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Exciting collaboration between Steep Canyon Rangers & Asheville Symphony ‘Be Still Moses’ reworks the SCR back catalogue in fascinating project!

Steep Canyon Rangers – Asheville, North Carolina’s GRAMMY winning perennial Billboard chart-toppers – released one of 2019’s most unexpected cross-genre collaborations, teaming up with Philadelphia soul legends Boyz II Men and the Asheville Symphony for “Be Still Moses.” With a refreshingly unconventional line-up, the track was praised for its “sublime harmonies and soulful ad-libs” by Rolling Stone, featuring an effortless blend of SCR vocalist Woody Platt’s sonorous, bluegrass-flavoured baritone with the lush string arrangements of the Asheville Symphony and the timeless vocal harmonies of Boyz II Men.

Now, Steep Canyon Rangers and the Asheville Symphony are expanding the collaboration with an 11-song album of the same name; Be Still Moses arrives March 6 on Yep Roc Records. Featuring beguiling reworks of hits and rarities from Steep Canyon Rangers’ illustrious career, the collaborators share a fresh take on “Radio,” the IBMA Song of The Year-nominated title track from the band’s 2015 #1 Bluegrass album.

Listen to “Radio” and pre-Order Be Still Moses (released March 6th) here: https://lnk.to/bestillmosesalbum

Ultimately a celebration of Asheville’s thriving and diverse musical community, the roots of Be Still Moses stem back half a decade to a conversation between Asheville-based music producer Michael Selverne, Jessica Tomasin (of Echo Mountain recording studio) and David Whitehill, the executive director of the Asheville Symphony. The trio had an idea to break down the barrier between the orchestra and Asheville’s world-class roots music scene, bringing the musicians together for one-of-a-kind collaborations while forging even closer bonds within the city’s tight-knit artistic community. The successful experiment reaches its natural next step as the Symphony pairs with perhaps Asheville’s best-known musical exports for a full-length album. With Selverne producing, the collaborators reimagine work throughout the duration of SCR’s chart-topping, award-winning career – from 2007’s “Call The Captain” through 2018’s “Let Me Out of This Town.”

Steep Canyon Rangers will also tour throughout 2020, including UK dates in March with Steve Martin and Martin Short as follows:

Monday 9 March              GLASGOW SSE Hydro

Wednesday 11 March    DUBLIN 3Arena

Thursday 12 March          BELFAST SSE Arena

Saturday 14 March          LONDON Royal Albert Hall

Sunday 15 March             LONDON Royal Albert Hall

Tuesday 17 March           MANCHESTER Arena

Wednesday 18 March    BIRMINGHAM Resorts World Arena

It was such a cool yet unusual experience to work as a band on a collection of songs we’ve recorded over the years and have performed live hundreds of times, by adding the Asheville Symphony and producer Michael Selverne,” says Steep Canyon Rangers’ Woody Platt. “This brought the songs to a new place with an entirely new life and sound. We also recorded with the band in a truly live setting to capture the energy of the performance.”

“In 2015, I met David Whitehill, ED of the Asheville Symphony, who wanted to integrate the symphony with the larger Asheville music community by creating recording project for the symphony involving local musicians outside the classical community,” says Selverne. “We approached Woody [Platt] at Mountain Song Festival that year and he and the guys were onboard and eager. Woody and I spent a lot of time going back and forth about arrangements, arrangers and repertoire. The ease with which the Rangers deliver their music is deceptive because the guys are deeply talented and uniquely so. Messing with that is a daunting task but I still believed that the band could speak differently and still retain their character.”

‘Be Still Moses’ Track List:

  1. Easy To Love (’Nobody Knows You,’ 2012)
  2. Radio (‘Radio,’ 2015)
  3. Be Still Moses (‘Lovin’ Pretty Women,’ 2007 – remastered w. Boyz II Men, 2019)
  4. Call the Captain (‘Lovin’ Pretty Women,’ 2007)
  5. Let Me Out of This Town (‘Out In The Open,’ 2018)
  6. Blow Me Away (‘Radio,’ 2015)
  7. Between Midnight and the Dawn (’Nobody Knows You,’ 2012)
  8. Las Vegas (‘Tell The Ones I Love,’ 2013)
  9. Farmers and Pharaohs (‘Out In The Open,’ 2018)
  10. The Mountain’s Gonna Sing (‘Deep In The Shade,’ 2009)
  11. Auden’s Train (‘Steve Martin and the Steep Canyon Rangers feat. Edie Brickell Live,’ 2014)

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Annette Gibbons
Hi, I’m Annette, I have been a huge country music fan since the early 90s those were the days we were lucky enough to have CMT in the UK. I enjoy nothing more than listening to country music whilst having a cold beer (or a moonshine) with friends. I try to as many gigs as I can here in the UK and in the USA; I think of Nashville as my second home and I am lucky to have made some amazing friends in Tennessee. Think Country is something I am very proud of, I just want to share my love and passion of all things country music related with you all.
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