Woody Platt describes his MerleFest experience as an interesting evolution.
“Back in college, we flocked to the festival,” he said, “but mainly to go on the camp on the airstrip and play music in the campground. Sometimes we didn’t have tickets or we only could go in for a day or part of a day. It was fun to be there to play, to jam and meet other musicians. There was quite a scene down there.”
He says he has experienced “a huge leap from sleeping in the dirt in the campground” to being invited to play with the Steep Canyon Rangers. “We played a lot of years in a row—a couple times with Steve Martin, which were really wonderful.”
Platt’s decision to leave the Rangers in 2022, which may have surprised fans and even his band mates, did not come lightly.
“Platt said, “I knew for a fact I had accomplished more than I ever set out to accomplish and had so much fun. But I also realized that I want to be home more.”
Platt’s son was six when he came off the road, and he said, “It felt like the right time for me. I would never hold it against anybody with a young family who tours full time because it’s really special. I used to say, ‘When you tour, then when you’re home, you’re really home.’ You can just be completely right there. But for me it was time [for a change].”
He still values the friendship of the Rangers. “We were best friends,” he said, “and best friends support each other through whatever decisions there are.” He lives in the same town with Mike Guggino, the mandolin player, and Mike Ashworth, the percussionist and the multi-instrumentalist with the band, so they still enjoy playing together locally with some regularity. “We sing some of the old songs that we know, so that feels natural.”
Platt knew he wasn’t through playing, but he wanted to decide how much time to devote to music. He says he has found himself playing more locally, in smaller venues and settings that used to make him uncomfortable, “more unrehearsed, more free settings, maybe not as musically tight but special in their own way. That’s been a challenge for me because I’m used to being in a real rehearsed situation.” He is also playing more with his wife Shannon Whitworth, a multi-instrumentalist and singer-songwriter in her own right.
“I just let it unfold naturally, and it’s unfolding perfectly for me. I’ve gotten a handful of really cool gigs that I’m excited to play. It’s a carefree way to play music when it’s not your everyday thing. In my case, it has made music more enjoyable, more hand selected.
“But I’ve been able to do not as much music, which has given me a chance to do other things. I can really lean into the music that I am playing.” Those “other things” include fishing, a passion Platt highlights alongside his music on webpage. He has pursued this interest since childhood and has led fly fishing trips in the mountains of Western North Carolina since he was eighteen.
His strong feelings for the area he calls home was called to action in the fall of 2024 when Hurricane Helene brought so much devastation to the area.
“In our county, Transylvania County, we suffered severe flooding of businesses and homes, and a hundred families or so were completely displaced, but we didn’t get it as bad as other counties,” Platt said. “There’s been quite a community effort to put this place back together, and it’s going be a long process. Because I’m a river person, I spend a lot of time in the rivers here, and the amount of destruction along the riverbanks is disheartening. It’s such a large lift. It’s not a hundred yards; it’s the whole county, and that’s the case for much of Western North Carolina.”
Platt has kept busy in this new phase of his career. In addition to producing for other musicians, he released his first solo album Far Away from You. After years with the Steep Canyon Rangers and its stable lineup, he had the opportunity to pick and arrange songs, bringing in musicians he had met throughout his career.
“I had great musicians that I would trust in any way to contribute, but it was a more singular process, especially in the song selection, which I enjoyed. It was a casual and natural [process,]
but as far as being similar to or different from what I’ve been doing, this album was a little bit of a rewind; I went back to more of a fully traditional instrumentation. By the end, when I was in the Rangers, we had incorporated some electric instruments and some drums and things, so I went back to my real true love—bluegrass music—the standard lineup.”
For the solo album, he put together a top shelf bluegrass outfit—Jerry Douglas in on Dobro, Sam Bush on fiddle, as well as such well-known names as Tim O’Brien, Darrell Scott, and Del McCurry. I think that spirit [of collaborating] is what I’m drawn to about music, and you can share it easily, so it was natural to reach out to others and collaborate like that.
Platt’s album was set for release October 11, not quite two weeks after Hurricane Helene. “You never can’t predict timing,” he said, “or how things are going to unfold. It was weird because I was so excited about project, and then bigger things came up—the destruction from Helene. We almost canceled the release event, but we pivoted and turned it into a hurricane fundraiser called Rescue Carolina.” The project raised over $100,000, and as locals, he said, they were also able to distribute the funds in an effective way.
“We were able to write checks directly to families and groups that were in need, instead of just pushing it into a larger coffer and not knowing where it was going,” he said. “That was very grassroots, and it felt like that was a way that we could help. We use music as a way to kind of bring some joy and also raise some money.”
Playing closer to home, Platt has continued to play MerleFest. The year after he stepped away from the Steep Canyon Rangers, he and his wife Shannon played a set of her music at the festival.
“This year I’m taking my own bluegrass band, so it is evolving,” he said. The Bluegrass Gentleman is composed of Daren Shumaker on mandolin, Bennett Sullivan on Banjo, Casy Driessen on fiddle and Buddy Melton on bass with Platt on guitar and vocals.
“I think the moral of the story is that Merle Fest is usually where I want to be that time of year. It’s just such a big honor. I don’t take it for granted that I get to be there and play music, for such a great musical audience, and all the history and the legacy of Doc and Merle.”
Photo by David Simchock