basically did until I went off to college.

2. How would you describe your sound to those who have never heard it?

My music is country. When I was a child, in my house, if I got caught listening to anything but country music, I got in big, BIG trouble. These days I admit that it's a bit more alt country than I wish but this is what comes out of me when I write. I still think that the 'old country' is the best...when people wrote simple songs that touched your heart, when singers simply sang the song without thinking that technique was more important than soul, when acoustic instruments were the way of the day, and 'crunch chords' and setting your guitar on fire were still a thing reserved for rock and roll.

Some of the music on my last two albums does its best to honor the old ways (especially "Cowboy's Daughter"). Lots of acoustic guitar, fiddle, dobro, mandolin, etc. However, it is 2012 and so, with my current "Bring It On," along with the acoustic influences, you will also find some great electric guitar work as well as keyboards (acoustic and electric piano and B3), lap steel and steel guitar, acoustic and electric bass and drum kit. A great blessing to me is that the people that play on my records are all world class musicians -- and they understand both sides of my musical coin. Cindy Cashdollar, Riley Osbourn, Cody and Willy Braun, David Abeyta, Carl LoSchiavo, Merel Bregante, they all have grown up understanding the 'old ways' and definitely get the new. Whatever I might write, they understand where it belongs musically. They need no direction. It's like magic! I am blessed.

3. Who are your influences and why?

There are too many to list! The Nelson Riddle Orchestra, Linda Ronstadt, Ray Price and all of the great old country singers. Still, James Jamison (legendary bassist for Motown) makes me want to write. His choice of notes. His groove. Simply amazing. I don't know why but I hear him play and all I want to do is grab a pencil and some paper and write. The wonderful Etta James makes me strive to sing better and better. When I got to college, though much later than my contemporaries, I got to discover the Beatles, ACDC, Aerosmith...on and on. Great bands. Great vocals. Great songs.

4. How did you approach the songwriting process for "Bring It On"?

I feel like I have paid my share of dues and at this point in time what I am is what you get. My process includes assigning a specific time to write. With my life, there is no option.

Sometimes nothing happens and sometimes songs somehow get written. It really remains, to this day, a mystery as to how/where they come from. All I can say is that I wrote and sang honestly. No more striving to be as good as someone else. No more need to compete. When I allow it to be OK to just be Sarah, I know that I have done my best. With "Bring It On," for better or worse, one thought/memory led to another until there was a song. Some came very quickly. Some, like "Twenty Dollar Silver Plated Ring", had been around for years patiently waiting to be finished. At the end of the day, who I am is what you get.

5. You're touring can only be called relentless: how has the tour been so far for the new album?

Well, touring has been a major part of what I have done for a long time. I love being on the road and getting to play both domestically and in Europe has been wonderful...hard work for sure and wonderful. Honestly, as an indie it is different because I will tour a CD for a year or two to get it out there unlike many of the major label artists. With "Bring It On," I have been truly lucky in that I have toured with an amazing band - and - my dear old friends Reckless Kelly have allowed me to open for them a bunch. This has put my music in front of a very different crowd than I find typically in Austin. The response has been overwhelmingly positive. I have found that no matter how much I use print, radio, or the internet to promote my music, people ultimately relate to me and my music best when we meet. Then we are friends forever.

6. After traveling the world, what brings you back to Austin?

Right now it is the place to be. The band lives here. Austin is a great place to live from an environmental standpoint and so much more. My dream would be living back out on a ranch somewhere...someday.

7. What feedback from fans/critics regarding your work has touched you the most?

When I am playing and look out into the audience and see people singing along with my songs. I cannot express how wonderful this feels. Also, when fans say that they heard 'their' song on the radio and I realize it's one of mine, I love it. At that point it has nothing to do with me. Somehow the song I wrote has touched them and has become their song. I cannot tell you how special this is to me. Also when people simply relate to one of my stories. Recently, at Gruene Hall, I looked up while signing some CDs and I had a young woman in line with tears in her eyes. I was not sure what was going on. When she made her way up I asked if she was OK and she told me that she had heard 'her story' in one of my songs and realized that she was not alone. That someone actually understood what she felt. This is what it is all about. It is not about me! It is about bringing joy to others even if they cry.

8. You are pretty active when it comes to great causes like the Austin Humane Society; how does your accessibility to large crowds play into that?

