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Steep Canyon Rangers

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Steep Canyon Rangers
The band members posed around a barn
Steep Canyon Rangers 2013, photography by David McClister
Background information
OriginBrevard, North Carolina, United States
GenresBluegrass
Years active2000–present
LabelsRounder
Members
Past members
Websitesteepcanyon.com

Steep Canyon Rangers is an American bluegrass band based in Asheville and Brevard, North Carolina.[1][2] Though formed in 2000, the band has become widely known since 2009 for collaborating with actor/banjoist Steve Martin. In 2013, the Steep Canyon Rangers' solo album Nobody Knows You won the Grammy Award for Best Bluegrass Album.[3] The previous year, their 2012 collaboration with Steve Martin, Rare Bird Alert, was nominated for the same award. Steep Canyon Rangers have recorded 9 solo albums plus two collaborative albums with Steve Martin. SCR performed as a quintet for nearly a decade before intermittent touring began as a sextet with Steve Martin; the band still performs in both configurations. In May 2013, Steve Martin and SCR began performing with Edie Brickell after she and Martin co-wrote and recorded Love Has Come for You.

Personnel

Current members
Former members
  • Lizzie Hamilton – fiddle (2000-2003)
  • Charles Humphrey – upright bass (2000-2017)

Early years

Steep Canyon Rangers formed in 2000 while students at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill. The core group consisted of Woody Platt (guitar), Graham Sharp (banjo) and Charles R. Humphrey III (upright bass). Early on, Platt's childhood friend, Mike Guggino (mandolin), was asked to join. With original fiddler, Lizzie Hamilton, completing the quintet, Steep Canyon Rangers garnered fans across the U.S. performing festivals from North Carolina to Colorado. Two albums of original music were recorded with the early lineup: Old Dreams and New Dreams and Mr. Taylor's New Home. In 2001, the Rangers took first prize in Lyons, CO at the Rockygrass Festival band competition earning the Rangers a main stage performance the following year. Hamilton left the group in 2003 but heavy touring continued with a rotation of fiddlers leading up to the eponymous CD Steep Canyon Rangers (released 2004) on Rebel Records. The album contained a dozen more original songs and featured guest fiddlers including Josh Goforth.

Fiddle commitment

In 2004, Nicky Sanders approached the band for the position of full-time fiddle player and subsequently joined in July. The Rangers recorded their fourth album, One Dime at a Time in 2005 with producer Mike Bub (Del McCoury Band). The next year the band won Emerging Artist of the Year at the International Bluegrass Music Association Awards ceremony. Following the release of their fifth album in 2007, the band received two more IBMA nominations for Best Album (Lovin' Pretty Women) and Gospel Performance of the Year ("Be Still Moses").[6] In 2010, Sanders's fiddle tune "Mourning Dove" was nominated for IBMA Instrumental Song of the Year.

With Steve Martin

Steve Martin playing with the Steep Canyon Rangers in Seattle.
Steep Canyon Rangers at Del McCoury's DelFest in 2009

In May 2009, Steep Canyon Rangers were asked by banjoist/comedian Steve Martin to perform with him (as a sextet) in a benefit concert for the Los Angeles Public Library:[7] featuring banjo and comedy. This first collaborative performance took place at Club Nokia in Los Angeles, CA and was met with much acclaim. Martin subsequently asked the Rangers to accompany him on a "world bluegrass tour" taking the group to venues such as Carnegie Hall (New York), Royal Festival Hall (London) and the Wang Center in Boston. While in England, the group also performed on the critically acclaimed music TV show, Later with Jools Holland.[8] On June 27, 2009, Steve Martin and SCR were featured on a broadcast of A Prairie Home Companion. Soon after, Martin played with the band at the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass festival in San Francisco.[9] and Benaroya Hall in Seattle.[10] Martin appeared with the Steep Canyon Rangers at the 2010 Bonnaroo Music Festival and then on Austin City Limits on November 6, 2010. On July 4, 2011 Martin and SCR performed A Capitol Fourth celebration on the West Lawn of the US Capitol Building.[11]

In the summer of 2010, Steve Martin and SCR recorded their first collaborative album, Rare Bird Alert at Echo Mountain Recording in Asheville, NC. The album contained tracks primarily composed by Martin and featured guest vocal appearances by Paul McCartney and the Dixie Chicks. The CD was released the following March, and then on September 29, 2011, Martin and the Rangers were jointly named Entertainers of the Year at the IBMA Awards ceremony in Nashville, TN.[12] In May 2012, Martin and the Rangers played at the 5th annual DelFest as a headlining act.[13]

