Playbill: Steve Martin and The Steep Canyon Rangers

Photo by Thomas Lauderdale

Steve Martin and The Steep Canyon Rangers

A Mondavi Center Just Added Event Saturday, August 25, 2012 • 8PM Jackson Hall, Mondavi Center, UC Davis

artists Charles R. Humphrey III Bass, Vocals Mike Guggino

Mandolin, Vocals

Steve Martin

Banjo, Vocals

Woody Platt

Guitar, Lead Vocals

Nicky Sanders

Fiddle, Vocals

Graham Sharp

Banjo, Vocals

Biographies Steve Martin Steve Martin, one of the most diversified performers in the motion picture industry today—actor, comedian, author, playwright, producer, musician—has been successful as a writer of and performer in some of the most popular movies of recent film history.

Martin has released his second full length bluegrass album, Rare Bird Alert on Rounder Records, joined by the Steep Canyon Rangers, who toured extensively with Martin over the last year.

Rare Bird Alert features 13 new Martin-penned tracks, including a live version of “King Tut,” and was produced by Tony Trishka.

Paul McCartney and The Dixie Chicks make special guest vocal appearances on the album. Martin co-wrote two of the CD’s songs with the Steep Canyon Rangers.

Since becoming involved in the modern bluegrass scene, Martin has been impressed with the overall level of musicianship that exists in the world of the professional and semi-professional player. As such, in 2010, Martin established The Steve Martin Prize for Excellence in Banjo and Bluegrass, an annual award which brings recognition to an individual or group for outstanding accomplishment in the field of five-string banjo or bluegrass music. In its inaugural year, the award was presented to Noam Pikelny.

Program is subject to change. The artists and your fellow audience members appreciate silence during the performance. Please be sure that you have switched off all electronic devices. Videotaping, photographing and audio recording are strictly forbidden. Violators are subject to removal.

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Mondavi Center Presents Special Program: Aug 2012

Printed on recycled paper. Please recycle this playbill.

Martin published his second children’s book in September of 2010.

Narrated with wit and charm getting to school has never been quite this difficult—or hilarious. Martin and illustrator C. F. Payne teamed up to tell a story of the adventure, danger and laughs of the journey to school. Enclosed with the book is a CD of Martin on banjo and vocals, singing the book’s story with a bluegrass twist.

Mike Guggino (mandolin and vocals) grew up in the mountains of western North Carolina, where he learned to play piano, saxophone and guitar. He didn’t encounter bluegrass until college, though, when friends from Kentucky introduced him to the sounds of Hot Rize, the Seldom Scene, Tony Rice, New Grass Revival and John Hartford.

For his adult audience, Martin’s latest novel An Object of Beauty was released in November of 2010. Sharing his knowledge of the 1990’s New York arts scene, Martin tells the story of Lacey Yeager, a captivating and ambitious young woman who takes the N.Y.C. art world by storm.

From there, he found his way to the music of Bill Monroe, and the mandolin, an instrument that also harkened back to his Italian great-grandparents. Guggio immediately began to immerse himself in the bluegrass tradition and write original songs of his own.

Martin’s most recent film, The Big Year, directed by David Frankel and costarring Owen Wilson and Jack Black was release by 20th Century Fox in October 2011. In the film Martin is a member of a group of avid bird watchers competing to spot the rarest birds in North America at an annual esteemed event.

In March of 2010, Martin, along with Alec Baldwin, co-hosted the 82nd Annual Academy Awards—his third time serving as host of the prestigious award show. He received an Emmy nomination in the category of Outstanding Writing for a Variety, Music or Comedy Special for his participation.

In January of 2010, Martin’s banjo album, The Crow / New Songs For The Five-String Banjo, won a Grammy for Best Bluegrass Album.

The Steep Canyon Rangers The past year has taken the Steep Canyon Rangers to new heights.

In March 2011, the band released its first collaborative record with Steve Martin, Rare Bird Alert which debuted at #1 on Billboard’s Bluegrass Chart and at #43 on the Billboard Top 200. In 2010, the solo record from Steep Canyon Rangers, Deep In The Shade, remained in the Bluegrass Top 10 on Billboard for 18 weeks. The most recent album Nobody Knows You was released in April 2012.

While headlining festivals like MerleFest and Bonnaroo alongside Steve Martin for part of each year, the Rangers continue to perform alone as a quintet on stages such as Telluride, RockyGrass, and A Prairie Home Companion with Garrison Keillor. Recent television appearances by Steve Martin with Steep Canyon Rangers include Late Night With David Letterman, The Colbert Report and Austin City Limits.

With smooth vocals, smart songwriting, ferocious instrumentals and jaw-dropping harmony, the Rangers are bringing Bluegrass to music lovers across the USA and around the world.

Charles R. Humphrey III (base and vocals) was born under the sign of Capricorn on Christmas Day 1976 in Greenville, North Carolina. He has been playing upright bass since middle school and also studied classically at the University of North CarolinaChapel Hill, where the Steep Canyon Rangers was formed.

Humphrey has released two side projects of original compositions, Songs from the Road Band and Songs from the Road Band: As The Crow Flies. Twice selected by the International Bluegrass Music Association (IBMA) as a showcase songwriter, his songs have been recorded by the Steep Canyon Rangers, Steve Martin, Town Mountain, Mark Schimick, Jed Fisher, Sav Sankaran, The Canucky Bluegrass Boys and Songs from the Road Band. He’s proud to call Asheville, North Carolina home.

Over the past decade, his unique compositions have become signature Rangers tunes. Guggio is proud to play Kimble mandolins and mandolas.

Woody Platt‘s (guitar and lead vocals) musical career began in the third grade, when he sang in the Brevard, North Carolina Boys Choir. He played trumpet and baritone in his middle school band, then became interested in bluegrass and guitar as a student at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He, Charles Humphrey and Graham Sharp started playing together as students, eventually forming the Rangers.

Platt founded the Mountain Song Festival as a fundraiser for the Boys and Girls Club of Transylvania County in 2006 and continues to co-produce it. He lives in Brevard, North Carolina with his wife, the singer and songwriter Shannon Whitworth, and spends much of his time off the road in a trout stream.

Nicky Sanders (fiddle and vocals), originally from California, began training as a classical violinist at age five. After serving as concertmaster of the Young People’s Symphony Orchestra, he moved to Boston to attend Berklee College of Music where he studied Jazz, Bluegrass and Composition.

In 2004, Sanders moved to North Carolina to join the Steep Canyon Rangers, first appearing on the album One Dime at a Time and three more records since. In 2010, the IBMA nominated the Rangers’ recording of Nicky’s fiddle tune “Mourning Dove” as Instrumental Performance of the Year. The song appears on the band’s CD Deep in the Shade.

Nicky also enjoys solving New York Times crossword puzzles and drinking fresh-squeezed orange juice.

Graham Sharp (banjo and vocals) began playing banjo in college and almost immediately fell into playing with Charles and Woody.

Originally introduced to bluegrass by his high school Latin teacher, Sharp was drawn to the sounds of John Hartford and JD Crowe.

Through the years he has penned more than 30 Steep Canyon Rangers songs including “The Mountain’s Gonna Sing” selected as a Top Ten Folk Song of 2009 by National Public Radio.

He lives in Asheville, North Carolina and most enjoys spending time with his wife and two children, Wade and Rosalie.

MondaviArts.org

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