On the Blue Ridge
On the Blue Ridge features conversations with people shaping the Blue Ridge Mountains. Hosted by Asheville-based journalist Jon Page, the show explores the ideas, creativity, and vision driving Western North Carolina forward.
Through long-form interviews and on-location storytelling, each episode captures the evolving story of these mountains. The conversations focus on people doing meaningful and inspiring work across the region, from conservation and outdoor recreation to the arts, agriculture, food and beverage, entrepreneurship, and beyond.
On the Blue Ridge
Aaron Burdett of Steep Canyon Rangers on Crafting Songs in the Blue Ridge Mountains
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Aaron Burdett is a Western North Carolina-based singer-songwriter, guitar player, and one of the lead vocalists for Steep Canyon Rangers.
A highly acclaimed musician with eight solo albums to his credit, Aaron is also the founder and owner of Solstice Construction Co., a custom homebuilding firm in Saluda, the small mountain town where he grew up. Blurring the lines between Americana, Folk, Country, and Bluegrass, his solo work is deeply rooted in these mountains, carried by thoughtful songwriting and a soulful voice that made him a natural fit for Steep Canyon Rangers.
They’re a Grammy Award-winning bluegrass band that formed in 2000 and are widely known for collaborations with Steve Martin. Aaron joined the group in 2022 following the departure of founding member Woody Platt, and he has quickly become an important part of the band’s evolving creative voice, both on tour and in the studio. He appears on the albums Morning Shift, Live at Greenfield Lake, and Next Act, the band’s latest studio album, which arrives May 22.
In this episode, Aaron discusses the stories behind a few songs from the new album; his path to Steep Canyon Rangers; balancing music with a longtime career in homebuilding; how growing up in Western North Carolina has shaped his voice as a singer and songwriter; and much more.
Steep Canyon Rangers
steepcanyon.com
Aaron Burdett
aaronburdett.com
Tracks Featured in this Episode
“Next Act” by Steep Canyon Rangers (watch the music video)
“Going Home to Carolina” by Aaron Burdett
Theme Music for On the Blue Ridge
The song "Goa" was written by Lyndsay Pruett and performed by the Jon Stickley Trio.
All the successes in my life, if it's in my construction business, if it's in my songwriting, if it's in my music career, if it's in my marriage, it's all just continuing to show up. That's it. Just continue to show up, do the best you can with what you have, and don't, don't, don't pull your punches. Just do the best you can with what you have, and things work out. I really think they do.
SPEAKER_00Today, on the Blue Ridge, our guest is Aaron Burdett, a Western North Carolina-based singer-songwriter, guitar player, and one of the lead vocalists for Steep Canyon Rangers. I'm your host, John Page. Let's begin. A highly acclaimed musician with eight solo albums to his credit, Aaron is also the founder and owner of Solstice Construction Company, a custom home building firm in Saluda, the small mountain town where he grew up. Blurring the lines between Americana, folk, country, and bluegrass, his solo work is deeply rooted in these mountains, carried by thoughtful songwriting and a soulful voice that made him a natural fit for Steep Canyon Rangers. They're a Grammy Award-winning bluegrass band that formed in 2000 and are widely known for collaborations with Steve Martin. Aaron joined the group in 2022 following the departure of founding member Woody Platt, and he has quickly become an important part of the band's evolving creative voice, both on tour and in the studio. He appears on the albums Morning Shift, Live at Greenfield Lake, and Next Act, the band's latest studio album, which arrives May 22nd. Let's listen to Aaron on lead vocals singing the chorus from the title track. In this episode, Aaron discusses the stories behind a few songs from the new album, his path to Steep Canyon Rangers, balancing music with a longtime career in home building, how growing up in Western North Carolina has shaped his voice as a singer and songwriter, and much more. In the weeks leading up to this interview, I enjoyed listening through every one of Aaron's solo albums. So we also dig deeper into a song from his debut album. We spoke in early April via Zoom while I was getting over a cold. To begin the conversation, I asked Aaron what excites him about the latest album release.
SPEAKER_01We've had really good response from crowds when we play this new music. Um and I think in great part because it's uh we intentionally kind of stripped it back to I think what a lot of people remember as Steve Canyon Rangers Roots from 20 years ago or so. But it is not traditional bluegrass where they started. Definitely not that, but it's also um not the sort of Americana rock and roll we played, um, like on the last live album or uh even the morning shift album. Uh it's uh less full drums, uh and a little more acoustic instrumentation, just kind of leaning back into that string band roots that we all uh love so much.
