Steep Canyon Rangers

 (4 customer reviews)

This is the third album by this talented new bluegrass combo, a mighty fine, mighty lively set from four talented North Carolina young'uns... The music has a loose-limbed bounce to it which bespeaks some alt-y inclinations, although they keep it pretty straight and pretty traditional sounding. Their sound is playful and open, with a loping bass, a sprightly banjo, soulful fiddling and bright mandolin... Best of all, this album is almost all original material -- a dozen new songs added to truegrass canon, along with one well-chosen Jimmy Martin oldie, and even a Nascar novelty song, a tribute to Dale Earnhardt... Midway through they lose a little steam, but overall, this is a pretty impressive effort by an up-and-coming band that we should all keep an eye on in years to come.

Playing Time - 37:08 -- All in their 20s, The Steep Canyon Rangers are one of a new generation of young bands with solid traditional chops who will, with the support of a major record label like Rebel, carry the bluegrass torch. The fact that their name was inspired from Deep Canyon Stout doesn't mean that they don't have respect for the music and its tradition. The band members (Woody Platt, Mike Guggino, Graham Sharp, Charles R. Humphrey III) met in 1996 and began playing together about 1999 while students at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill.

These boys can pick and sing with a lot of hustle and kick. Humphrey's spirited "Living in the Pane" opens the set. His "Bluegrass Blues" sings about travelling down the road, wearing out their shoes, making music every night, and dealing with those blue, bluegrass blues. Sharp's instrumental, "454," is a tastefully-rendered minor romp that gives everyone a chance to shine. Nine of the songs were written by Sharp, and...Read more

This group is awesome. I love everything they have ever done, this cd is so good.