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\n\tSierra Hull<\/a> has the courage to voice what every artist is thinking.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cI\u2019d be lying to say that it wouldn\u2019t be a dream to win a Grammy,\u201d she says, seated in her dressing room at the Beacon Theatre on Manhattan\u2019s Upper West Side in early December, reflecting on the four nominations she\u2019s received for A Tip Toe High Wire<\/a><\/em>, the 10-track record the mandolin savant released in May.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cSometimes it feels a little vain to say it out loud. But there\u2019s any number of reasons why an album or songs get nominated, and you can\u2019t put all your emotional worth in those things,\u201d Hull continues. \u201cIf a record received no nominations, it doesn\u2019t mean we didn\u2019t put out a good record.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tA Tip Toe High Wire<\/em> is indeed a good record. It\u2019s also her first album in five years and the first independent LP since the Tennessee native released her debut in 2002 at age 11. Hull had released her previous five studio LPs on Rounder Records and has been nominated for Grammy honors twice before, but the four that resulted from A Tip Toe High Wir<\/em>e provided a high-water mark in the career of the 34-year-old.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cI have no idea what to expect,\u201d she says. \u201cThe day before the nominations came out, I didn\u2019t want to be too disappointed if nothing happened, and I didn\u2019t want to be overly excited if something really good happened. The older I get, the more I\u2019m trying to really just live in the moment, and live with gratitude. I\u2019m grateful for the amazing things and learning to appreciate and grow when you don\u2019t get the things you\u2019re going for.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tHull has played mandolin since she was 8. She grew up in Byrdstown, Tennessee, with a great-uncle next door who dabbled in music. He wasn\u2019t a professional, but he could play \u201cWildwood Flower\u201d and had a fiddle and a mandolin. Both instruments intrigued Hull. She was gifted a fiddle one Christmas, but her petite build left her too small to play it. Recognizing this, her father suggested she take up mandolin until she grew into her fiddle. He taught Hull one song and she never looked back.<\/p>\n