In September 2017 Steep Canyon Rangers released The Long-Awaited Album with Steve Martin.[14] A few months later, Out in the Open was released on January 26, 2018, but without Steve Martin in the band.[15]

Continued touring

In 2011, Steep Canyon Rangers signed with Rounder Records with lead singer Woody Platt saying "[the Rangers] are honored to join Rounder Records and be a part of such a rich musical history."[16] The band has recorded three records on the label as well as two collaborations with Steve Martin. A percussionist, Michael Ashworth, was added to the tour in 2013 and subsequently joined the Rangers as full-time member in the fall; Ashworth's performances feature a signature "box kit"[4] consisting of multiple cajóns mixed with standard and modified drum hardware; it is sometimes referred to as a "cajón drum kit".

In 2013, the Steep Canyon Rangers' solo album Nobody Knows You won the Grammy Award for Best Bluegrass Album.[3] The previous year, their 2012 collaboration with Steve Martin, Rare Bird Alert, was nominated for the same award.

Personnel changes

On December 1, 2017, Charles Humphrey III announced that he was leaving the band to "pursue other musical and non-musical passions aside from Steep Canyon Rangers".[17] Humphrey plans to tour with his Songs from the Road Band. In January 2018, Barrett Smith was announced as the new bass player for the Steep Canyon Rangers.[5]

Discography

Albums

Albums by Steep Canyon Rangers
Title Album details Peak chart
positions 		Sales
US Grass
[18] 		US
[19] 		US
Folk
[20] 		US Indie
[21]
Old Dreams and New Dreams
  • Release date: August 14, 2001
  • Label: Steep Canyon Music
 — — — —
Mr. Taylor's New Home — — — —
The Steep Canyon Rangers — — — —
One Dime at a Time
  • Release date: September 13, 2005
  • Label: Rebel Records
 13 — — —
Lovin' Pretty Women
  • Release date: August 14, 2007
  • Label: Rebel Records
 5 — — —
Deep in the Shade
  • Release date: October 6, 2009
  • Label: Rebel Records
 3 — — —
Rare Bird Alert
(with Steve Martin) 		1 43 — —
Nobody Knows You
  • Release date: March 27, 2012
  • Label: Rounder Records
 2 — — —
Tell The Ones I Love
  • Release date: September 10, 2013
  • Label: Rounder Records
 1 — — —
Steve Martin and the Steep Canyon
Rangers featuring Edie Brickell LIVE
  • Release date: March 11, 2014
  • Label: Rounder Records
 1 — 5 —
Radio
  • Release date: August 28, 2015
  • Label: Rounder Records
 1 — — —
The Long-Awaited Album
(with Steve Martin)
  • Release date: September 22, 2017
  • Label: Rounder Records
 1 189 7 —
Out in the Open 1 — — 28
North Carolina Songbook[24] 1 — — 29
Be Still Moses
  • Release date: March 6, 2020
  • Label: Rounder Records
Arm In Arm
  • Release date: October 16, 2020
  • Label: Yep Roc Records
 — — — —
"—" denotes releases that did not chart

Singles

  • "Me and Paul Revere" (Steve Martin and Steep Canyon Rangers) (2011)
  • "Pretty Little One" (Steve Martin and Steep Canyon Rangers featuring Edie Brickell)[26] (2014)
  • "Test Of Time" (Duet with Steep Canyon Rangers and Edie Brickell) (2015)
  • "California" (Steve Martin and Steep Canyon Rangers) (2020)

Music videos

Steep Canyon Rangers music videos
Year Video Director
2011 "Jubilation Day" (with Steve Martin)[27] Ryan Reichenfeld
2012 "Long Shot"[28]
2013 "Tell the Ones I Love"[29] Bill Filipiak
2015 "Radio" Chris Bramley

"Steve Canyon Rangers"

The phonemic similarity of "Steep" to "Steve" and the association of Steve Martin with the band (and perhaps the three-decades-defunct 20th-century commando-style comic strip Steve Canyon) sometimes support impressions of a "Steve Canyon Rangers" band.[30][31][32][33]