SPEAKER_00I I was gonna ask you about this later, but since you bring it up, like something I've noticed going back through all of the Steep Canyon Rangers albums in yours is that yeah, a lot of them are listed as Americana or Bluegrass, others as country. Some of yours are folk or singer-songwriter. Um when you think about yourself personally as an artist, um, do you see like generally see yourself fitting into to one of those buckets, or is it more like a chameleon and you can slide in and out of them?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I don't know. Um those those industry labels are uh you know, they're only helpful to a certain point. Um I I my my my songwriting tends to come from internal things, so it's it's a little more of that singer-songwriter world, I believe. Um I grew up here, so I in the western North Carolina, so I naturally have a little bit of grassy leaning uh guitar technique. Um I I grew up listening to my dad's classic rock and roll and and um and uh really love the energy of all that. So it's really a it's really a combination of of all those things. Um and I don't think any of those genres are quite as strict about where the edges are as they were maybe 20 years ago, either. Um, particularly bluegrass, where we land all the time with the rangers. And and honestly, where I my the label I'm on is uh um personally uh Mountain Home or Crossroads or Organic Records, it's kind of the same company. Um they are a bluegrass label, and I am on the outside of what is acceptable for that, but it just keeps broadening out to where I do fit into that now. Um, and and much of my success of the last five or six years has been because we've kind of gone down that bluegrass road. Uh, you know, you take any given song, you can um you can just sort of route it down, you know, if if if we lived in a really jazzy area, the same song could kind of go that direction. Um, it's just where we are and uh what's happening, I guess. So um I don't really know. It depends on the song, it depends on the album. I don't know what I really fit into there. I mean, I'm a I'm a singer songwriter. Um I I like playing an electric guitar and then um uh my I don't play bluegrass quite right, but I do okay. Um so it it's it's a it's an amalgam uh of all those things.
SPEAKER_00Go going back to the new album. Uh you you co-wrote the the title track next act with with Graham Sharp, right? Uh what's what's the story behind that song?
SPEAKER_01Well, truthfully, that song is mostly Graham. I just added a little bit to it. Um, so I got I got a credit on there. Uh very often our songs are like that where I've got it 80 or 90 percent done, and he'll come in and add a few lines and change a few things and improve it greatly. And so we'll share credit. That one um I do know is specifically about a friend of his, uh, or acquaintance at least, who um had been going through something, some sort of major life change. I don't know if it was a divorce or I got the impression maybe it had something to do with a divorce and a a starting over. And uh that sentiment really came out of it. I I just added a little bit, I just added a few lines at the end of that song um that that do help, but uh I have to give Graham most of the credit, almost all the credit on that one.
SPEAKER_00What what about that leadoff song Rumble Strips? Is that one uh that's my yeah, that's mostly me.
SPEAKER_01That's that's that's that's uh opposite. Uh I wrote most of that one and uh Graham put in a few lines.
SPEAKER_00I think I saw on the band's Instagram that that had something to do with late nights on the bus.
SPEAKER_01Well, I saw him, yeah. Graham said that that like uh um I I had that's a song I had had the idea for for uh probably a few years and had been kind of poking at. Um and but but yeah, if you're uh we drive through the night after shows on the tour bus. And so you're sleeping in a bunk. Um and uh particularly with all the construction that's happening and mountain roads, there's no way to drive a you know 70-foot bus and trailer without getting into those rumble strips sometimes. So it is true that you will be in there sleeping or trying to sleep, and uh Rand will hit a hit a swath of those rumble strips and it'll it'll jerk you alert, right quick like.
SPEAKER_00Uh you you brought up like you know, place being uh helping to define the music. You you have deep roots here in Western North Carolina. Uh what was it like growing up in in Saluda? What was uh what was Aaron Burdett like as a kid in Saluda, North Carolina?
