Telling a table of Gen Z and Millennials that I was going to see Steep Canyon Rangers at the Schermerhorn yesterday, I had to clarify just whom I was going to see. They, after all, had tickets for Bruno Mars’ stadium show that night—the explanation for the even-more-than-usual Downtown Nashville traffic on Wednesday night. I went for a cultural reference I thought they’d get: the band that has toured with Steve Martin over the years.
“You mean the Cheaper by the Dozen Steve Martin?” one asked.
“That’s the one.”
At the show that night, I realized that Steve Martin didn’t give Steep Canyon Rangers credibility; they helped give him bluegrass cred.
Likewise, from the opening number of the Nashville Symphony, no one had any question whether the Rangers belonged on stage or not. They owned the stage.
After the symphony’s opening instrumental number, landing with “a shave and a haircut,” the band took the stage midway into “Easy to Love,” originally featured on their 2012 Nobody Knows You, with an orchestral version on their collaborative album with the Asheville Symphony Be Still Moses. They played the title cut of that album as well, an echo of old Spirituals.
The band played several songs from their upcoming album Next Act, out in May 2026, on which they keep a tight bluegrass focus, while demonstrating the full range of their musicality.
They played “Rumble Strips,” a single released in advance of the album, which guitarist Aaron Burdett says they often dedicate to their bus driver Randall.
Most enjoyable was seeing the members of the orchestra and their conductor Daniel Wiley as they watched the band’s performance. The band’s instrumental virtuosity, whether playing alone or with the support of the stellar symphony orchestra, is paralleled by their vocals. The only member not taking a vocal lead was fiddler Nicky Sanders, whose energetic fiddling rose to a peak at the end of the second act.
Bassist Barrett Smith had the first lead, with Graham Sharp on banjo picking up with his lower range lead. Burdett, the newest member of the band, left no question as to why he was a perfect fit to replace founding member Woody Platt. Mandolinist Mike Guggino also shared lead and harmony vocals. Mike Ashworth, not listed on the program, played drums “in the fishtank” then came out and took a guitar solo and a vocal lead during the evening. Most entertaining is the band’s ability to swap leads among three or four members during a single song.
From the upcoming album they played “Circling the Drain,” noting that it was their first time to play the song for an audience and, in the second set, “Some Days,” delivered with a full orchestral sound. The actual set list expanded on the printed program, with a couple more from that album, including the title cut “Next Act” and the intriguing narrative “The Heart Is the Only Compass,” with a DNA test result as the plot twist.
Fans of the Steep Canyon Rangers undoubtedly thought of additional songs they might have requested (“Hominy Valley” from the last album a personal favorite), but the Rangers played a good representation of their deep catalog, including “Call the Captain,” “Bullet on Fire,” and “Las Vegas.” The latter prompted a thought that if Sin City can be seen from outer space, perhaps the full-out version of this song might be heard that far.
Giving his own account of joining the band, Burdett led off “Deep End,” which he says describes that experience, with a big enough sound without augmentation by the symphony. Burdett also introduced the lovely “Harvest Queen,” one of two songs he sent the band in advance of his audition.
Without question, the highlight of the evening came when they “turned the fiddle player loose,” with Sanders totally commanding the stage during “Auden’s Train.” His fiddling so embodied the sound of a train, no one would have been surprised if a locomotive had come crashing through the walls of the Schermerhorn. Through his energetic solo lead, Sanders also incorporated bits of classical music and even a bit of “Norwegian Wood.” Watching the reaction of Wiley, the symphony conductor, added to the fun of the performance.
Coming back on stage for the obligatory, but completely earned encore, the band with full orchestra closed with “Blow Me Away”:
Now the rock of ages is broken
Just an empty page where the book fell open
Won’t you blow me away?
Won’t you blow me away?
If you show me the way
I’ll be on my way
The crowd leaving the facility after the show Wednesday night was totally blown away.
