The newly reopened, renovated and upgraded Ponte Vedra Concert Hall continues to attract top acts to the First Coast, and nothing says that better than the upcoming return of bluegrass and folk Billboard toppers Steep Canyon Rangers.
“It’s been one of our favorite venues for a long time,” said founding member Graham Sharp. “Just a really fun place to play. But we hadn’t been there for a few years while it was getting redone. So, we’re definitely excited to get back into that room.”
The band is set to take the stage at 7:30 p.m. Friday, Oct. 3.
North Carolina-based Steep Canyon Rangers, which formed in 2000, got an early boost from a surge of interest in bluegrass music following the release of a wildly popular film, “O Brother, Where Art Thou?”
Since then, the popularity of this truly American form of music has seen an ebb and flow and now appears to be on an upswing. That may be due to younger generations recognizing its worth and pursuing it, even building on it.
“It seems to me the bar for this kind of music keeps getting set higher and higher with every new generation that comes along,” Sharp said. “There’s still a lot of stuff the old-timers did that nobody’s matched, but in another way, the music just keeps getting pushed forward constantly by these younger artists. I think there’s been a real boost to the genre.”
Steep Canyon Rangers itself has played a key role in preserving and advancing the music. The band has released 14 studio albums and three collaborative albums with actor and banjo player Steve Martin and been inducted into the North Carolina Music Hall of Fame.
“Nobody Knows You” won the Grammy Award for Best Bluegrass Album in 2013, while 2011’s “Rare Bird Alert” (with Martin) and 2019’s “North Carolina Songbook” were nominated in the same category.
Steep Canyon Rangers’ current lineup consists of:
Burdett, an award-winning singer-songwriter and student of the folk tradition, joined the band in 2022, and his contribution was immediately felt in the 2023 album, “Morning Shift.”
While Sharp writes the bulk of the band’s songs, everyone contributes, and Burdett wrote a few songs on “Morning Shift.”
The album was a way for the band to assimilate their new lead singer and guitarist, a critical moment in the evolution of Steep Canyon Rangers after more than 20 years of performing together.
“Now, we’re like three years down the road from that, and I feel like things are really clicking,” said Sharp. “I think the band’s better than it’s ever been at this point.”
The band followed “Morning Shift” with “Live at Greenfield Lake” in 2024. These recordings, all from a single night, offer ticketholders for the Oct. 3 show a glimpse of how the band performs outside of a studio session.
“It might be all six of us on the stage with some electric instruments and full drums or it might be two of us on the stage with a couple of guitars, singing, crowding around one microphone,” said Sharp. “The show has a lot of contour to it.”
Live shows also present an opportunity to break out those extended instrumental parts and showcase the virtuoso soloists in the band. In fact, with three lead singers, the spotlight keeps moving about the stage.
Something that Sharp said has always been a part of the Steep Canyon Rangers DNA is its authentic storytelling.
“It isn’t just a nice melody to get you through the next four minutes,” he said. “We like to — lyrically — have an impact with our songs.”
The songs’ themes evolve with wherever Sharp and the others find themselves in life.
“One thing I’ve sort of gravitated toward is family, being a parent, sort of the passage of time,” Sharp said.
He said the songs are all very personal, which he believes gives them an immediacy in a live setting.
For some of Steep Canyon Rangers’ concert dates — though not the one at the Ponte Vedra Concert Hall — the band is joined by Martin and comedian Martin Short.
“We’ve been playing with Steve for, like, 16 years now,” Sharp said. “We’ve developed a really close friendship. Pretty much from the start we had just a great working relationship. He’s very open to ideas and a very hard worker. He’s always wanting to work on something.”
Sharp said he was impressed with Martin because anyone who has had such a tremendous degree of success could easily just coast.
“But that’s the last thing in the world that Steve does — just coast,” Sharp said.
Martin and his friend Short perform some comedy in those select dates, giving everyone a breather while keeping things light for the audience.
“They have a great time together,” Sharp said.
For the Oct. 3 show, it will be just the Steep Canyon Rangers, but that will be more than enough for bluegrass/folk fans.
Said fans will be happy to know that the band plans to release a new album early next year. It doesn’t have a title yet, but a single from the album, “Next Act,” has been getting some play. Sharp said the album will mark a return to the band’s bluegrass roots.
For the Oct. 3 show, doors open at 6:30 p.m. Tickets are $74.90 to $160.51. Purchase tickets at PVConcertHall.com, AXS.com or at the box office, which is open 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily.
For further information, go to pvconcerthall.com.