SPEAKER_01Just like any other kid here, really. Um I I would say we came in, we moved here when I was four. We we I was born down in Lorenberg, down where my parents went to college, and we moved to Hendersonville area when I was two, and then we moved to Saluda when I was four. Um you know, it was Meluda's a small town and it is now, but it was a smaller town then. Um I don't feel like Western North Carolina had um I just don't I hesitate to say it hadn't been discovered because it's not like there weren't plenty of people here, but I it didn't have I don't feel like it had the tourism that it had now. I don't feel like it had the outdoors um recreation uh uh destination spot status that it does now. Um you know, all the biking and uh kayaking and hiking, and I mean I'm not saying those things didn't exist, but I feel like they're such a large part of a lot of these communities now. Um you know, Saluda was well, it was tiny at the time. I I went to the same elementary school for kindergarten through ninth. And it was the same 15 to 20 people in my class the whole time. I mean, some would cycle in and out, but for the most part, um it was the same classmates for 10 years. Um, and it was uh it was a little rough and tumble for me. I was uh, I don't know, um my parents were a little more on the hippie side of things, living back in the woods type of deal. Um, there were some tougher characters here in town than I was. Uh but um, you know, it was a it was a it was a cool place to grow up. And we just ran wild. I don't even know. We just ran wild. You just if if if if we would just go play downtown or whatever, my friends and I, and you know, if mom for some reason needed to know where we are, she would just call some of the shops downtown or call, you know, have you seen the boys? What where the where the hell are they? Uh have you seen, you know, it was just a different time and everybody knew who everybody was. Um and uh you know it was it was it was it was different, but um yeah, I there there there's something really cool about it. Uh and and now as an adult, I I came back in my late 20s and um it took me a while to realize that it's not not only is it somewhat the same, but it's also not the same. And you know, growing up here, I I I just wanted to leave. And uh in my adulthood and raising my own kids here, you start to realize, oh, I see, I see what the what the appeal is here, and I see why people are moving here because it is a cool um environment.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, was that was that desire to leave just mm-h I guess more so just like a a general thing of like a kid growing up and like uh I need to get out of here, like yeah, that was that was it.
SPEAKER_01I mean, just I I think that's fairly standard. And I don't there weren't, I mean, in Saluda at the time, like much like Asheville was, it was just shut down. Like, I it's hard to believe that Asheville in the 80s, like there was hardly anything open. There were a couple stores on Wall Street, there was Topshoes, the Civic Center was there, but all those other shops were closed, there was nothing there. Same as uh in Saluda. There was a general store and a maybe a little gift shop somebody ran now and then. There was a Western Auto. Mom had a bakery. Um, but like it I would say 60 to 70 percent of those little shops downtown, there was nothing in the windows. Um, it was just a it was a different time.
SPEAKER_00How and when did did music become a big part of your life?
SPEAKER_01Um, you know, my dad always has been a big fan of music and has a great vinyl collection, and that was one of the main we lived in a house way out in the woods. Uh they had bought a non-winterized summer cabin way about a mile out this dirt driveway. And um, I mean, it had literally been used as a uh dump by some of the locals for a while. And uh the road you couldn't drive in, the road had been washed out, so we had to walk um for a long time, years really. Uh, even when they cut another road, it was um it was muddy and rugged enough that if it if it it had to have not rained for like three days before you could pretend to try to get a vehicle in and out. So we walked in and out a lot. Um, but music was a big part of his life, and I uh he was always playing albums out there. I figured out when I was nine or ten that I could sing, or somebody else figured it out. I don't know, I don't know what was going on, but I'd sing at church and uh little school productions, and then um when I was 12, somebody gave me a guitar. I got a Yamaha acoustic guitar. I I'd had an electric bass before that that was no amp that I'd gotten at the junk store here downtown. But I started playing guitar when I was 12, 13, um, just learning chords out of a Melbay chord book. And um I guess over my teens I started playing some some songs, uh, you know, playing it around the campfire and I don't know, playing Van Morrison songs and Eric Clapton songs, and just the you know, sort of classic three-chord uh singable songs. Um so it's and also I I could sing. I after my voice had changed, I I was able to sing. I was a tenor and I I sang well, and so I wound up in musical theater productions and um uh did a lot of choral work and um really leaned on that vocal ability for a while. Um so through my teens, I mean it was clear that I had some musical ability and um uh it just kind of grew from there.
SPEAKER_00When when did songwriting start for you?
