For most musicians, turning music into your full-time gig is the goal. Almost 25 years after forming, the bluegrass band Steep Canyon Rangers have pulled it off. But mandolin player Mike Guggino says it was never part of the calculus for the longtime friends and bandmates.
“Everybody ended up making this their career,” Guggino says. “You don’t think about that when you start a band in college playing at bars and parties.”
It’s been a rewarding ride for the Asheville, North Carolina-based outfit. In 2013, the group won a Grammy Award for Best Bluegrass Album in recognition of their eighth LP Nobody Knows You. This came on the heels of the previous year’s nomination for Rare Bird Alert, a collaboration with comedy legend and renowned banjo player Steve Martin.
“We’ve been working with Steve for 15 years,” Guggino says of the actor who has become a creative partner in the studio, on tour and in one-off performances like the band’s 2017 NPR Tiny Desk concert. “It’s been such a great collaboration for us. Obviously it gets us playing in front of huge audiences. Martin Short now is part of the show, too.
“Steve is a great banjo player. He’s so creative and so driven,” Guggino continues. “We’ve learned so much from him about performing and putting on a great show. He’s a great friend, and we love collaborating with him. We hope to keep doing it as long as he wants to keep doing it.”
Rocky mountain revival
Colorado has been a coveted stop for the Steep Canyon Rangers since their early days. Winning the 2001 RockyGrass Festival band competition at Planet Bluegrass in Lyons, where they played the main stage the following year, served as an important step for the group’s success.
“It was another place besides the South where bluegrass is really appreciated,” Guggino says. “To travel so far from home and be welcomed by people who love bluegrass, it really attracted us to Colorado. We’ve been going there for over 20 years, and it still is one of the best places in the country for bluegrass music.”
The band has a history with Boulder Theater, too. They’re familiar favorites at the historic downtown venue, but their July 20 return will mark the outfit’s first Colorado show with new guitarist and vocalist Aaron Burdett.
“We honestly feel like the band is better than it’s ever been right now,” Guggino says. “We’re so thrilled to share this new music with people. It will be the first time we’ve taken that new sound to the Boulder Theater.”
Live from the Bat Cave
Released September 2023, the group recorded their 14th studio album, Morning Shift, in Bat Cave, North Carolina in a historic inn called the Hickory Nut Gap with producer Darrell Scott.
“It’s a cool old bed and breakfast, and we wanted to bring the studio to a space where we could be creative,” Guggino says. “We all just moved into this inn and stayed there for a week in the winter. We built the studio in the great room: all wood walls, ceilings and floors. We were really just going for a vibe more than anything. We thought about naming the album Live from the Bat Cave; then we thought that might be confusing. People might think, Batman. It could get weird.”
The band’s upcoming album is a live recording of a Wilmington, North Carolina show called Live at Greenfield Lake, slated for release in August. SCR recorded several gigs from their tour last year to get material for a live record, but decided the home-state show was something special.
“This one show we listened to and thought, ‘Wow, the audience is on fire. The band’s on fire,” Guggino says. “It’s one of those special nights, and we captured it. That’s the record. It’s fantastic and we’re so proud of it. We can’t wait for it to come out, because it really showcases what the band sounds like live. Anybody could make a record sound good, but how a band plays live is a different thing.”
ON THE BILL: Steep Canyon Rangers with Head for the Hills. 8 p.m. Saturday, July 20, Boulder Theater, 2032 14th St. $25+