From left: Mike Guggino, Graham Sharp, Woody Platt,Nicky Sanders and Charles Humphrey III of Steep Canyon Rangers.
By Bill Meredith
Most bands don’t become successful overnight, especially in a niche musical sub-genre like bluegrass.
Take the Steep Canyon Rangers, for example, the quintet of guitarist Woody Platt, mandolinist Mike Guggino, banjo player Graham Sharp, violinist Nicky Sanders and bassist Charles Humphrey III that formed 10 years ago in Asheville, N.C.
After five years of touring and recording, the group was named Emerging Artist of the Year at the 2006 International Bluegrass Music Association awards in Nashville. The Rangers were then nominated for two IBMA awards in 2008, continuing their slow upward arc.
But then a wild and crazy thing happened in 2009 to spike their ascent into the bluegrass stratosphere – some of the latest results of which include appearing on The Late Show With David Letterman, The Colbert Report and The View last month. That would be the Rangers’ guest sixth member, banjo player Steve Martin.
Yes, that Steve Martin, the zany 1970s comedian who’s risen to movie stardom and become an accomplished screenwriter and author. Martin was displaying his accomplished claw-hammer banjo technique in slapstick sketches 35 years ago, but didn’t add a serious musical release to his string of hit comedy albums until the 2009 CD The Crow: New Songs for the Five-String Banjo. The disc featured guest singers Dolly Parton and Vince Gill, dobro master Jerry Douglas, and Martin’s musical idol, banjo icon Earl Scruggs.
Such guest stars, Martin’s celebrity, and his estimable talents as both a musician and composer helped The Crow sell surprisingly well, and even win a 2010 Grammy Award. But when the rare bluegrass star decided to tour and needed a band, the hands of fate involved the Steep Canyon Rangers in ways that even Martin couldn’t have scripted.
“Steve got married a few years ago to Anne Stringfield,” says Guggino, “who’s a writer for ‘The New Yorker.’ We knew her before they were even dating, since she’d been friends with Woody’s older brother and vacationed near Brevard [North Carolina], where Woody and I live. She lived in New York City, so she’d come to our shows there, and we even stayed at her place a couple times. Anne brought Steve to a dinner party in North Carolina shortly after he’d done ‘The Crow’ and introduced us so we could all do some picking together.”
Which would’ve been a nice story even if it ended there, since all five band members were fans of Martin’s multi-faceted work. But all six musicians also sensed a chemistry.
“We hit it off,” Guggino says, “and invited him to play with us at our next show in New York City shortly thereafter. We made sure we’d learned his songs really well, since we had the feeling that it might be an informal audition. Steve said he really liked the way the music sounded, and it turned out to be a very cool case of timing for us, because we’ve been playing with him ever since.”
Or as Martin put it in a news release: “Serendipity has made a better match than any bluegrass computer dating service,” proving that his wry sense of humor is still sharp at the silver-haired age of 65.
“We did a few smaller shows with him at first,” Guggino says. “He came to North Carolina that September to play the Mountain Song Festival, which we host every year in Brevard. But I think the first official concert we did with him was at Carnegie Hall.”
Eighteen months later, having honed their collective talents on the road, Steve Martin & the Steep Canyon Rangers’ CD Rare Bird Alert (Rounder) was released just before the aforementioned TV appearances used to promote it. It soon hit No. 1 on the Billboard Bluegrass Chart.
On The Colbert Report, the six-piece band played Martin’s Jubilation Day, a comic, toe-tapping tale of the happy end to a sad relationship.
On The Late Show With David Letterman, they performed the hysterical gospel send-up Atheists Don’t Have No Songs.
“Until now,” Martin said after the song title, adding a perfectly timed comic pause for effect.
Written by Martin, Platt and Sharp, the a capella call-and-response tune showcased the Steep Canyon Rangers’ layered vocal harmonies – and poked fun at more organized religions than an episode of South Park.
Rare Bird Alert also features the bluegrass reprise of a previous Martin hit, King Tut, plus guest appearances by Paul McCartney on Best Love and the Dixie Chicks on You.
“I would’ve loved to have met Sir Paul,” Guggino says, “but we were certainly happy that he agreed to sing on the record. He recorded his vocals with Steve and the producer, Tony Trischka, in one day at a home studio while he was on vacation somewhere in New England, I think. But we were in the studio with the Dixie Chicks, which was great.”
One has to flash back to the Rangers’ pre-celebrity phase in the first half of 2009 to find the quintet’s latest CD without Martin, Deep in the Shade. But most of their shows are still as a five-piece band, and feature the originals and covers by Leadbelly, Merle Haggard and the Grateful Dead from that release and a handful of others.
“I’d say a bit more than one-third of our shows are with Steve,” Guggino says. “We’re doing about 150 now, and 50 to 60 of those are with him. He also appears out of the blue occasionally and plays with us, which is always a pleasant surprise.”