My dream has always been to help people and animals alike. The bigger the crowd the more donations that can be made to worthy causes. I do try to affiliate with the SPCA and No Kill Animal Shelters as often as possible. As well, St. Jude's Children's Hospital and the local children's hospital in whatever town we find ourselves.

9. What would you like for people to take from "Bring It On"?

The same as every project I have ever done. Chase your dream now. Hold on to it for dear life! Expect to work like you have never worked to get there because if you do anything is possible!

10. Could you describe the Austin music scene in one word?

(HARD) Work!

-- Gabino Iglesias, Austin Post - http://www.austinpost.org.

Over the last couple of years, Austin's Sarah Pierce turned her sixth and seventh studio releases loose on the world. Individually, they are disparate and at times mesmerizing in tremendously unique fashion. Taken together, as with the repeated listens which led to this review, Cowboy's Daughter and Bring It On paint a picture of an artist possessed of a breadth of talent which bears watching and is more than worth your hard-earned dollars' listen.

With the first record Sarah mines hidden veins of gold whose presence is felt mostly in the moments of quiet elation which spring from a hardscrabble work ethic. That impact is perhaps most hauntingly felt in the record's next-to-last track, "Tumbleweed Dreams." It's a sparkling, quiet, but bubbling stream of consciousness walk through all the ways the vastness and mystic wonder of West Texas get down in the bones and pervade the life journeys of generations. Fantastic stuff, and a quality of writing Elmer Kelton would recognize and approve.

Bring It On, on the other hand, cuts loose a more uptempo and sparkling sound. The underlying salt-of-the-earth principles of Cowboy's Daughter aren't lost in the shuffle, but this record's more about the veneer than it is the wood beneath. It's often stunningly pretty, a slice of ear candy to set toes a-tappin' and hearts a-flutterin'. And at times it's beautifully genuine, even when lost in young love's idealism:

A late winter's night the sleet's coming down
Jimmy pulls the Chevy over just out of town
He said I've saved twenty dollars, next month you're eighteen
I hope you'll accept this poor boy's ring

In other spots, notably the title track, Sarah tends to prove that her considerable vocal abilities are better suited to quieter and more nuanced fair. Bombast, while she gives it one hell of a go, just ain't quite her forte. But when she does step back and let the song take over, as with the title cut from Cowboy's Daughter, Pierce is jaw-droppingly phenomenal. The vocals here simply possess the shimmering accompaniment, and the lyrics are of a sort you just don't get much from the women these days. Most of Pierce's peers seem to land somewhere between Miranda Lambert channeling Alanis Morrissette and the fluffy, overwrought and overthought "artistry" that tends to make run-of-the-mill female singers think they're singer-songwriters. But this track, well, you figure out for yourownself where it lies:

I was taught to travel light
Keep my baggage deep inside
Hold my head way up high
And never give up the fight
I'm a cowboy's daughter
A breed you won't see much longer
My daddy lived a lonely cowboy's life
He was a hero in his little girl's eyes
I'm a cowboy's daughter

The rest of the track expands on and deepens the bedrock principles those lyrics evoke, and makes it clear this isn't your average chick singer. Pierce is formidable, beginning with levels that precede her musical forays. And that substance shines through in everything she does.

It doesn't hurt a bit, on either record, that Sarah's surrounded herself with incomparable talent. Her band's resume reads like a who's who, and while many artists can say that, it's a much smaller number who have someone like Merel Bregante believing in them. His influence and experience are at times evident on both records, but to Sarah's credit, her own skills and contributions are never overshadowed. Perhaps that says more about her as a person than anything else, but it says a hell of a lot about her as an artist. And it's just one of many reasons both records here are worth your time. Apparently not every outlaw has to walk softly and carry a big fuckin' amp. And it just could be that in this current Texas pantheon of Kevin Fowler throwaways and pseudo-Red Dirt glitz, some substance remains. Pierce deserves kudos for her earthy reality, her heartfelt lyrics, and her commitment to delivering both through vocals which are capable of a mesmerizing authority.

-- Dave Pilot, Spirit of the Outlaws - www.outlawmagazine.tv.

