Nearly 25 years after issuing their debut album, bluegrass group Steep Canyon Rangers have become consistent hitmakers, tying Old Crow Medicine Show in 2024 for the most No. 1 albums on Billboard’s Bluegrass Albums chart since the chart launched in 2002.
The North Carolina-formed group’s Graham Sharp (banjo/vocals), Mike Guggino (mandolin/vocals), Nicky Sanders (fiddle/vocals), Mike Ashworth (drums/vocals/dobro/guitar), Barrett Smith (bass/vocals/guitar) and newest member, guitarist/vocalist Aaron Burdett, who joined in 2022, are known for a style that takes traditional bluegrass styles and infuses them with progressive arrangements.
Yet, with their 15th studio album, Next Act, out today (May 22) on Yep Roc Records, the group keeps finding new ways to challenge themselves.
“I’ve never sang a song besides [a song he wrote] on a record, and Aaron’s never had somebody sing one of his songs besides himself,” Steep Canyon Rangers founding member Sharp tells Billboard. “I sing Aaron’s ‘Stubborn Love’ on this [album]. It’s so natural for the writer to be the one to sing it, but we were sitting backstage one time, and someone was like, ‘This sounds like something Graham could sing.’ We’ve learned where we all fit in that cast of characters and who is best suited to tell what stories. It’s giving everybody not just a chance to show what they can do, but to have their own kind of story to tell.”
In 2011, Steep Canyon Rangers and fellow songwriter-banjoist Steve Martin won the International Bluegrass Music Association’s entertainer of the year accolade. The new album features appearances from Martin, as well as singer-songwriter Edie Brickell and bluegrass group Della Mae’s Celia Woodsmith.
Below, Billboard speaks with Sharp about the new album, memories from the Grammy-winning group’s 25 years in the spotlight and what’s ahead.
When did you start writing for this project?
It’s kind of a slow accumulation of songs in general. Aaron and I, we have to get way out ahead of it. This morning I’m working on songs for the next record, and we may not record for a year, but I need to do my work farther out. I’ve learned that I always seem to want people to, as soon as I write it, to learn the song, but I think it’s important to give everybody a moment to have their own first impression. Everybody kind of has their places to plug in. Ashworth and Barrett, I might have a song with good bones and we develop it from there. Whereas, Nicky, he’s best to get involved in the process the day you’re recording, because once you’ve got it to that point, he’ll hear little things and have ideas to give it that last touch.
“Hard Luck Kid” has a lot of that vivid storytelling about a chance meeting with someone going through hard times. What do you remember about that incident that inspired it?
As soon as I walked in, you could see that he had this hang dog look to him and he came up to me and started talking. He started telling me this story about getting kicked out of school because he was sticking up for his sister against somebody who was messing with her. To me, he was looking for some kind of reassurance or just to tell a story. But on my end, [it felt like] there’s somebody who trusted me. There’s a line in there, “He shook my hand with all the kindness I could ever hope to find.” That’s kind of the fun with writing, you can write yourself kind of into those moments.
And there is no true resolution there; it’s more of a chronicling of the moment.
I reread this great book on writing by George Saunders, A Swim in a Pond in the Rain and he analyzes these short stories by these Russian writers. One of them, I can’t remember who it is, is like, “The job isn’t to solve the problem, it’s to formulate the problem correctly.” I love that because… most stuff doesn’t end up with a bow on it. He just wanted to get to the heart of the matter.
“Heart’s the Only Compass” delves into unraveling and relearning family history. Tell me about the inspiration for that.
I was visiting with my uncle who’s like 90, but he’s got a great memory and he started telling these stories of my grandparents and all their family. I knew little pieces of my family history and then kind of filled out the details in my mind, but when you actually got down to the details of the family and how people came through the Great Depression and World War II and all this stuff, I mean, it was almost dumb luck that brought them through … all these little choices and little chances that could have gone a different way.
Steve Martin joins you on “Heart’s the Only Compass,” and you’ve had a creative association with him for over 15 years. What was it like first working together?
He had never really worked with a band live, and his wife had connected us with him. His album [2009’s] The Crow had come out and he was going to come to a festival outside Asheville and play some songs. We met to rehearse and that was a real strength of the band. We learned that album note for note and he had never played it with people, so I think that made an impression. And then getting to know each other and trust each other over the years, we can talk about stuff and even on this record, he’s such an astute artist and listener that we wanted his opinion, and we ended up changing a few things on the record based on what he said.
What do you most hope that fans take away from hearing this project?
I’ve always hoped that there was no distinction between us playing this traditional stuff and us playing whatever is not traditional. It’s all felt like part of the same parcel and comes from the same place — it’s just which influences we decide to lean into. I hope this finds a place within all our other albums that we’ve done, and it stands on its own while also recalling all the work we’ve done leading up to it. It feels good to bring that back out because that is a big part of our DNA.
What are your creative goals for Steep Canyon Rangers at this point?
Honestly, I’ve hit them all. For me, I want to keep making good art and making good music. The band won a Grammy, but two or three of the guys weren’t in the band then. So, it’d be nice to get a Grammy for those guys at some point. But that’s one of those things that’s almost too weird to even want, because it’s such a crapshoot a little bit. Honestly, my ambition is to be able to keep doing this. I am still inspired to work on it every day.
