{"id":14265,"date":"2018-03-23T05:30:06","date_gmt":"2018-03-23T09:30:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/?p=14265"},"modified":"2018-03-22T09:14:35","modified_gmt":"2018-03-22T13:14:35","slug":"steep-canyon-rangers-serving-the-songs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2018\/03\/23\/steep-canyon-rangers-serving-the-songs\/","title":{"rendered":"Steep Canyon Rangers: Serving the Songs"},"content":{"rendered":"

As the 20th<\/sup> century approached its end, a group of college students began getting together informally to play bluegrass. None of them could have imagined that they’d still be together in 2018, performing concerts backed by members of the Asheville Symphony Orchestra. In support of their 13th and latest album, Out in the Open<\/i>, the Steep Canyon Rangers played the US Cellular Center’s ExploreAsheville.com Arena January 27.<\/p>\n

Banjo player Graham Sharp recalls the early days in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. \u201cIt was just us hanging around, having a good time,\u201d he says. \u201cWe were loving the music, and we just did it and did it.\u201d But once they graduated, the original core set of musicians \u2013 Sharp plus guitarist Woody Platt and upright bassist Charles R. Humphrey III \u2013 focused more intently on making music. <\/p>\n

The musicians collectively relocated to Asheville shortly thereafter, moving into a house in Asheville’s Charlotte Street neighborhood. \u201cWe had a house up above the Charlotte Street Pub,\u201d Sharp recalls. \u201cI can’t believe the house is still standing…if it even is.\u201d<\/p>\n

But Asheville would serve mainly as a home base for the new group. \u201cWe went out to Colorado and won a band competition at a festival,\u201d Sharp says. \u201cAnd it was unlike anything I had ever imagined.\u201d He considers himself fortunate to be in a group of musicians who are \u201cin it together, moving in the same direction, and with very complementary talents. I couldn’t have drawn it up on a piece of paper back then,\u201d he says, \u201cbut it’s worked somehow.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

It has worked indeed: today the group still features two of the founding members (Humphrey left in late 2017) plus mandolin player Mike Guggino who had joined early on, and fiddler Nicky Sanders, who joined in 2004. In 2013 the group added Michael Ashworth on \u201cbox kit\u201d percussion built around Peruvian caj\u00f3ns. To date the band has been recognized with two Grammy nominations, one of those (2013’s Nobody Knows You<\/i>) winning Best Bluegrass Album. <\/p>\n

Beginning in 2009, the Rangers began a musical relationship with banjo player-actor-comic Steve Martin; world tours, high-profile television and festival dates and a string of albums would follow. The third of those, The Long-Awaited Album<\/i> was released last September, and soared to the top spot on Billboard<\/i>‘s Bluegrass Album chart.<\/p>\n

And in October 2017, the Steep Canyon Rangers were formally inducted into the North Carolina Music Hall of Fame. Sharp says that the experience was mind-blowing. For a display at its Kannapolis facility, the Hall had requested his old guitar. \u201cIt was this old Sears guitar, barely holding together,\u201d he says. \u201cBut if you stand in just the right place, you can see the guitar, and in the background is one of John Coltrane\u2019s saxophones. And at that point, you\u2019re just like, ‘What the hell am I<\/i> doing here?’\u201d<\/p>\n

Sharp and his band mates were moved to be honored by an institution that pays tribute to the state’s giants of music, a roster that includes James Taylor, Doc Watson and Nina Simone. \u201cThe breadth and depth of North Carolina music is just so staggering, from the mountains to the Piedmont to you-name-it,\u201d Sharp marvels. \u201cWhatever style, whatever era.\u201d And the Hall of Fame honor recognizes the Steep Canyon Rangers’ part in that rich and ongoing musical tradition. \u201cIt’s a ridiculously crazy honor to be in there,\u201d Sharp says, \u201cbut it\u2019s also just a reminder of how great this state is for the music we love.\u201d<\/p>\n

Though nominally a bluegrass group, the Steep Canyon Rangers have never been slavish about coloring inside the lines of their chosen musical idiom. \u201cObviously, we cut our teeth on really traditional bluegrass,\u201d Sharp says. \u201cThat\u2019s where we got our start, but I think there are lots of traditional kinds of roots music that we love. Bringing in elements of different stuff \u2013 whether it\u2019s blues, rock ‘n’ roll, rockabilly, or just some of the songwriters\u2019 styles that we love \u2013 just feels natural.\u201d Sharp says that if there’s an overriding philosophy to the band’s approach to music, it’s this: \u201cLet\u2019s really serve the song. We find a song that we love, and not try to shoehorn it into a particular style.\u201d<\/p>\n

The group’s open-minded approach means that elements of classical music can often be seamlessly worked into arrangements. And that’s what happened when the Steep Canyon Rangers played their Asheville date, the day after the official release of Out in the Open<\/i>. Ten members of the ASO joined the group onstage for several songs. And while the Rangers have augmented themselves with classical musicians before, this hometown show was different. \u201cWe\u2019ve never had a symphony out for a show where people will be standing, dancing, and stuff like that,\u201d Sharp said ahead of the performance. \u201cSo that\u2019ll be a new experience.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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