THE STEELDRIVERS — STAYING POWER

by warren denney

When you consider the SteelDrivers at twenty, you must consider how quickly the earth spins away on its axis — accompanied by the trends and vagaries of popular music.

Few groups have managed to navigate time and space as well as the SteelDrivers, a bluegrass band of broad scope and range, one that refuses to be easily defined even as they hold a steadfast course.

Fiddle player and multi-instrumentalist Tammy Rogers King has been there for the full ride, as has bassist Mike Fleming and banjo player Richard Bailey. The current lineup also includes Brent Truitt on mandolin and lead vocalist and guitarist Matt Dame.

Former members include powerhouse Chris Stapleton, stalwart Gary Nichols, and Kelvin Damrell, all serving as lead vocalists and guitarists, and the late Mike Henderson on mandolin. A blues and rock guitarist by nature, it was Henderson’s power and vision, along with his collaboration with Stapleton, that drove the band home.

“We jokingly call Mike Henderson the architect because he’s the guy that first called everybody,” Rogers King said recently. “He may have been rolling around the idea longer than that, but I know distinctly it hadn’t occurred to me to play any bluegrass again like that until I got the call from him in August of 2005.”

Rogers King had found her gift at an early age, and was steeped in bluegrass and folk, having been born in East Tennessee and raised in Texas. She played bluegrass — and classical — for a couple of years after graduating from Belmont, without gaining much notice, until someone gave her name to Tony Brown. Patty Loveless was looking for a woman who could play fiddle and sing harmony.

“It was an amazing opportunity,” she said. “I came down and auditioned, and at that point had never really played country music or played in an electric band. I’d never played with a pickup. I didn’t know anything, but it was an incredible opportunity, and Patty was amazing. She was the best.

“It was kind of light bulb moment. This is cool. It set me on my way professionally. It was really kind of like things went at hyperspeed. It was amazing.”

Also, during those formative years, she would find herself backing Trisha Yearwood, and then notably, became a founding member of the Dead Reckoners. Rogers King had worked with Henderson in the mid-1990s as part of that coalition, a group of Nashville artists who sought greater control over their work with their own Dead Reckoning Records.

That experience, which included Kieran Kane, Kevin Welch, Harry Stinson, Fats Kaplin, Rogers King, and Henderson, laid some important groundwork for the independent thinking that serves as underpinning for the SteelDrivers.

“We played a lot together, made a lot of records in different configurations during that time,” Rogers King said. “But, once the Dead Reckoning thing went away, and I had my daughter in 2001, I didn’t see Mike for a while. I was hanging out at the house a little more. That’s when he was writing with Chris, and I think that’s where the idea [for the SteelDrivers] was hatched.

“They were writing so much stuff, and obviously when you hear Stapleton’s voice, your jaw drops — immediately.”

We’re a band that features all original music, played on traditional instruments." — Tammy Rogers King

Significantly, Henderson was keeping his regular Monday night gig — a blues gig — at the Bluebird during that stretch, working that music which ultimately made its way into the heart of the SteelDrivers. He called Rogers King that summer, along with Fleming and Bailey.

“So, he really handpicked and called exactly the people that he wanted to try this idea out on,” she said. “And that was the first, the original lineup, the first two records.”

It was the right alchemy. Things fell into place almost effortlessly.

“I mean, it was pretty quickly, and again, you don’t hear that voice [Stapleton’s] and not go ‘Wow — this is something,’” she said. “And then they started pulling out these songs and we were all kind of astounded at what they’d been writing.

“I remember first hearing ‘If You Can’t Be Good Be Gone,’ and I thought it was part of the classic catalog, and they said they had written it. What?! It was so authentic and so steeped in tradition. It was amazing. ‘If It Hadn’t Been for Love.’ ‘Sticks That Made Thunder.’ Songs so unique and so powerful. Just masterpieces of writing. It was apparent to all of us very quickly that this could be something really special.”

It was. And is. It is bluegrass most definitely, but driven hard by the sensibilities found in blues, country, rock & roll — you name it. It can be said that early, primordial folk brought forth American music, conjured the mongrel. Bluegrass — and by virtue, the SteelDrivers — is in that mongrel’s DNA.

Bassist Fleming believes in the power of the band’s songwriting over the years — the skilled work that allows the songs to tap into the human experience, wherever that might lead.

“Traditional folk and bluegrass songs were about real-life struggles,” Fleming said. “Love gone wrong and various tragedies that one can only imagine. I think the songwriting throughout the SteelDrivers twenty years honors that tradition.

“’Sticks That Made Thunder’ about what an oak tree would think of a Civil War battle. ‘Good Corn Liquor’ with the consequences of making moonshine. ‘I Choose You’ as a declaration of choosing love everyday with your partner. ‘Burnin’ the Woodshed Down,’ and who knows if it is just the structure that perished. ‘The River Knows’ is a traditional river murder theme except the woman is the protagonist.”

You get the idea. The band leans into the wind. When the SteelDrivers broke out with The SteelDrivers on Rounder in 2008, the record fired a shot across the traditional bow.

“The band’s first recording had an impact on the bluegrass world,” Fleming said. “Instead of a high lonesome singer, we had a Southern-rock bluesman [Stapleton] that could knock you out of your seat, and Mike Henderson brought the blues, especially on our second recording, Reckless. Tammy, Richard, and I filled in the blanks — harmonies, instrumental leads and arrangements.

I think bluegrass is having a big resurgence. It always does. Just like most styles of music, there will be rises and falls.