SPEAKER_01I would say in my early 20s, maybe. Um and then, but I mean it was just fits and starts. Um uh and then in my late 20s after I'd moved back here, um I was up in Boone through most of my twenties, boon and blowing rock. And when I moved back here, that's when I that's when I actually started the construction business. And um at the same time, I just had this, I just knew I needed to I wanted to be a performing songwriter, and I was just watching what other people were doing, and you just had to you had to record albums, you had to write songs and record albums. So I I started doing that and just I don't know, just kept at it. And I and I felt like the cadence was you needed to release an album every year or two, every two is more like it for me. And so I would just I don't know, slow and steady, just keep doing it. Um that that was that was really it. I just kept doing it. I'm not exactly sure why. Um, it was something I was proud of. It's something I felt like I was good at. I I felt like it was a part of my identity. I felt like um and I know now I have a need to do it just to stay emotionally and spiritually sane. Um uh not that I couldn't do without it. And certainly over the years, there's been the doubts that creep in that say, man, why are you even doing this? Why are you why are you spending your time and energy playing this gig and I don't even know where for $75? Um But I I just kept at it. Uh I don't know exactly why.
SPEAKER_00Uh well, thank goodness you did. Uh oh thanks. Um, I so I want to go back to the your first album uh as that song Going Home to Carolina. Um and the the line about the Blue Ridge Mountains driving your pain away really is just like really sticking with me. Take me back to to writing that song and and the the thoughts and meaning behind that one.
SPEAKER_01I remember that one fairly specifically, actually, but it was 30 years ago. Easily I can't believe I'm saying that. It's 30 years ago. It was it was in the late 90s, I guess. Um, and I remember I've been working in Colorado in Steamboat Springs at this performing arts camp out there. And um I had a you know a summer camp cabin that I lived in. And uh I remember I had a cassette tape of uh the WNCW going across the mountain show for some reason. Um and I would listen to that. Uh, but I I remember and and and I I was just like, I just want to write, I just I just need to write a song. I I had no I had no idea what I was doing. Um, but I remembered the when I as I would travel or um be away, whenever I would drive from the West in uh 40, like from Knoxville in, when you go through all those um, you know, that that pass between uh North Carolina, Tennessee and North Carolina, I I would just always feel like I was getting back to home. Um and that's sort of where that that feeling and that that praise came from was just that um just going through that draw, coming back into North Carolina.
SPEAKER_00For me, I grew up in Raleigh. Um, and so I the the driving experience coming from a different direction. Yeah, but uh but we lived in California and then we lived in Colorado for a few years before we moved back here. And I I remember the flight from Colorado to Asheville to come visit my sister and and look at houses and and the feeling that I I felt when I flew in, just like seeing these mountains like made me feel that. And I I think that's why it's it it strikes such a chord with me.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, very much so. Like even now, we fly a fair amount with a band and we'll be in some beautiful places. But then somehow when we when we come home and you start seeing the Appalachians, they are worn down old mountains. Um, it does feel like home. Matter of fact, we flew over here two weeks ago, and I think, and we flew directly over my house here. And I got some great photos out of the plane of my driveway and neighborhood and house here in the woods.
SPEAKER_00Nice. Yeah, that's cool. And that's uh, I'm assuming not a summer home. That's uh that's a home that you built, right?
SPEAKER_01It is, yeah. I built this back in 08, uh, 08, 09.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, so uh how how did that come about? That like what what led you into to that line of work and what do you love about it?
SPEAKER_01Um, I you know, my dad had done that did a bunch of carpentry and woodworking. My my uncle was a contractor, is um honestly when I first moved back here, I I just needed a job. And so I was working uh I already I've always been fairly handy and uh started learning carpentry and worked for a couple different builders and um you know did that for a couple years and then realized uh I didn't I didn't want to be, I don't know, I just wanted to go out on my own and do something. And so I started doing handyman work, which you know fairly quickly led into build a little deck or you know, um just grew into I can't even remember. I did a little addition, build a garage. Um, you know, it just kind of organically grew into oh, do you want to build a house? Oh, I gotta get my license, I gotta be kind incorporate, you know, you just all those things. It was very organic and slow over the course of well I mean wasn't that slow is the over the course of a couple two or three years. Um and and then you know it it's always been what's uh fed my family and paid the mortgage um while I was doing this music thing on the side that really until I don't know 10 years ago wasn't even paying for itself. My my day job was paying for me to be a professional musician. Yeah I've seen uh several places where you've said uh the home building was 80% music was 20% and it's kind of flip-flopped since the Rangers right yeah yeah and that's just energetic i mean if you're talking finances the contra the contracting was a hundred percent and the music was nothing but a uh a uh uh an expense i think yeah as I say it kept me keeps me sane and um so it's well worth it but but yeah and it's definitely flip-flop with the rangers i i it depends on the day the week and the month um like you know this week um uh been pretty heavy in the construction world um but then I'll get I'll be gone for a few days and home for a few days and gone for a few days and um it's only so much I can help with on the construction front when I'm on a plane. When when you say you're heavy into the construction are you like out there with a hammer and uh you know two I kind of no I'm just administrative you know it's it's mostly talking to clients and um architects and banks and um my brother John runs the day to day so he's the one doing the project management. Frankly I can't do that stuff anymore my hands don't work right this is this is a I was gonna say yeah I I ran a little just a little electric weed eater for about 10 minutes a couple weeks ago and I my my my hand wouldn't work right and I was like uh okay I I don't prefer it but I I just can't uh if I need to preserve my guitar playing skills there's gonna be a lot less physical labor happening.