In the Martin-less settings, the Berklee College of Music-trained Sanders’ violin solos are highlights, and bassist Humphrey gets ample spotlight despite playing the lone rhythmic instrument. Sharp’s banjo stands out as well, and he shows no trace of ego by soloing less when Martin is added to the mix. The two banjo players even engage in harmonized lines, like a bluegrass version of the intertwining guitars in the Allman Brothers Band.
All five Rangers are ace vocalists, with Platt the lead singer and Guggino his primary harmonizer. Yet those two are not the band’s principal composers.
“Graham and Charles, our banjo player and bassist, are our primary songwriters,” says Guggino. “Nicky and I have written instrumentals that appeared on our records, but those guys actually write vocal parts as well, even though Woody and I sing most of them. There’s no clear-cut band leader, which is pretty cool. We’re a democracy.”
Guggino says that the concert halls have gotten larger for the Rangers since Martin’s involvement, especially when he’s present (though he’s not scheduled to be during the band’s mini-tour through Florida this week).
“We definitely play bigger venues with him than we normally play,” he says. “Even our shows without him are for more people in larger places like performing arts centers now, and we wouldn’t be on those TV shows without him. But our run through Florida this weekend is pretty varied, and typical. We’ll do a private party [in Tallahassee] on Friday, a club [Skipper’s Smoke House in Tampa] on Saturday, and then a concert [at the Society of the Four Arts in Palm Beach] on Sunday.”
In their early 30s, the members of the Steep Canyon Rangers are roughly half Martin’s age. They’re young enough, in fact, to have grown up watching him as a film star rather than a stand-up comic and frequent Saturday Night Live host.
“Steve had really started into the peak of his movie career around the time we were all born,” Guggino says. “He’s so intelligent and driven, and works so hard at his craft, whichever craft it may be at the time, that it isn’t surprising that he’s so successful. Lots of other actors have tried music, but haven’t reached the level that Steve has. And we get to see why he’s achieved that level first-hand.”
Steve Martin plays with Steep Canyon Rangers,in a photo from the group’s Website.
(Photo by Marcel Houweling)
Martin and the Rangers are clearly bringing bluegrass to a new and younger audience.
“I think Steve is doing more for bluegrass than anyone right now,” Guggino says, “because of the sheer number of people that he’s taking the music to with the records, touring and TV shows. No one else is sitting on a couch talking to Letterman about banjo styles. I think he’s the biggest shot in the arm that bluegrass has gotten since ‘O Brother, Where Art Thou?’’
In the spirit of that popular film and soundtrack, and bluegrass in general, Martin and the band recorded Rare Bird Alert the old-fashioned way.
“We cut the album live in the studio,” he says, “only overdubbing the vocal parts and any instrumental parts that needed fixing. Live recording creates an energy, and gives us a more authentic bluegrass sound.”
Yet recording with a comedy and acting celebrity doesn’t exactly invoke authenticity in the minds of bluegrass purists – who practically view the sub-genre as higher-octane gospel music. But it took a surprisingly long time for them to throw sell-out hand grenades at the Rangers. Which may, in and of itself, make the best case for this collective bringing bluegrass to a next generation of fans.
“We did get an angry e-mail this week,” says Guggino, “but it seemed like this person was politically and religiously driven. I think he saw us perform ‘Atheists Don’t Have No Songs’ on TV and thought it promoted atheism, which it doesn’t. Then he lit into us for having the Dixie Chicks on the record, since they had a problem with President Bush a few years back.”
The e-mailer likely didn’t realize that Martin is a native Texan who was born in Waco (unlike the former president, who only resided in the Lone Star State) and then literally moved to the left to grow up in California.
“Steve is genuinely just the nicest guy,” Guggino says, “especially for someone who’s one of the most famous celebrities. He was probably the most successful stand-up comedian ever, and he’s been in so many movies that people recognize him all over the world. But he treats us so well, and is so respectful of us and our career, that he graciously promotes our band even when he’s not working with us. Which he certainly doesn’t have to do, but he does.”
So he rides with the band and stay in the same hotels?
“Uh, no,” says Guggino with a laugh. “He’s stayed in the same place as us before, but usually he’s somewhere else. Most of the time our band will leave on our tour bus right after a show. So we’ll spend the night on the bus as it’s being driven to the next location, while Steve flies to our next show together and meets up with us. He jokes about that on stage.
“But he’s also written songs since the album came out that we’re already playing live, and there’s been talk of doing some more recording. I think he’ll do this as long as it’s fun for him. And he sure seems to be having fun now, and we are, too.”
Steep Canyon Rangers play the Society of the Four Arts at 3 p.m. Sunday. Tickets: $15. Call 655-7226.