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Fans of bluegrass music will get a choice when Steep Canyon Rangers plays Salt Lake City this weekend: in a club or al fresco.
The six-member band from North Carolina is booked for a show Saturday night at The State Room, and the band will close out the Utah Arts Festival on Sunday night.
Graham Sharp, Steep Canyon Rangers' lead singer and banjo player, recently talked to The Salt Lake Tribune about bluegrass traditions, performing with Steve Martin, and why the banjo should be taken seriously.
Is there a difference between playing indoor and playing outdoors?
I think there is. When you're playing indoors, you get a little more of the audience's attention. … Whether it's a club or a theater, we play both settings. Some of them are loud and kind of raucous, and some of them are seated and silent. Indoors is usually kind of focused.
You get outdoors — and we love coming out West, because of a place like Utah, where we did the [Utah] Symphony [in Deer Valley] last time, you're just out in this beautiful setting on the side of the mountain and it's gorgeous — you know the audience's attention is a little dispersed.
You guys have been around for 16 years. Is it a challenge to keep things fresh?
I think you have to work at it more to keep it fresh. I feel like we're still exploring. I love live shows for that reason, because we try to make a little more room for everybody to stretch out and for things to take their own shape, depending on the night.
Still, my favorite part, personally, is putting new music together. We write the songs, bring them to the band, and that process of just getting a song birthed and getting the finished product with the band is still my favorite part.
Everybody's got a different definition, but from your standpoint, what is bluegrass, differentiated from other genres and forms?
For me, bluegrass is centered around the instruments Bill Monroe [used when he] put his band together back in the day. It has a certain kind of banjo-playing to it, which differentiates it from old-time, mountain-style music. Being a banjo player, I appreciate that.
I love the whole spectrum of bluegrass. I know exactly what the hardcore bluegrass is that I love to hear, and it's getting stretched in so many great directions. For me, bluegrass mostly centers around the instruments.
Listening to your album "Radio," it feels both old and new at the same time, and maybe because of all the acoustic instruments. And there is this sort of timelessness to it, because it's unplugged. Is that part of the appeal?
I think so. Hearing those instruments and that combination of instruments, I think for a lot of people has a strong association with a place and time in America. Then, when you layer on, maybe, more recent things, or things that come from outside those natural associations with the instruments and the music, that's interesting for me, and I think that's what our band has stumbled onto.
When you recorded "Radio," was there a goal to do something you hadn't done before?
No, I think the goal has always been the same for us in the studio, and I don't see it changing. That's to get the best group of songs that we have together, that make the most sense together, and make a record of it. If those are the songs you choose, the music will follow the song, and where the song leads it. We have fun with songs, we work on them and try them as waltzes and try them this and that, trios and duets. And, eventually, we stumble on something and whatever that style of music is called, that's the song.
You play banjo for this band. The banjo is a much-maligned instrument, as I'm sure you've encountered. Do you have a sense of why that is?
Just the whole "Deliverance" factor. It didn't really come from there, that's what many people's association is with the banjo. I think that's started to fade in recent years. I feel like there's so many virtuosic-level players playing the banjo these days that if you can't take the banjo seriously, you may not be into music.
It's interesting, it's an African instrument. It came over with the slaves. It just got taken up, and came together with this mountain music, with the heavy Scots-Irish [influence], and somehow it just fit.
You have had this ongoing collaboration with Steve Martin. How did that happen?
We just very randomly met Steve, through his wife [the writer Anne Stringfield]. We had known his wife for a while through some mutual friends. When they got married, it was [a year or two before] Steve put out his first [banjo] record, "The Crow." He was back into the music. He had never stopped playing it, but he hadn't done a record for a long time.
We just got together very informally. We played some songs, we invited him up onstage at our festival. He sat in with us a couple of times, and then we got an offer to do this benefit show, so we decided we'd give that a try. We just went from small steps from there, until they became these big tours. He's done many, many albums, and we've been part of the last few. It's really blossomed more than any of us expected it would. I think it's had more longevity than any of us thought it would. He's just a super-creative guy, and we've really enjoyed doing it.
Everybody thinks of Martin as a comedian, but on the things he's serious about — like music and the banjo — he's really serious. What's it like performing with him?
Performing with him is amazing. The first time we did a show with him, he went from the Steve that we were working with the music on backstage and at his house to the Steve onstage. It was like flipping a switch. He's just amazing onstage. I think it's helped us a lot, just being comfortable in a lot of situations, just being onstage and seeing how he handles everything, and just delivers every night. For me, the biggest thing I've taken from him is, like you say, how serious he is about it, and just how hard he works all the time.
Twitter: @moviecricket —
Steep Canyon Rangers, live
The bluegrass sextet Steep Canyon Rangers performs twice in Salt Lake City this weekend:
Saturday • The State Room, 638 S. State St., with Six Feet in the Pine opening. Show starts at 9 p.m. Tickets are $20 at Ticketfly.com.
Sunday • Utah Arts Festival, Amphitheater Stage, Library Square. Performance starts at 9:45 p.m.
Utah Arts Festival
The Utah Arts Festival is marking its 40th year Thursday through Sunday at Library and Washington squares in Salt Lake City with music, familiar attractions like the Kids Art Yard, a lineup of food vendors, and a lot from artists that's fresh and new. For highlights, visit http://www.sltrib.com/entertainment .
Tickets
Admission to the Utah Arts Festival is free on Thursday.
Adults • $12 per day, Friday through Sunday
Seniors (65 and older) • $6 per day, Friday through Sunday
Military • $6 per day, Friday through Sunday; ID required
Children (12 and younger) • Free
Three-day pass • $30
Where to buy tickets • Online at uaf.org or at the gates at Library Square and Washington Square