Singer/songwriter Sarah Pierce has released her eighth album entitled "Bring It On." The new album has received rave reviews since its release last month. Prior to the new album, Sarah Pierce has appeared on MTV and also in the Time-Life mini-series, The Wild West. She also did a driving tour of all 250 NPR stations across the country with interviews and live on-air performances. Sarah's wonderful strong vocals are the first thing you notice on the album's opener "Bring It On." Her sound is the perfect mix of country and folk with just a hint of rock grooves to give the songs a bit of an edge as in "Wild And Gnarly Ride." Her playful lyrics on "Butterfly Tattoo" just captures her spirit and let's the music float along. Her country roots come shining out on "Cowgirls Ride" and "Twenty Dollar Silver Ring." You can't help but get wrapped around her vocals on the ballad "Baby Come Back," while she adds some blues to her country on "I Like Man." Sarah gives us a glimpse to her darker side of song-writing on "Pearl Handled .44" before finishing up with the gentle flow of "May Peace Find You Tonight."

Click here to view the whole blog: JP's Music Blog

-- Jim Pasinki, JP'S MUSIC BLOG

Music from the heart. A passionate storyteller. Sarah Pierce truly delivers with Bring it On. Each track a slice of Americana life that makes you want to keep listening to the next. One of my favorite Austin produced CD's of the year. A triple threat, singer, songwriter and a beauty - go see Sarah Pierce!

-- Austin Music Host, Barbara Jo

Sarah Pierce wasn't born of the red dirt of Austin Texas, but like any convert, she was reborn in this great songwriting tradition after a visit there in the Fall of 1993. Eight albums later, Pierce is a highly respected singer/songwriter who has traveled hundreds of thousands of miles and played her music for people all over the world. But she always returns to her adopted home in Austin. While Pierce's voice may sound familiar from her singing performances as Calamity Jane on the Emmy-nominated TV mini-series The Wild West, Pierce truly comes alive when on-stage, guitar in hand, performing works written from her own heart. Pierce sets out to tell the world a story once again on her most recent album, Bring It On.

Pierce gets things started with the title track. "Bring It On" is an Americana/rock soliloquy from a strong woman who is willing to consider any man who can prove he's worth her time. It's a catchy number with a memorable chorus, with the potential to become an anthem for the single set. "Butterfly Tattoo" explores a modern day symbol of love and eternal devotion. Pierce's voice is eminently listenable, slipping over your ears like a comfortable wrap on a cold winter's day. "Cowgirls Ride" gets down to more of a traditional red dirty country sound. It's a solid album track full of songwriting fundamentals.

"It's Not Enough" is a promissory love song that aims high. The gentle country ballad is sweet and solid, with Piece practicing subtle poetry in the margins. Piece settles in for a subtle, even ride that holds forth for much of Bring It On. This could almost become monotonous if not for Piece's adeptness at stringing listeners along with a lyrical style that keeps you turning with subtle surprises. Piece does hit some high notes in the process however. "Twenty Dollar Silver Ring" is a well-written story song about love for love's sake. It's the best pure songwriting on the album, and seems like the sort of song that other artists will be likely to pick up and cover as time goes on. "You Make Me Love Being In Love" has the sort of chorus you walk away humming to yourself, and find recurring in your mind for days afterward.

"I Ride" marks the deep bond between rider and horse; a friendship that is utilitarian but grows over time into something more. "Pearl Handle .44" is a Greek Tragedy, country style. About a lawmen and his betrothed to wind up on opposite sides of the law. The message is that love can't overcome nature, and the songwriting is superb. Pierce closes with the mild "May Peace Find You Tonight", a solid goodnight.

Sarah Pierce follows the gentle rhythms of life and love throughout Bring It On, singing from a quiet repose the tales of love and darkness that intertwine the lives of people real and imagined. Musically, the album is solid, but Pierce's voice and distinctly subtle lyrical style pay rewards to those who listen closely. Bring It On will grow on you with successive listens, but is subtle enough to get by those who aren't paying attention

-- Wildy's World, September 8, 2011

"It might seem like she's an under the radar princess that only recently got her eye on taking the crown away from Nanci Griffith as the Lone Star songbird, but this Illinois transplant has been at it a while, learning lessons, making contacts and getting it down right. Like a novelist that has blossomed in obscurity while waiting for lightening to strike, this set will seem like it came out of nowhere to the uninitiated."