SPEAKER_00I'm glad to hear you say that because I've experienced that sometimes too but uh but yeah I would think it would be a big risk to you know if you've got a show on I just jabbed my finger right before we started with I was doing some dishes I jabbed this finger a little bit and I was like oh man that it's okay it's a pick finger I'll be fine but you know it's it's pretty easy to create a situation for yourself where um it's it's difficult to play and perform at the level that we need to yeah I bet um I mean you were kind of hinting at this a minute ago of like what what is it uh about you like what what makes you wired to to do that as a day job in in those those those days of your solo career and and and not give up on your music like what what is it that songwriting and and and performing give you I don't know they might just give me some kind of hope honestly I don't know um it's the thing where I feel closest to what I'm supposed to do and what I'm um you know closest to my my purpose um you know construction is just a day job I enjoy it and I enjoy the people uh mostly enjoy it and mostly enjoy the people but it's not a calling for me it is for a lot of people and uh that may be their thing um but for me it was just a uh just a job um and I'm thrilled to have it even now I couldn't do without it um uh but I you know there's just something for me it's uh there's an emotional spiritual connection to music and um uh I I express myself better in songs than I do in uh my day-to-day life that's that's the truth tell me about uh the the path to steep canyon rangers how did how did the the audition process start like what what all happened I was on a job site on a Monday morning and I've gone back and looked and I got a I got a I think I got a Facebook messenger message from Barrett Smith the bass player and it just said something like hey your name's been it's Barrett from Rangers uh your name's been coming up a bunch with the band lately would you be available for a call and I was like sure I don't know I thought um I assumed they wanted me to play at the Mountain Song Festival or Open or you know something had had you played with them before no I didn't know any of them okay I mean I'd met a couple of them um I'd met Mike Gagino I'd spoken to Mike Ashworth the drummer back right when he had joined the band about playing drums for me and he was like well I just got this gig with the Rangers and I was like well it sounds like a pretty good gig so you better better stick with that um so I called Barrett back and I guess they were in Utah this was in this would have been in the middle of June 2022 and um he called me we we spoke that same morning and he said hey I um we were just wondering if you might have any interest in joining the band and I was I was I I think I said to do what because I I didn't know that Woody was leaving.
SPEAKER_01I hadn't I I'd at that stage a I wasn't paying much attention to Steve Canyon Rangers B, I'd been off social media for some matter of weeks I just wasn't on one of those jags where I'm like I'm not gonna get in there. So I just didn't know they were our circles had not overlapped. So uh I I remember I said okay well I and he said well Woody's Woody's retiring at the end of this summer and I was like oh oh oh oh oh I see that's different um I said um well I don't know uh can you what's the calendar what's the schedule look like because that's the big question and um he said oh we know exactly what that looks like because that's uh we're kind of working backwards from what we can do and he said we're playing 85 90 dates a year um and I was in my head I'm doing the math and I was like well you know that that seems possible it seems possible I mean I have this business I gotta run I got you know I've got things going on I got family young family um but it was like oh that well that seems possible let me let me let me go talk to my family and um you know and then and then I guess maybe a week later they even now the band doesn't get together really we get together every weekend to go play shows or every we have week like we were off last weekend we're off next weekend we're we're uh weekend after this so it's not like you can get all six of them five six of them to get it just doesn't happen and they said he they they said you know what we are taking we are going down to Raleigh to play a show why don't you come down there? Why don't you get on the bus with us um so I came and got on the bus at midnight like they do like we do rode down there and watched them do a gig in Raleigh and you know just kind of felt each other out and that that felt fine you know nobody was crazy it seemed and I you know I at all the while I was listening to some of their more recent albums and watching what they were doing I was like I can do okay I mean I can do this I don't I can do this I mean I I've got the stuff I'm standing right here I've I've got the tools um and then they said uh the next phase was hey we've got these Steve Martin shows in California over July 4th weekend why don't you fly out there with us and play these shows and um you only got to learn three or four songs no big deal um but Steve Martin and Ann Martin short yeah absolutely yeah but yeah so so then uh so I I did I did I mean okay so I go out there and we we had one night uh at um the frost amphitheater at uh Stanford Thursday I think and then Friday Saturday and Sunday were sold out shows at the Hollywood bowl with uh Steven Marty doing that comedy show we do and the LA Philharmonic was behind us while we played uh Auden's