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Garnering Attention
Written By: Deena Bouknight | Issue: May 2023
Steep Canyon Rangers returns to the mountains where it all started – an unforgettable performance at the Highlands Performing Arts Center, Sunday, May 14.
It’s a band that has earned kudos and significant attention – especially when actor, comedian, and banjoist Steve Martin performed with them for a spell.
And it’s a band that’s known to Plateau audiences, who still remember its (literally) standing-room-only performance at the Cashiers Village Green in 2010.
At the time, member Woody Platt told Laurel’s Luke Osteen how the area was instrumental in shaping the band’s traditional Bluegrass sound.
“I grew up in Brevard and played violin and piano, and sang in the Brevard Boys Choir,” he recalled. “It’s where I met bandmate and best mate mandolinist Mike Guggino and we took that friendship and lessons to UNC-Chapel Hill, where Steep Canyon Rangers was formed.”
(Platt left the band last year, but he’s still in the neighborhood. He’s living in Brevard, where he offers one-person fishing trips on area streams and rivers. You can contact him at woodyplatt.com/fishing)
While they have multiple albums out and have garnered a following through concerts and on many musical platforms, the “Rangers,” as they are also known, earned a Grammy-nomination for its North Carolina Songbook project, which is a recording of their live 2019 performance at Merlefest in Wilkesboro, North Carolina. There they performed a selection of songs by various North Carolina songwriters, including Ola Belle Reed, Doc Watson, James Taylor, and Ben E. King.
The band’s members currently are Graham Sharp on banjo and vocals; Mike Guggino on mandolin/mandola and vocals; Nicky Sanders on fiddle and vocals; Mike Ashworth on drums and vocals; and, Barrett Smith on bass, guitar, and vocals. Recently joining the band is singer/songwriter Aaron Burdett on guitar and vocals.
The band’s formation began in college at UNC-Chapel Hill, and they played their way to prominence on the bluegrass/country and Americana scene, sometimes compared to the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band and Zac Brown Band.
“A Journal of Roots Music” No Depression publication, recently lauded the group’s new album by stating: “Arm in Arm captures the North Carolina group’s innovative spirit, weaving in jazz, gospel, folk, and even rock phrases, creating an intimate and intricate sound that challenges, cajoles, and comforts.”
