Steep Canyon Rangers talk new music, upcoming show at Bijou Theatre

ABBIE SMITH Staff Writer

Steep Canyon Rangers is a bluegrass band based out of Asheville, North Carolina. They began creating music about 25 years ago while at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill. The band has six members — Graham Sharp, Barrett Smith, Michael Ashworth, Mike Guggino, Nicky Sanders and Aaron Burdett. Notably, their 2013 album “Nobody Knows You” won the Grammy Award for Best Bluegrass Album.

The Rangers have a long history in Knoxville — especially at the Bijou, a theatre where the band tries to play at least once a year. This year, they will be performing a show at the Bijou on Feb. 17 at 8 p.m. and are looking forward to it immensely.

“It’s a counterpart to Asheville, kind of a sister city, almost,” Barrett Smith, the bass player for the Steep Canyon Rangers, said. “Knoxville is not some random city to us. It’s important to us and we’re so grateful to our fans in Knoxville. We know there are so many music lovers there who deserve really great shows and music. That’s what we do when we come to the Bijou — we really focus on bringing a killer show to the theatre and making it a special night.”

The band is excited to present new content in the show as well. At the end of January, they re- corded a new album, their first with their newest member Aaron Burdett.

“My favorite album is our most recent album, ‘Arm in Arm,’” Smith said. “But as the dust settles and starts coming in, the album we just recorded may become my favorite album on top of ‘Arm in Arm.’”

“I’m excited to see how the new songs are going to grow and see what they shape up to be,” Graham Sharp, a banjo and guitar player, as well as one of the major songwriters for the band, said. “When you’re in the studio, you have a dream for your song that it’ll land a certain way with the people. You never really know until you get on stage. When we get to Knoxville, I’m excited to see what will happen with those songs.”

People of all ages come to watch the Steep Canyon Rangers perform. According to Sharp, bluegrass fans represent the “whole gamut of the age.”

Smith in particular is hoping to see some newer fans — younger people and college students — at the show as well.

“The university in Knoxville is just so unfathomably large and it’s concentrations of young, creative, music-loving people. We have such confidence that it doesn’t matter who you are — your age, sex, race, anything — just come party with us and have a good time. It would be really fun to tap into that population and have them in the room and feel the energy — we love that.”

Even though Smith and Sharp love their time at the Bijou, they are outspoken about their experiences playing festivals in the warmer months. Smith noted his time at Red Rocks in Colorado in particular as one of his favorite shows. Other than that, the band hosts their own music festival in western North Carolina called Mountain Song. They also will be hosting another festival in May in South Carolina called Bird Fest. Being from South Carolina originally, Smith is most looking forward to this festival.

“The festivals are always very special,” Smith said. “But there are lots of times that we’ve walked off of stages and said, ‘That’s one of the best shows we’ve ever played.’”

“I mean, sometimes your favorite set isn’t the most glamorous thing. It’s just somewhere where something really connects, you know? I think that’s the cool thing about what we do, it doesn’t always have to be a packed house or your favorite venue. Sometimes there’s just a special spark,” Smith said.

The Bijou has definitely held that special spark for the band in the past, and on Feb. 17, they hope to find it again.

You can buy tickets on steepcanyon.com, with prices ranging from $30 to $45. The band will certainly try to put together a great show for all of their fans, so if you’re free that Friday night, buy a ticket. Even if you don’t know much about bluegrass or the band, who knows — the spark at the show might spark something inside of you, too.