train on that so you know that was my that was my that was my first set of shows and um you know from that point on it was we just kept pursuing it and it was like okay that worked but but can we put together you know this band's been around forever can I put together a two hour show with them you know I got to learn all this material frankly it was more difficult than I was accustomed to um and it was just so much information and it's it's it's complicated the show's complicated the music's complicated there's this existing culture you got to fit in Woody's leaving so it was just a sort of a slow progression but every step of the way it felt good for both of us and um uh it just it has fell together really well honestly yeah I I would I would think I mean when you said all those things it made me think yeah this is scary this is this is a lot but uh uh but it it felt good the whole way through yeah I mean there were some hiccups along the way you know it's it's it's it's you're like basically getting adopted into a family in a way um that you spend a lot of time with so the interpersonal is just as important as the professional uh performance side um and and again all that stuff just fit well and the the we played very similar kinds of music you know we we we come from completely different backgrounds but um we meet in the middle at a really good spot so it's been it's been four years about almost coming up on four years since all that happened right true yeah and this is I I think next act is the second studio album the is that right yeah we did I think there's yeah yeah we did morning shift with Daryl and then that's right and then we released the live album because our live show had gotten so good and dynamic we wanted to showcase that and then yeah and then this one yeah we've been working on this one a long time actually okay how how how is your your role as a songwriter uh evolving with the band and and kind of I guess the big question is how do you balance asserting your own voice while also on honoring the band's legacy? Case by case basis they um we all trust each other so much that uh you know if I take a song in there and nobody ever asks about it again or it just doesn't fit or whatever uh it's not like I take that terribly personally it's like okay well this is just not meant for here um couldn't conversely if uh you take something in and people do like it and they're like hey what if we did this what if we did this what if you did this um that's invaluable market research from really talented guys uh artists like that it's it's great input um and also um I I also feel like for the most part if I if any of us take a stand and say no no no this is really important to me you need to let me do this let's try it everybody would be like yeah let's try it and then decide if it worked or not um and you know the the the the songs the covers or songs that I might bring in are they come from a different I don't even know all this this bluegrass background that they have I I mean I I'm aware of a lot of it but they're steeped in it you know they know stuff that I've never even heard of and I bring stuff from another side of the side of the table too um it's just day to day case by case um I think we all trust each other and um have our own different talents and things we bring and um it it it really is a band in a sense that I hadn't been in in the past where it's it's very democratic it's uh you know everybody's got equal weight and you people get outvoted and you just move on you know and or it's a it's a it's a dynamic situation. No no drama oh there's drama there's drama but it it uh you know it it goes away okay uh so when you're writing a song uh are you are you thinking in your head this is a this is a ranger song or this is a a song for me or do you do you run it through the band to to say like hey what do you guys think both all three yeah I mean um I think I said on an interview a few weeks ago sometimes it depends on who needs songs next i i have I have to record a couple songs personally in a couple months I'm like okay well whatever comes up now I might have to go in my bucket just so I can fulfill my obligations but I generally think in terms of Rangers first um I'd like to take it there it's a it's a um uh bigger platform it's uh you get really good input um um and and the songs will take this life on stage um in a way that sometimes my so lately my solo songs some of them I'll record and I just don't have the opportunity to perform on them on stage very often so they don't evolve that much um but ranger songs definitely evolve over time um sometimes I can tell a song's a little more introspective or singer songwrity than would be good for the band but but then you never know I mean they it's not like that's automatically disqualifies it um uh but it just varies it varies uh depending on the song and and what's going on what when you just kind of take a step back and and think about your your songwriting in general um how how has place and specifically Western North Carolina you know shaped your path as a singer and a songwriter I think we're all products of where we come from and and the experiences we've had. I think if I hadn't had a lifetime of ups and downs I my songwriting wouldn't be nearly as rich as it is now. We learn from the people we're around um you know I I I learned singing and emoting and um that stuff from a lot of different teachers and I've learned songwriting from observing and talking directly to a lot of different gurus and songwriters and um you learn performance over time.