-- Midwest Records Recap

"Many artists start strong and fade as their careers near their end. Others begin well and continue to grow, producing better and stronger albums as time passes. Cowboy's Daughter is Pierce's sixth album and by far her most consistent. By taking her music back to its roots in the country, folk/rock, and singer/songwriter sounds that she grew up with she writes a list of songs that do justice to all facets of life – from the good to the less desirable. You'll hear songs about love ("What Would You Do"), roads taken ("I Thought I Knew You"), roads not taken ("Wish It Away"), family (the title track) and trying to stay optimistic in a world gone crazy ("Radio"). Backed by a solid group of Austin session musicians -- and the occasional ringer (Niitty Gritty Dirt Band fiddle player Al Garth) -- Ms. Pierce, in partnership with producer/engineer/drummer Merle Bregante, weaves a finely crafted and choreographed album that bounces a listener's emotions up and down like a yo-yo, all the while keeping attention riveted on the music.

This album may very well represent Merle Bregante's strongest engineering work yet. While I've had quibbles with his previous efforts, they have almost all been addressed here. Credit should go to not only Bregante's growth as an engineer but also to new studio goodies -- Dynaudio-powered studio speakers, Alessandro headphones and 24/96 mastering. The bass, which until now has been my main disagreement with Bregante's mixing, is strong, detailed, tight, and easy to follow. Pierce's voice is front and center with an excellent sense of realism. All of the instruments -- from the various guitars to drums to fiddle to bass -- are more clearly reproduced and defined. The soundstage is kept between the speakers, yet there's adequate space allotted for allow each instrument to bloom in its own unique manner. This is an album to enjoy both musically and sonically, which means it'll have you pinned to your listening seat awaiting the next track.

Oh, and there's a real possibility of being able to order one-off 24/96 DVD-As of the album in the future. I have one and it's great. Now isn't that a sweet notion to ponder?"

-- John Crossett, SoundStage

"I met Sarah Pierce in Austin - Texas in 1998 during the recording of Chicken Mambo's album 'Nuther World'...a record produced by her husband Merel Bregante legendary drummer and producer (Loggins & Messina, Nitty Gritty Dirt Band and many others). I immediately liked the music of Miss Pierce and decided then and there to organize her first tour in Italy. Since then Sarah Pierce has become a musical favorite in Italy returning often to perform for her many fans.

Cowboy's Daughter is Pierce's newest offering and as the name implies, this album returns her to her musical roots. That being traditional country and folk. An essential recording, Cowboy's Daughter allows her incredible voice and songs to shine brightly. To help her in this, a group of great musicians joined in. Among others Cindy Cashdollar (Asleep At The Wheel) on steel guitar and dobro and John McEuen (Nitty Gritty Dirt Band) on banjo, mandolin, and acoustic guitar.

This is an album filled with great songs and great performances. Among my favorites are Radio, a convincing, acoustic, country folk ballad, What Would You Do, an elegant waltz featuring the fiddle of Cody Braun (Reckless Kelly), and the title cut, Cowboy's Daughter. Yet another splendid song reminiscent of Chris Hillman (Byrds) or The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band with effective banjo by John McEuen and an uproarious solo by Ms. Cashdollar.

Other songs of interest include Charlie - a somber ballad written in the style of Bruce Robison and Lucinda Williams. Effective use of the harmonica and a deeply felt violin solo by Al Garth (Eagles) make this one of the very best songs on the album. Jacqueline is a notable country folk/bluegrass song featuring piano (Reilly Osborne), mandolin (Doug Hudson), and the perfect interplay between dobro and acoustic guitar. Very nice as well is track nine, I Thought I Knew You, a classic ballad driven by piano and violin. Last Real Cowboy, a roots country song, is a Johnny Cash train beat driven by the expressive electric guitar of Rosie Flores. The record concludes with an incredibly powerful vocal rendition of Three Cigarettes. This is Pierce paying homage to the unforgettable Patsy Cline. Three Cigarettes is preceded by the song that I consider the best on the album. Tumbleweed Dreams is a beautiful, minor chord ballad with a refrain that is memorable from the first listening. The violin (Garth) and the drums and percussion (Merel Bregante) are both excellent but for me the frosting on this beautiful cake is the intense acoustic guitar solo of Maurizio Fassino (Chicken Mambo). Along with Alessandro Adinolfi on acoustic and electric guitar, this song represents the Italian soul of the record. Tumbleweed Dreams is, by itself, worth the purchase of this beautiful album. Welcome back Sarah Pierce!"

-- Fabrizio Poggi, Folk Bulletin