— Tammy Rogers King

“Most of us had played as backup musicians for country, singer-songwriter, and Americana artists. No one was a cut-and-dried bluegrass player, although most of us logged plenty of time in the genre. The songwriting was excellent. Songs that other genres of music did not think were worth recording. Many of these recordings are now sung like anthems at our concerts.

“I don’t think we were aware in the early years that a blueprint had been written: Soulful singer that has never played bluegrass, stellar songs, and instrumentation that serves the song.”

Rogers King echoes the sentiment.

“There’s been a very strong band identity from the beginning, and we maintain that,” she said. “… I guess the best way I’ve ever described it is to say that we’re a band that features all original music, played on traditional instruments.

“That's really what it is. Yeah. I mean, we’re not necessarily approaching our catalog and our songs maybe like a traditional bluegrass band would, because we’re doing — we’re just playing the song. We’re playing what’s going to work for the song. It just happens to be with a fiddle and a banjo and a mandolin, and an acoustic guitar and an upright bass.”

The SteelDrivers have recorded seven records during the twenty-year run — the first two previously mentioned, along with Hammer Down, The Muscle Shoals Recordings, and Bad For You, all on Rounder, Tougher Than Nails with Gaither Music Group, and the most recent, Outrun, released in May of this year on Sun Records.

All told, the band has been nominated for four Grammys, earning one with the Best Bluegrass Album for The Muscle Shoals Recordings in 2015.

The cadre has built a loyal and discerning audience. It is true the magnitude of Stapleton’s success post-SteelDrivers has allowed for some greater awareness of the band, but staying power speaks for itself.

“After the departure of Mike, and addition of Brent Truitt on mandolin, we primarily had to move from one lead singer to another,” Fleming said. “Gary Nichols, our second singer, brought the whole package — singer, songwriter, and guitarist. With him, the SteelDrivers won the Grammy in 2015. When he departed, I thought ‘Is it time to throw in the hat?’ I remember one of our first dates after his departure at the Gettysburg Bluegrass Festival — Adam Wakefield was subbing in for the gigs, and he could hit those high notes and that gospel shout of a vocal that Stapleton does so well.

“The audience was with us. It was the first time I heard people singing our songs. These fans were in attendance because they wanted to hear SteelDriver songs. It did not have to be a perfect replication of the recording, but the musical essence and spirit. Since then, we’ve released recordings with lead singers Kelvin Damrell [Bad For You] and Matt Dame [Tougher Than Nails and Outrun]. Both could, and can, sing the catalog. The songs that our ‘SteelHeads’ fans sing now come from all our recordings.”

“After twenty years, we are who we are. If anything, I’d say we put a touch more blues into bluegrass.

— Mike Fleming

And, the aforementioned trends and vagaries in popular music don’t have to be all bad. As has cycled up before, bluegrass is having a moment. The older, traditional catalogs are more accessible than ever, and the popularity of current artists, including the SteelDrivers, is high.

“I think bluegrass is having a big resurgence,” Rogers King said. “It always does. Just like most styles of music, there will be rises and falls. Bluegrass had a huge bang in 1946 when Bill Monroe had Flatt and Scruggs in the band, and they were playing the Opry and tearing the house down.

“And, then there was another huge resurgence in the ‘60s with the folk revival, and that was all part of that scene. Then suddenly you had JD Crowe, and Tony [Rice] and Ricky [Skaggs] and Jerry [Douglas] and all those guys in mid-‘70s doing that massive record JD Crowe and The New South. And then again, you kind of had the O Brother [Where Art Thou?] phase in the ‘90s, which was another huge scene — it breaks out into the mainstream. And, I think we’re experiencing that again with Billy Strings and Molly Tuttle.

“Of course, you have Alison [Krauss and Union Station], and all she has done over the years. There are others. I think we’re somewhere in that mix, and I think it’s great. It never truly goes away, but there are definitely waves to it. Bluegrass is very, very healthy right now in my opinion.”

With Outrun, the SteelDrivers have landed a record that is at once traditional and progressive. Everything from murder on the river, as Fleming noted, to running hot, to a prisoner’s wail, and beyond, is rendered with a fluidity and swing that can be felt, as well as heard. Something is brewing beneath.

“I’m really, really proud of it.” Rogers King said. “I love it. Of all of our records, I guess, this came together quicker than I think any of them because we really hadn’t planned on it. If you look back at us historically, we don’t usually do a record every year — or not even every other year. It might be three years, five years. We just do them when it’s ready, when the time is right.

“But we were approached in the summer in 2024 by Sun Records, and we were so excited about that opportunity. We literally had the meeting, came home, talked about it, and set a goal for ourselves to record in October and get it finished by the end of the year. We timed it to go with this twentieth anniversary tour.

“And amazingly, it all worked together perfectly … and with Sun Records. Just what a cool catalog to be part of, and the tradition and history. We’re all obviously music fans and history buffs, so it really means a lot.”

Yes, history. It’s something to be reckoned with if you’ve made it twenty years — and counting. Where does the band fit?

“I don’t really ponder that question anymore,” Fleming said. “After twenty years, we are who we are. We are drawing bigger crowds and playing as much as we want. If anything, I’d say we put a touch more blues into bluegrass. Bill Monroe’s music had plenty of blues. We’ve just built upon his foundation.”

And amazingly, it all worked together perfectly … and with Sun Records. Just what a cool catalog to be part of, and the tradition and history. We’re all obviously music fans and history buffs, so it really means a lot.

— TAMMY ROGERS KING