SPEAKER_00I've learned so much of that with the Rangers it's a whole different level of performance um you just you just pick them things up from where you are I mean it's you can only you know look so far outside of your own circles for um the the things you need to to grow so this this next album is called next act what is the next next act for for steep canyon rangers are you guys starting to work on another album uh we've got some things in the works we uh yeah we've got some things in the works um we're always looking towards the next album I think i i can't really talk about it yet but there's a there's a project i think we're gonna be working on um in a well in the in a actually it's gotten pushed back probably in the fall that you'll be hearing about before too long um that's not specifically a Steve Canyon Rangers album uh in the sense that next act is but it's something we're excited to be a part of and uh working on but all the while I mean I'm writing songs every morning working on them and I've got some now that we're gonna I'm gonna take to the band and see how they go and hopefully they'll make it on our uh next album this one comes out in May I bet we'll start recording another album um early next year or something it takes so long to get them out that um I'm sure we'll start recording something uh early 27 I'm guessing okay awesome every member of Steep Canyon Rangers is has has roots here um when you think about everything that that uh this area has been through in the wake of Helene um what's giving you hope for Western North Carolina right now whether it's just western North Carolina as a whole or even the the music scene in western North Carolina you know I don't think I ever heard of anybody between Helene and the fire we had fires here at my home that burned this we have a lot of acreage here and it burned all of it um our they burned they control burned around our house before it came through and it did just what it was supposed to do the fire went around but I mean I'm looking out here all this was black completely burned um it was just the underbrush the trees remained they're all burned five or six feet up from the ground but um it's all come back uh and I don't think I heard anybody say I'm gonna leave I don't think I heard anybody after Helene I don't think I heard anybody after the fire say screw this I'm out of here um so maybe that's maybe that's it no nobody I don't I didn't I didn't hear anybody say I'm I'm leaving I don't want to be here this is too much um I think everybody just sort of said no we're gonna we're gonna rebuild back and be fine with what will with what we have is is there anything else we we didn't talk about that you you'd want people to know about you or about this new album or or Steep Canyon Rangers in general?
SPEAKER_01You know I was I was talking to some young a young couple songwriter and songwriting act uh I had a couple solo shows last week down here in Hendersonville area and um they came to the show and they're they're they're young and early in their career and just trying to put it together and um it was just so cool to hear 20 years later be in a completely different position where I could be talking to them from a place of oh look some things have happened for me and I don't know exactly why but here's what the here's what happened you know here's I have advice to give I can say um I mean really it's very simple it's just keep going you know just keep going just just keep doing what you're doing um but uh yeah I I'm really grateful. Uh all it all the successes in my life if it's in my construction business if it's in my songwriting if it's in my music career if it's in my marriage it's all just continuing to show up. That's it. Just continue to show up do the best you can with what you have and don't don't don't pull your punches just do the best you can with what you have and things work out. I I really think they do um and it's it's hard to do and I know not everybody has I don't know whatever whatever uh fortitude or dysfunction or whatever it takes to keep going even when it seems like you know it's hard but you just got to keep going and that's it that's all for today gigantic thanks again to Aaron Burdette for joining me.
SPEAKER_00Next act is out May 22nd from Yep Rock Records and Steep Canyon Rangers is currently touring the country including shows in western North Carolina. You can find tour dates and by the record at steepcanyon.com I'll be grabbing mine at Asheville's Harvest Records and catching one of the band's two shows at Sierra Nevada Brewing Company. You can learn more about Aaron's solo work, including his albums with Crossroads Label Group at aaronburdette.com. You can also find Aaron and the band on Instagram at AaronBurdette and at Steep Canyon Rangers. And we're also on Instagram at OntheBlue Ridge and online at onTheBlueridgepod.com and if you're enjoying this podcast please follow or subscribe wherever you listen. Consider leaving a rating and a quick review or share it with a friend as it really helps more people find the show. Our theme music is the song Goa written by Lindsay Pruitt and performed by the John Stickley trio. Thanks for listening and we'll catch you next time on the Blue Ridge