Steep Canyon Rangers wrap up big year

Jason Sandford

Jason Sandford is a reporter, writer, blogger and photographer interested in all things Asheville.

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From cybergrass.com:

In November the Rangers finished up a tour with Grammy® and Emmy® winning actor, comedian and musician Steve Martin at Royal Festival Hall in London. The tour with Martin included performances at the 20th Annual International Bluegrass Music Awards Show, the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival, Carnegie Hall, the Ryman Auditorium, and other venues in cities including Los Angeles, Boston, Atlanta, Dallas, Charlotte, Washington, Toronto, Chicago, Denver and Santa Fe.

The Rangers also performed with Martin on The Late Show with David Letterman, The View, NPR’s World Café, and the BBC’s Later . . . with Jools Holland.

In September, the Rangers hosted their own Mountain Song Festival at the Brevard Music Center in Brevard, North Carolina, for the fourth year. While Steve Martin was a surprise guest in 2008, this year he was on the bill, and the festival was a sellout. Other performers included the Moon Shine Babies, Town Mountain, Shannon Whitworth & the Refugees, Seldom Scene and The David Grisman Quintet, who headlined the event. The festival yielded a record $37,000 for the Boys & Girls Club of Transylvania County, bringing the total raised for the club by the festival to more than $130,000.

The Steep Canyon Rangers released their fourth studio album for Rebel, Deep in the Shade, on October 6. It was in the top 10 on the Billboard Bluegrass Albums chart for the month of October, attaining the band’s highest Billboard chart position at #3.

“The Mountain’s Gonna Sing” from Deep in the Shade has been included in NPR Music’s Best of 2009 series, in the Folk Alley top 10.