North Carolina's own Steep Canyon Rangers are back with a new record and a new member.
The Grammy Award winners have been working the road for more than 20 years on their own and with occasional guest artist Steve Martin — yes, the actor and comedian.
The new album is called Morning Shift and was produced by Darrell Scott.
Graham Sharp sings, writes and plays banjo for the band. He joined WUNC recently talk about the band and the album.
This is an excerpt of an edited transcript of that conversation. You can hear the full interview by clicking the LISTEN button at the top of this post.
You recorded this in an unusual setting in western North Carolina. How did you settle on Bat Cave?
"We were really looking for somewhere where, as a band, we could just kind of settle in for a few days. I would say we were still kind of in the process of getting to know each other, you know, as a new band. And honestly, like, the getting to know each other part isn't even necessarily getting to know a new member — it's getting to know all the members kind of in our new roles."
"Deep End" was written by the newest Ranger, Aaron Burdett. Did you guys really audition him in front of 18,000 people at the Hollywood Bowl?
"We auditioned him with an iPhone. Kind of the way we did it is we asked a dozen or so of our favorite singers and guitar players to send us their versions of these three or four songs. And we were almost done with the process, then got in touch with Aaron through a tip from a local DJ here in town and he sent us these versions of these Steep Canyon Rangers songs. To a man, every one of us, it just blew us away.
"That was his very first show, was the Hollywood Bowl with like the LA Philharmonic right behind him with 18,000 people out in front. Yeah, that was that was his inauguration into the Steep Canyon Rangers.
"Everybody misses Woody because he was such an integral part of the band for so long. But it's amazing the response we're getting. It's kind of overwhelming."
On "Recommend Me" you realize that someone you thought you were protecting was protecting you. This one was inspired by a book you read, right?
"Our friend Wiley Cash — during the lockdown while we are at home — he was releasing a book, set down in Oak Island, North Carolina. I think somewhere around there. It's called When Ghosts Come Home. And he sent me an advanced copy of it. We talked about how I get a lot of inspiration for songs out of what I read. So, he sent it to me and said, 'Maybe there's a song in here.'
"I use a lot of the situations of his characters and sort of bent it to my situation as well and it's a really fun way for me to write... So, for me, if I'm writing well I'm usually doing a lot of reading and reading well."
How important do you think it is that UNC-Chapel Hill now has a Bluegrass initiative and band in the department of music?
"It's unbelievable. I remember, after having graduated from Chapel Hill, seeing a few of these other schools springing up with these programs, whether it's Johnson City, or whether it's the Berklee School of Music bluegrass program, and thinking, 'How cool it would have been if Chapel Hill had that?' And sure enough — it's probably been six or seven years now, maybe longer, that they've had that. And one of the guys who was running the whole thing initially was Russell Johnson, and Russell was one of our great mentors there in our early years when we were in college. So, it really is a wonderful, beautiful thing, because I feel so lucky to have stumbled into bluegrass while I was in Chapel Hill and now people are not just stumbling into it, they're really getting full immersion."
Morning Shift is the new record from Steep Canyon Rangers. Graham Sharp plays banjo, sings and writes songs for the band. They're playing The North Carolina Museum of Art on Friday, Aug. 18 with Amythyst Kiah.
