Steve Martin’s band comes to Lexington after a ‘phenomenal year’

Steep Canyon Rangers

7 p.m. January 18 at Manchester Music Hall, 899 Manchester St. $20, $32. 859-537-7321. manchestermusichall.com, steepcanyon.com.

As he prepares to set out of on his first work weekend of 2020 with the Steep Canyon Rangers, Graham Sharp referenced an unfortunate but inevitable fact about the Grammy winning bluegrass band’s travel plans.

“We won’t be going through the warm weather, I can tell you that much,” said the banjoist, vocalist and songwriter.

The destination luring the Rangers from their Asheville, North Carolina home base was Wausau, Wisconsin. The predicted high temperature for the day of the band’s arrival: 12 degrees. Happy new year, guys.

The wintry welcome, aside, the Rangers are heading into what already looks to be a fruitful 2020 with two new albums awaiting release. One, a collaboration with the Asheville Symphony, is due out this spring. In between January concerts, however, the Rangers will head to Nashville to complete work on a second album, one devoted to new material. Then comes a series of overseas performances with Steve Martin, the entrepreneurial comedian and actor who adopted Sharp and company as his onstage band and prime performance foil a decade ago.

“We had a nice long break over Christmas,” Sharp said. “Now we’re ready to get back out there.”

But to appreciate what will meet the Rangers in 2020, we need to review 2019, which Sharp termed a “phenomenal year” for the band.

First, there was an essentially unplanned live album called “North Carolina Songbook.” The recording chronicled a concert tribute the Rangers staged last year at the popular home state music festival know as Merlefest. The tribute called for the Rangers to play tunes by a variety of North Carolina artists. Some of the honorees came from the folk and bluegrass worlds (Earl Scruggs, Doc Watson), some blurred the boundaries (Ola Belle Reed, Elizabeth Cotton) and a few seemingly hailed from another stylistic universe (Ben K. King, Thelonious Monk).

“The Carolina heritage we work from is huge, whether you’re talking about bluegrass, blues, jazz or rock ‘n’ roll,” Sharp said. “There were definitely people who didn’t make the cut whose music has really influenced us. There were a couple of Ryan Adams songs that we were close to doing but decided not to. I really wanted a Nina Simone song in there, but we never got to that either. Maybe we’ll try them on a ‘Volume Two.’

“What a lot of bands do, and what we have done, is spend their early years honing a specific sound. Once it gets to a certain point, though, you start bringing all of your influences to that framework.”

If you think hearing the Rangers providing a Bill Monroe-style twist to the Thelonious Monk jazz classic “Blue Monk” (the highlight of “North Carolina Songbook”) is wild, get a load of what will be in store on “Be Still Moses,” the collaborative record with the Asheville Symphony due out on March 6. The project retools 11 songs from past Rangers albums going back to 2007. But it’s the Sharp-penned title tune that may surprise the most. Aside from the orchestra, it enlists vocal help from the veteran R&B/pop group Boyz II Men.

“On paper, that sounded totally off the wall and ridiculous. But it turned out to be something pretty special that was far outside anything we have done.

“Our producer, Michael Selverne, said we were going to use one song where different artists would come in and sing with us. He threw out some names here and there. Boyz II Men was 100% his inspiration, so we just followed him on it. That’s really all it took. What Boyz II Men did with that song, for me as a songwriter, just blew my mind. It means the world when you have artists so talented and successful attached to your work.”

The Rangers’ stylistic detours shouldn’t be all that surprising given its extended association with Martin. But that alliance has hardly been a novelty. Martin is a longtime banjoist who has been immensely supportive not only of the Rangers, but of bluegrass music in general.

A single, along with an accompanying video that is more poignant than comical, was released as recently as last week for a new Martin/Rangers song called “California.”

“Obviously, Steve has a platform where he has people’s attention and people’s ears in a way that’s far greater than anything we’ve ever had. That part of it has been huge for the band, for getting our name out there. But Steve also really encourages us to do our own thing and grow in that matter. He’s obviously been a great collaborator and a great friend over the years, but he’s also a wonderful example of the work it takes to do things at a high level. He puts as much work into his craft as I think anybody I’ve ever been around. That’s the side of Steve Martin people don’t see.”

Other live shows this week

▪ Though born in Lexington, Donn Johnson has long been known simply as the Atlanta-based, gospel-informed soul music stylist Donnie. A collaborator with such varied pop/R&B hybrid artists as India. Arie and Boney James, as well as a cousin to Motown legend Marvin Gaye, Donnie returns to his roots on Jan. 20 as part of the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Holiday Celebration Commemorative Program at Heritage Hall. The event begins at 11 a.m. uky.edu/mlk/content/event-schedule.

▪ The meaty blues howl of Shakura S’Aida is a product of global design. The singer was born in Brooklyn, raised in Switzerland and is now based in Canada. Curiously, her vocal firepower sounds vividly Southern, a blend of juke joint rawness and soul-style jubilation. S’Aida will place those inspirations on display at a Jan. 17 performance with Chuck Campbell at the ultra-intimate Weisiger Theatre of the Norton Center for the Arts, 600 W. Walnut in Danville (7:30 p.m.; $15-$39). 859-236-4692. nortoncenter.com, shakurasaida.com.

▪ Mardi Gras a month early? Believe it, because the 36-year old Rebirth Brass Band is heading to Lexington from New Orleans for a Jan. 21 performance at The Burl, 375 Thompson Rd. (8 p.m, $20). The band’s mix of the brass band traditions its members grew up on with accents of funk, jazz and, at times, hip-hop earned a Grammy in 2012 for the “Rebirth of New Orleans” album. The group’s latest project, “Recorded Live at the 2019 New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival,” is up for another win at next weekend’s Grammy ceremony. 859-447-8166. theburlky.com, rebirthbrassband.com.