You’ve no doubt heard the saying, popularized by author Thomas Wolfe, “you can’t go home again.” There are an endless number of dissections about what that really means, but the gist is that nostalgia has colored memories enough that the home you remember wasn’t exactly like that. So it was with some curiosity I listened to the new album from North Carolina’s Steep Canyon Rangers, Next Act. It was touted as a return to their bluegrass roots, and yet the title implies something new.
The CD starts with Rumble Strips, a progressive bluegrass number with drums and electric bass that’s certainly a more modern sound than the group’s debut. Circling the Drain has a staccato style of guitar adding some tension to a tale about “watching all my friends going round and around down, down, down.” The band enlists former collaborator Steve Martin on banjo for Heart’s the Only Compass. It was inspired by a burgeoning realization from songwriter/banjoist/vocalist Graham Sharp that the universe is just too random and big to understand so all you can do is follow your heart. An interview with Martin’s wife, songstress Edie Brickell, spurred Halfway to Reno and then she contributed vocals to the recording.
As you get to the second half of the record, it starts feeling like a trip back in time. Sugar Lake is a sepia-toned number with Sharp’s warm baritone reminiscing about a simpler time where “come Friday we were ten feet tall, the world was ours when the world was small.” Hard Times is a bluegrass waltz with a sweet fiddle intro. It stems from the idea that when you’re in the moment things can seem harder than they really are, hence wanting to “get back to those good old hard times.” Babylon Stone has multiple lead and harmony vocals creating a high lonesome style. Closer Hard Luck Kid is an emotionally complex story of a chance meeting Sharp had with a kid who couldn’t catch a break. The harmonies give it an almost gospel feel, reflecting the hope that everything will turn out right for the young man.
For much of the past decade Steep Canyon Rangers have worked to broaden their musical palette and gain a wider audience, culminating in 2023’s Morning Shift. Good for them. What they didn’t do is lose connection with the music that inspired them in the first place. Adding what they’ve learned from 20+ years of wide-ranging experience they managed to simultaneously celebrate their roots, and also set the stage for moving forward, with Next Act.
About the author: I've actually driven from Tehatchapee to Tonopah. And I've seen Dallas from a DC-9 at night.