Your Country's Right Here: Steep Canyon Rangers Grab the Solo Spotlight
posted in: Country • Features
Steep Canyon Rangers certainly grabbed a lot of attention when they collaborated with Steve Martin on projects including the GRAMMY Award-nominated Rare Bird Alert, but they’re much more than those collaborations.
The International Bluegrass Music Association [IBMA] Entertainers’ of the Year are proud to continue working with Martin”including at the much anticipated DelFest in Maryland during Memorial Day Weekend”but they also have a jam-packed schedule sans Martin as they support their just-released album Nobody Knows You.
It was time for us to do a solo record, said Woody Platt, guitarist and lead vocalist. We had great success with Steve and got great exposure but we still want to play our own songs.
They certainly will have plenty of opportunities as they play a host of venues and festivals including the Winnipeg, Stagecoach and more. And don’t expect the group to go all nu-grass. If anything, the band’s latest album takes it even closer to its traditional roots without leaning on the classics.
Our bass player [Charles R. Humphrey III] and banjo player [Graham Sharp] are very serious about songwriting. They are very serious and very good at it, said Platt. That has always been our thing, refusing to play the bluegrass standards. We’ve always played our songs.
It’s not that the band members don’t enjoy”even revere”the bluegrass masters. They just believe the classics are as well done as possible.
You can’t play it better than Bill Monroe, said Platt. I think bluegrass has to keep expanding, adding. You don’t want to lose an art form.
To do that, the band is constantly writing and recording their own songs in the style of classic bluegrass. Yet Platt said that while many music journalists classify the band as traditional, that designation is far from unanimous. Those in the southeast United States think of Steep Canyon Rangers as progressive while those in the western United States think of the music as traditional.
But labels don’t matter to Platt, who said he and his band mates just want listeners to, well, listen.
These are the best songs we’ve done, he said. We are trying to stay very relevant. We are hoping this shows the growth of our band.
And, likely, its individuality.
We have experienced [people telling us] we only have this success because of Steve, he said. The thing is what we do and what we love to do is play our own shows. Steve has done such a great thing for bluegrass and we are honored to work with him. We couldn’t imagine not wanting to be involved with him. Anyone who shuns him is missing out because he is a really good musician. But we want to make sure we are who we are, too.
Find out more about Steep Canyon Rangers on the band’s Web site.