Featured Article: "Steep Canyon Rangers going nationwide"

Article source: The Berkshire Eagle - Pittsfield, MA
www.berkshireeagle.com

Mighty fine pickin' and singin' at the Iron Horse
By Joel Stonington - Special to the Eagle
Jan. 8, 2005

Steep Canyon Rangers at Iron Horse Music Hall - Northampton, MA (Performance date: 1/6/05)

Now that’s some mighty fine pickin’ and a singin’. No question about; the Steep Canyon Rangers—a bluegrass band of superlative quality from Asheville, North Carolina—got the full house at the Iron Horse worked up and having fun this Thursday.
Singing and playing around two mics at the center of the stage, the Rangers brought their mixture of pure, acoustic bluegrass to a Berkshire County audience that loved it—as demonstrated by a significant amount of hootin’ and hollerin’ and two standing ovations after the second and third encore.

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The Rangers played a mix of old favorites, from “Evangeline” by Robbie Robertson, to songs by Bill Monroe and Jimmy Martin. They mixed it up with many new classics of their own. From the fast moving, rolling, rocking, “454”, a song written about their now dead and gone RV to the slower, crooning “Carolina Home” off their...[second]...album. The versatility between traditional and contemporary was seamless.

Beyond that, though, was the pleasurable atmosphere created by these five gentlemen: Woody Platt on guitar, Mike Guggino on mandolin, Graham Sharp on banjo and Charles Humphrey III on bass, and Nicky Sanders on fiddle. All are showmen; they wore suits; they joked with the crowd; and they were friendly—between sets they stood by the stage to talk with audience members.

In between songs it was often Humphrey who walked his bass up from the back of the stage to joke with us. Every time he did it, he stood with one hand in his pocket, holding the bass with the other, and showing a certain amount of endearing modesty looking out at the crowd. As if saying, “What?” All the while, he had us in stitches.

At one point Humphrey introduced Nicky Sanders, the newest member of the band, as one of the finest fiddle players in the world (agreed), a master of the Rubix Cube, and a knew of all the capitals of every sovereign nation (“That’s a country,” opined Sharp). Then they played Stump the Chump with the crowd, with people calling out names of countries trying to win a free CD. Sanders could not be stumped.

He got us to crack up again, a little later, when he broke out the high falsetto on the gospel song they sang a cappella...["I Can't Sit Down."]

“As the guys in the band tell me,” Sanders said, “it takes a real man to sing like a woman."

The Rangers obviously weren’t afraid to mix it up a bit and have fun on stage. This included being experimental with the music. At times Humphrey’s solos sounded more like a slap bass jazz solo than something you might hear in typical bluegrass. In “Knob Creek,” a song off their 2002 album, Sharp’s banjo solo was done entirely with harmonics. And Sanders elicited a murmur out of the crowd when he mixed the Flintstones theme song into an improvisation. Even so, the end result is a sound that is simple, clean, and straightforward. Thus, they appeal to the wide variety of ages apparent at the Iron Horse.

Their talent and mix of new and old is making waves in the bluegrass world. They recently signed with Rebel Records for their third album, the self-titled “Steep Canyon Rangers.” It edged past Sam Bush to the number one spot on the Roots Music Report in November. Currently it sits at eighteen, having been on the top 100 for nineteen weeks. And they have been playing alongside, and with, many bluegrass greats such as Earl Scruggs, Doc Watson, Del McCoury, and Rhonda Vincent. It’s no surprise, considering the sounds they produce, but nothing can substitute for seeing these boys live. They put on a damn good show.

And, to be sure, the crowd couldn’t get enough. So the Rangers had to come back for encore after encore before they finally left the stage. When the lights came up and people started filing out, the Rangers were standing in a line at the door smiling, laughing, shaking hands and chatting as we walked into the snowy night, feeling much warmer.

Author: Joel Stonington
E-mail jstonington@orionsociety.org

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