Steep Canyon Rangers | One Dime At A Time

It would be all too easy to start tossing around cliches like “Local boys done good!” or “Yeehaw! Real music!” in a review of the newest Steep Canyon Rangers album One Dime At A Time. But considering the huge steps these guys have taken since turning pro in 2001 (releasing four albums, two of which are on the Rebel imprint — a bluegrass-only label with more than 30 years in the industry) and the undeniable quality of the playing and writing on this CD, it’s tempting to give in to the cliche tossing.

First, consider the fact that Mike Bub, bassist for the Del McCoury band, produced the new record.

Second, David Ferguson recorded the whole thing at the Butcher Shoppe in Nashville. I hear John Prine is one of the owners of the studio. Ferguson also collaborated with Rick Rubin on Johnny Cash’s last few recordings.

Third, when the musicians that would become the Steep Canyon Rangers met and formed at UNC-Chapel Hill those five or so years ago, the chances of catching the Del McCoury Band (or nearly anything that wasn’t Shania or Rascal or had the words “gonna getcha” in the title) on CMT were slim to none — Nashville was, and in many ways still is, deep in the throes of plastic-coated country rock oblivion.

This all adds up to demonstrate the fact that the band formed at the right time, and had the raw talent and a work ethic that put them at the crest of a wave heading back to mainstream acceptance of country music’s traditional roots.

While it would be wrong to call Steep Canyon Rangers’ music a “fusion” in the sense of an extreme combination of styles, they certainly aren’t afraid to throw in some honkytonk (check out “One Dime at a Time”) or cover a Robbie Robertson tune (“Evangeline”), or just change time signatures in the middle of a tune, as on “The Ghost of Norma Jean,” which continues a storyline begun on a previous album, and fulfills the bluegrass lyrical tradition of being haunted my someone that you used to love, but now just happens to be dead.

One Dime At A Time is a soundtrack to an Appalachian afternoon — it feels right to look out the window at these old hills while the last notes of “Restless Nights” fade out of my tiny computer speakers into the clicking of fingers on a keyboard. There’s a reason why this music still calls on people to listen to and perform it — beyond the depth of its roots in these parts, even those of us that didn’t grow up with it can feel the importance of bluegrass to our history. The Steep Canyon Rangers certainly do, and they deserve all the praise they’ll likely get for this album, even if their fiddler is from California. That’s a joke, folks.

Buy the CD, and see them live on Sept. 16 at the Grey Eagle Music Hall in Asheville for their release party, and at the Ramsey Center (opening for Doyle Lawson) on Sept. 23.

(Chris Cooper is a Sylva-based guitarist and In Your Ear guru also known to have an affinity for Leo Kottke and the comic strip Get Fuzzy. Write to him at thumbpick43@yahoo.com.)