INTERVIEW: Graham Sharp Of Steep Canyon Rangers Talks Tour With Steve Martin & Martin Short, Getting Kidnapped, & Much More

You never know when serendipitous moments may arise.

For Graham Sharp and his bluegrass band the Steep Canyon Rangers, that moment came by way of a friend of a friend in 2009 who knew the soon-to-be wife of Steve Martin. Yes, that Steve Martin.

Aside from his known film and television accolades, Martin is also a notorious banjo picker and songsmith, so when he was introduced to Sharp and the band, sparks flew. The Steep Canyon Rangers and Martin would soon do some casual pickin’ together, which led to a guest appearance at a show or two of the band’s, and before long, they went on tours together, aided Martin in the production of his album, The Crow, and simply became friends.

Mind you the Steep Canyon Rangers had already made a name for themselves as top tier pickers in the bluegrass world, but this newfound kinship obviously only took them to greater heights. And about six years ago, they added another massive figure to the mix in occasional tour appearances in Martin’s dear friend, Martin Short. The lot of them are in the thick of a spring and summer tour, coming to the Grand Ole Opry September 19th, 2024. But before then, just the band will perform at The Ryman next week, June 20th, 2024, with opening act Lindsay Lou.

The band recently released their first single of the year, “Fruits of My Labor,” which is off of their upcoming live album set to be released August 30th, 2024.

We got to chat with Sharp on the phone last month to learn more about the band’s connection with Martin, tour, the upcoming live album, and more.

So how’s the spring tour been for the Steep Canyon Rangers so far?

We’re warmin’ up, and lately it’s been picking up steam. I don’t know why, but the fall has been our busiest time of year the last couple years. And it works well like that because the summer isn’t as crazy as it has been in the past, which is good because most of us have school-aged kids, and it’s good to have weekends off in the summer to be around a little bit more. 

I see where you’ll be performing with both Steve Martin and Martin Short this year. I know you’ve got a history playing with Steve, but is this going to be your first time performing with Martin? 

No, so Marty’s been on that tour probably like six years. Most of the guys have been touring together. It started off obviously as a music show, then some tours would be just a show with Steve, and then some would be mostly just a comedy show. And I think it’s just easier and probably more enjoyable for Steve to have Marty there. So it turned into that, and it kind of changed our role in the show, but it’s wonderful nonetheless. 

So what does the format or dynamic of the show look like then when you’re all together? 

So the show is mostly going to be the two of them doing some sort of banter and little bits and stuff like that. And then Steve will leave the stage and Marty will do his solo thing, and vice versa. We mostly come on during Steve’s solo time, do some songs with him, and then he’ll leave, and we’ll do some songs just the band. 

And does Martin play an instrument or sing?

He is a great singer. He’s trained, and just loves the music of Sinatra and people like that. He can really sing, and he’ll do like a show tune or jazz-type tune. He’s really good at it. So we do some music together with him and he sings with us a little bit as well. 

What’s that experience been like with such big stars? Are you ever not laughing back stage and what’s the atmosphere like?

It’s interesting, because I mean they’re very different people and personalities. Steve is relaxed and will hangout and just talk. A lot of the time he’s just so focused whether it’s a new song or brushing up on an old song. We have such little time together just the way we work, so we just focus on the music with him. And Marty does also, but he’s just always – I wouldn’t say in character – but just always on. 

I’m sure you’ve told it a thousand times, but in a nutshell could you talk about how SCR got hooked up with Steve Martin in the first place? 

We had known his wife just a little bit through our old guitar player’s brother, before she and Steve even met. It was just totally serendipitous like that. He was putting out his first album, The Crow, and thought maybe he’d tour, and it just happened that we met informally, and played music together a few times. Then he guested with us once or twice on some shows, and it just felt like something he wanted to try so we felt it out, dipped our toes in the water, and he liked it well enough, and the band really got his songs down to where he felt great about it.

Before we knew it, we were off on a world tour with him more or less. It all happened very organically, and it’s always felt like a really natural fit. We obviously looked up to him, and take a lot from his feel for things, and he also looks to us as experienced musicians, so we arrange things together and even write songs together. 

