![]() Since 2013, donors to the Blue Ridge Parkway Foundation have supported musical programming at the Blue Ridge Music Center. Food is available for purchase from Galax Smokehouse during the show. Tickets are $40 for adults and $20 for children 12 and younger. Their most recent release of all original music, Arm in Arm, came out in October 2020.Ĭoncerts are hosted in the outdoor amphitheater. 5 North Carolina Songbook - Live From Merlefest ApRaw FLAC - 34:29. The studio album Be Still Moses paired the band with Philadelphia soul legends Boyz II Men and the Asheville Symphony to overhaul their song “Be Still Moses.” The album includes re-imagined versions of Steep Canyon Rangers’ previously released original songs performed with an orchestra. ![]() The Grammy-nominated North Carolina Songbook is a recording of their 2019 performance at MerleFest, in which they performed a selection of songs by the state’s songwriters (Ola Belle Reed, Doc Watson, James Taylor, Ben E. Steep Canyon Rangers released two albums in 2020 on Yep Roc Records. They are often compared to predecessors The Band, Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, and the modern Zac Brown Band. The band has expanded their genres into country and Americana. The band started in college at UNC-Chapel Hill, then dove head first into bluegrass in its most traditional form. There are lush harmonies, and it’s impossible not to reflect on the now deeper resonance of the lyrics when you know the couple behind them passed away within a couple of months of each other in 2012 after 66 years of marriage.Īlthough not a whole lot was done to reinvent the songs covered on this live record, it’s still a pleasure to hear them dusted off and presented anew maybe even making some new fans of the original artists behind them along the way.The Steep Canyon Rangers are Grammy winners, perennial Billboard chart-toppers, and frequent collaborators of the renowned banjoist (and occasional comedian) Steve Martin. “Some might think it’s a spiritual song, some might think it’s a love song: it’s just a perfectly written song by a wonderful North Carolina couple,” Platt says in his introduction and perfect it is not only in its original incarnation, but in the hands of the Rangers too. band Steep Canyon Rangers pay tribute to their home state and its vast artistic tapestry on their new eight-song release. ‘Your Lone Journey’, which was originally co-written and performed by husband and wife duo Doc and Rosa Lee Watson, closes the album. Steep Canyon Rangers Salute Their State on ‘North Carolina Songbook’ By Craig Shelburne Steep Canyon Rangers have been musical ambassadors of North Carolina for nearly 20 years, and during this year’s set at MerleFest, they presented a wide-ranging performance drawing on their home state’s diverse contributions to American music. Elizabeth Cotten’s ‘Shake Sugree’ has a more world worn sound in the hands of the Steep Canyon Rangers, unsurprisingly since the original featured her 12-year-old granddaughter on vocals singing with an unrepeatable pureness. ‘Drunkard’s Hiccups’ (originally by Tommy Jerrell) is a fairly straightforward cover, but it becomes a standout track by virtue of a quality vocal performance from lead singer Woody Platt, his voice adding some real sass and vigour to the proceedings. Taylor’s ‘Sweet Baby James’ is the most stripped down track, with some lovely vocal harmonies on the chorus that really add depth. While not dissimilar in structure to the original, their version of ‘I’ve Endured’ by Ola Belle Reed is livelier, giving an interesting spin to the lyrics of hardship – the buoyancy of the beat making the words seem less about how terrible things are presently and perhaps more about how bad they had been when reflecting back from better times. ![]() The song that most finds them stepping outside their comfort zone is the Monk jazz classic ‘Blue Monk’, which sees them pay great tribute to the original, while injecting a rip roaring side of bluegrass for good measure. The songs covered are all in the band’s wheelhouse, fitting nicely into their bluegrass sound, and consequently they wisely don’t try to mess with the formula too much. King’s ‘Stand By Me’ opens the set, and its pleasantly familiar sound sets the tone for what’s to come. King, James Taylor, and Thelonious Monk, all done in their signature style. Recorded at roots music festival MerleFest earlier in 2019, the band paid tribute to their home state of North Carolina by performing a set of covers from fellow North Carolina acts such as Ben E. ![]() So it is a relief to see that the Steep Canyon Rangers have offered us something different in ‘North Carolina Songbook’. With major label acts, the live album is often put out there as a money grab, or as a way for the artist to tick another one off the number of required albums in a recording contract. Live albums can often feel a pointless affair: a selection of songs you already know usually played to a lesser standard than the studio version, a crowd you weren’t part of, cheering in the background, and no way to witness the performance visually.
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