Steep Canyon Rangers L-R Charles Humphrey III, Mike Guggino, Woody Platt, Nicky Sanders and Graham Sharp

By Rickey Lamb and Dan Tackett

Once upon a time, this group of college buddies formed a little bluegrass band. Seven years later, the Steep Canyon Rangers are still buddies — and still performing their own signature style of bluegrass.

“We really try to keep things pretty traditional sounding,” Rangers mandolin player Mike Guggino said while hawking CDs after a recent performance at Uncle Pen Days in Bean Blossom, Ind.

The Uncle Pen Days crowd, like a lot of Bean Blossom festival crowds, leans pretty much to the traditional side of things. In that respect, the Rangers found themselves in friendly territory. But this band’s trick is putting a fresh sound on a big platter of original tunes that really come out sounding like … well, like they were from the Bluegrass Big Note Songbook your daddy used.

“We just try to be original. We try to have our own band,” Guggino said, giving lots of credit to banjo picker and bandmate Graham Sharp, who writes or co-writes songs for the Rangers.

The band began performing on the regional level around North Carolina when most of its members were in college in Chapel Hill, N.C. They’ve been touring on the national festival circuit for the past four years, about the same time fiddle whiz Nicky Sanders joined the band.

Steep Canyon Ranger’s Fiddle Player Nicky Sanders photo by Rickey Lamb

Sanders was not used to playing fiddle when he joined the band. While being classically trained on violin at Berklee school of music in Boston, his background was filled with the likes of Mozart and Bach. “It was a whole new learning experience to downplay the vibrato I had learned and work on the tone and technique of great fiddlers,” Sanders stated, “I wished I had started my fiddle playing years earlier.”

One of Sander’s inspiration, in the world of great fiddle, was the enormously talented, Vassar Clements. Sanders felt there was nobody that played quite like the late fiddler. “He had a unique sound and was extremely innovative,” Sanders acknowledged.

Sanders talked about how the older bluegrass bands wrote their own songs. Many of those songs have become standards in the bluegrass world. The Steep Canyon Rangers mentality is a return to writing and performing their own material, much like Bill Monroe, Jimmy Martin, and the rest of the classic Bluegrass people have done.

“Del McCoury and his band are a big inspiration to our sound,” Sanders touted prior to the evening show. It was quite evident by the way they worked the single mike, especially on an accapella gospel number, they did for the evening set.

The afternoon set the Rangers performed was a breath of fresh air, full of energy and definitely a fine performance. The evening show was filled with an even stronger sense of vitality. The songs off the new CD, Lovin’ Pretty Women, performed during both sets were very strong and had a great, characteristic sound.

The band’s latest CD is its third for Rebel Records. Produced by Ronnie Bowman, it’s been getting rave reviews as has the band itself with its high-energy shows.

Guggino said the group stays busy during the summer festival season, but tries to reach out to non-bluegrass crowds during the off season.

“We play a lot of clubs and theaters that aren’t used to getting a lot of bluegrass bands,” he said. “It’s a neat thing. We often bring bluegrass to people of all ages for the first time.”

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Dan Paisley & Southern Grass

The Chicago area’s Bluegrass Legends Concerts is planning a double-header Oct. 19 with shows by Dan Paisley & Southern Grass and The James King Band.The concert begins at 8 p.m. at the American Legion Music Hall, 1030 Central St., in Evanston, Ill. Tickets are on sale now by calling 847-573-0443. Details are also available at http://www.chicagobluegrass.com.

Dan Paisley is carrying on The Southern Grass tradition started 35 years ago by his father, Bob Paisley. After Bob Paisley’s death in November 2004, Dan Paisley and the Southern Grass have continued to deliver hard-driving bluegrass music combining soulful and powerful harmony singing with exciting instrumental work.

Bob Paisley joined his dad’s band in 1974 at the age of 15. He now carries his father’s torch forward with the help of his brother Michael Paisley on bass, and band mates Bob Lundy (banjo), T.J. Lundy (fiddle), and Don Eldreth Jr. (mandolin). The ensemble has become known for its unwavering sense of timing, its relaxed, often self-deprecating joviality on stage and its dynamic repertoire. From lilting ballad to fiery hoedown, the band’s music encompasses the entire spectrum within the definitive bluegrass tradition.

James King

James King is considered by several to be the greatest “mountain soul” singer of his generation, bringing a deep understanding of the hardcore bluegrass tradition to his hard-driving blend of bluegrass and honky-tonk country music. Guitarist, vocalist, and songwriter King embodies a more traditional strain of bluegrass — a strain strongly influenced by one of the genre’s iconic groups, the Stanley Brothers.

The James King Band has recorded five albums on the Rounder label. His smash 1993 Rounder debut, “These Old Pictures” was hailed as “the breakthrough album of the year” by Bluegrass Unlimited, which called King “the most impressive lead vocalist to emerge in traditional bluegrass in a decade”.

The James King Band has been entertaining now for over 14 years.

Bluegrass Legends Concerts in Evanston is the only running bluegrass and acoustic music concert series in the Chicago area that features national headline bluegrass talent.

The 2007 fall series marks the ninth year of presenting the nation’s top acoustic bluegrass talent and local folk-roots opening acts in an all-ages, non-smoking concert setting for families.

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