So June 20th y’all (sans Steve) are coming to play The Ryman here in Nashville. I’d wager you’ve played there your fair share of times. How many times have you played there, and is there a most memorable performance you’ve had? 

Yeah we’ve been there probably a dozen times or so. I mean, I would have to say just our first time there, which was when they used to do the Opry at The Ryman in the winter months. Just the whole experience at The Ryman is so cool. You come in through that alley, go in the back door, and there’s the same lady who’s been checking in bands for 20-30 years, and she knows everybody and everybody knows her. It just feels very family-like and special there. And then to go out and play three songs or whatever and get a standing ovation is just something that you never forget. That room is special, and the history there is just baked into the walls.

Do you have any fun cover songs, new songs, or just otherwise special songs that you have planned for the show that you can tip us off on?

Well, we’ve got a great opener for the show, Lindsay Lou, so hopefully we’ll get to do some songs with her. That’s always a good opportunity to drill down into some newer stuff or local stuff. We’ve got some singles coming out between now and then, and we’ll focus a lot on this live record we’re putting out.

We’ve been doing this for 20+ years, so from the inside it’s hard to know how the band is sounding or how it’s going, but our last few shows we’ll put something up on social media, and people are just aglow about it, so that must mean the band is sounding pretty good. Coming into a place feeling like you’re kind of hot at the moment is a good feeling, and when you’ve been doing this as long as we have, it’s not always the case. 

What more can you tell us about the new live record?

Well the live album is fun because it’s one show. We just took one concert and left off a few songs for length, but it’s pretty much the running duration of a concert, so it has the whole range of what we do. We try to feature different singers, different instruments, different arrangements, and it’s got some warts on it as all live performances do, but hey. People might forget a word or two here and there and that’s okay. It was in Wilmington, North Carolina, at a really cool outdoor amphitheater. The crowd was loud, it was loose, and we just loved the energy of this show. It will come out August 30th. 

How do you go about altering set lists as you go from city to city? What’s that process like?

When possible, we try to play songs that have some relation to where we are and make the show special. And at this point with the band, we’ve got maybe 13 albums behind us, so we have a lot to choose from and a lot of different styles. We have stuff that’s full electric, or has some electric and full drums, or all the way down to just a bluegrass band around a single mic. There’s a lot of range in there.

For the most part when writing set lists, we try to vary it enough to keep the band nimble, and we’re not a band that will play a two-month tour and say okay here’s the set, and we’re just going to get better and better and nail it every night. I don’t know, it’s just more fun and you stay a little sharper having to go through different tunes. We like a good long soundcheck, and we’ll learn a cover or pick something old back up and bring it back to the show. We try to keep that balance of things we know really well, and things that are a little more flying by the seat of our pants, as you get a different energy from the band that way.

Do you have any tour horror stories?

I almost got kidnapped one night which was odd, but I think that was my fault. (laughs) 

What happened there?

I don’t know, I think I just got into the wrong car in the city one night. And the person started driving me where I didn’t think I was supposed to be going. So I bailed out at a stop light. This was a matter of mistaken identity. These days things are tamer than it was back in the day. We’re lucky to have a group of guys that are pretty stable and when things go wrong, which they always do, we usually have some cooler heads that can troubleshoot. It’s not me, I usually come up with the worst ideas. That’s the beauty of a band.

What are one or two pinnacle moments for you as an artist?

I guess I would go toward the most recent thing, which was just a pinch-yourself sort of moment. We put out a record a few years ago that was a live recording at MerleFest, which was Doc Watson’s festival, and for that record we did all songs by North Carolina artists. One of which was Elizabeth Cotten, who was one of the great blues singer-songwriters of her day.

And this particular track we played, it wasn’t her singing, but it was one she’d written with her great grandchildren. And one of her great grandchildren sang on it when she was maybe 11 at the time. Recently, she found our recording on YouTube and got in touch with us, and joined us on stage about a month ago to sing this song with us that she sang with her great grandmother way back when. It was just such a crazy full circle moment. You hear some of these recordings and they sound like they’re from a different world. To have her come out and sing this song with us, and just how sweet and wonderful she was, it just makes everything feel more connected.