Ever since Bill Monroe, the father of bluegrass, brought this intricate music genre to the world, it never stopped being relevant even until this modern age.
Many musicians have infused this old genre into newer forms of music, keeping its legacy alive to this date. Today, we are going to listen to some bluegrass musicians including Steve Martin and the Steep Canyon Rangers.
Steve Martin is a popular American actor, comedian and TV personality.
However, he also had a knack of playing and writing music, specifically bluegrass. In the early 2000s, Martin appeared on the acting and comedy scene less as he dedicated his career to music.
He achieved success in his music and later met a North Carolinian bluegrass band who called themselves the Steep Canyon Rangers in 2009.
Since that time, Martin and the Steep Canyon Rangers collaborated, wrote some music, and released it to the public.
In 2017, Martin and the band showcased their music at NPR’s Tiny Desk studios.
The collaboration between Martin and the Steep Canyon Rangers yielded them two studio albums, namely Rare Bird Alert in 2011 and The Long-Awaited Album in 2017.
In the same year before the release of The Long-Awaited Album, NPR Music allowed them to appear in one of their Tiny Desk Concert episodes to promote their fresh, bluegrass music.
Martin opened the show by playing some of his older music with Edie Brickell.
After opening their little concert with a joke, Steve Martin and the band officially began their show with “So Familiar,” a song with the same name as the album that he wrote with singer-songwriter Edie Brickell in 2015.
It was purely Martin’s playful banjo solo, but it later became more than a fantastic sound after the band accompanied his banjo with the sounds of their instruments.
Their two next songs were their big hits from their collab album.
Martin never fails to make his audience laugh with his witty jokes as he introduced the next song from their album called All Night Long.
As the lead singer, Woody Platt sang the song while strumming his acoustic guitar.
The instruments melded well with Platt’s powerful vocals along with the three-way harmony between him, their percussionist Mike Ashworth and Mike Guggino on the mandolins.
Their next song was called “On The Waters.”
Their percussionist kicked off with a repeating drum pattern followed by the mellow melody of the strings.
You could hear Martin’s beautiful plucking on the strings as Platt sang the song.
As they reached the chorus, all of them sang in perfect unison. It was Nicky Sanders’s fiddle solo that deserved the most attention, as he nailed every second of it!
The episode usually features three songs, but they never hesitated to bring one more.
After the supposed to be their last song, Platt whispered on Martin’s ears about performing Caroline as an extra on the set.
Martin asked the audience if they wanted to hear one more, they jubilantly answered yes. The song was about a modern romance gone bad, put into words in a comedic way. The band played its funky tune while Martin sang its air-gasping lyrics. They joined their voices together in each chorus to produce a melodious vocal harmony.
Their concert ended with the audience rewarding them with their heartfelt cheers and applause.
Their sophisticated bluegrass concert ended beautifully and with a shower of applause.
Their whole performance was uploaded on YouTube, and has since garnered 2.8 million views.
If you are looking for more raw, high-quality music like this, especially from underrated musicians as well as your favorite artists, watching NPR’s Tiny Desk Concert episodes are the way to go!
Be sure to browse their YouTube channel for more performances and subscribe to their podcast to be updated for their latest concerts.
Watch the full performance by clicking on the link below:
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