References

  1. ^ "Steep Canyon Rangers benefit concert". The Telegraph. 2009-02-01. Retrieved May 10, 2009.
  2. ^ Staton, John (2009-03-10). "The Music Column: Steep Canyon Rangers play venues from bars to churches". The Star-News. Retrieved May 10, 2009.
  3. ^ a b "Grammys: Steep Canyon Rangers Win Best Bluegrass Album..." 2013-02-09. Retrieved 2015-08-05.
  4. ^ a b "Video: Michael Ashworth & the Box Kit cajon drum kit:". Moravian Percussion. Retrieved 2015-08-05.
  5. ^ a b Rifkin, Carol (12 Jan 2018). "Steep Canyon Rangers announce new bass player". Citizen Times. Retrieved 7 May 2018.
  6. ^ Resch, Jamie (2009-03-12). "Longtime heroes stay fresh by touring and remaining true to traditional bluegrass". The Post and Courier. Retrieved May 10, 2009.
  7. ^ Bluegrass Today (2009-05-04). "Steep Canyon Rangers back Steve Martin". Retrieved 2015-08-05.
  8. ^ "Steve Martin @ Jools Live : Videos : Steve Martin & Steep Canyon Rangers perform Saga of the Old West and Jubilation Day". Later With Jools Holland. Retrieved 2015-08-06.
  9. ^ Madison, Tjames. Livedaily.com, August 4, 2009. "Steve Martin and his banjo map fall tour." Retrieved on October 4, 2009,
  10. ^ [1] Archived June 9, 2011, at the Wayback Machine
  11. ^ "Watch Steve Martin Sizzle : Videos". PBS.org. 2011-07-04. Retrieved 2015-08-06.
  12. ^ "Steve Martin wins top trophy at Bluegrass awards". BBC News. 29 Sep 2011.
  13. ^ DelFest website retrieved 6-6-2012
  14. ^ Randy Lewis (19 September 2017). "Steve Martin having serious fun with his banjo on 'The Long-Awaited Album'". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 10 October 2017.
  15. ^ Tunis, Walter (January 23, 2018). "'Steve Martin's backup band' steps 'Out in the Open' to declare independence". Lexington Herald Leader.
  16. ^ "The Steep Canyon Rangers Sign to Rounder Records". Rounder Records. 2011-06-13. Retrieved June 14, 2011.
  17. ^ "Charles Humphrey III splits with Steep Canyon Rangers". Citizen Times. Retrieved 2018-01-04.
  18. ^ "Steep Canyon Rangers Chart History (Bluegrass Albums)". Billboard.
  19. ^ "Steep Canyon Rangers Chart History (Billboard 200)". Billboard.
  20. ^ "Steep Canyon Rangers Chart History (Americana/Folk Albums)". Billboard.
  21. ^ "Steep Canyon Rangers Chart History (Independent Albums)". Billboard.
  22. ^ Bjorke, Matt (June 1, 2011). "This Is Country Music And We Dominate The Charts This Week". Roughstock.
  23. ^ Bjorke, Matt (May 14, 2018). "Top 10 Country Albums Sales Chart: May 14, 2018". Roughstock.
  24. ^ "Top 10 Country Album Sales Chart: February 19, 2018". BCMA. February 20, 2015.
  25. ^ Bjorke, Matt (February 25, 2020). "Top 10 Country Albums Chart in Pure Sales: February 24, 2020". Roughstock. Retrieved March 6, 2020.
  26. ^ "Future Releases on Triple A (AAA) Radio Stations". All Access Music Group. Archived from the original on 2014-03-07.
  27. ^ "CMT : Videos : Steve Martin : Jubilation Day". Country Music Television. Retrieved June 7, 2011.
  28. ^ "YouTube : Videos : Steep Canyon Rangers : Long Shot]". Retrieved 2015-08-05.
  29. ^ "YouTube : Videos : Steep Canyon Rangers : Tell the Ones I Love]". Retrieved 2015-08-05.
  30. ^ Susan Dosier, "Steve Canyon Rangers(they play with Steve Martin) playing at VisitNC media event! Wow", [Twitter post]
  31. ^ "Steve Martin & Steve Canyon Rangers Band Signed 11x14 Live Concert Music Photo" e-Bay offer
  32. ^ "Steve Martin and the Steve Canyon Rangers", Waterblogged, Friday, March 18, 2011
  33. ^ "Steve Martin Finds His Muse In 'An Object Of Beauty'", Talk of the Nation (The presumably scripted introduction has "Steep", while the transcript of the interview attributes "Steve" to Martin.)
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