Interview: Woody Platt (Steep Canyon Rangers)

As far back as I can remember, Woody Platt has been in my life. Our fathers are longtime friends and have shared multiple architecture offices across North Carolina — and one of Woody’s first jobs was being my babysitter.

While he closes in on 20 years as the lead singer and guitarist for the Steep Canyon Rangers, our professional lives crossed through an opportunity to discuss the band’s annual Mountain Song Festival, which takes place Friday, Sept. 6-Sunday, Sept. 8, at the Brevard Music Center.

Edwin Arnaudin: Mr. Platt! How’s it going?

Woody Platt: I’m doing well. I just got off of an interview with a reporter in Colorado and now I’m about to do an interview with a person I know and I’m looking forward to that.

EA: Yeah, how surreal is this?

WP: I know! The publicist got a kick out of it, too, with the history. He was like, “Ah! Small world.” [Laughs]

EA: [Laughs] For sure! Well, let’s start with the Mountain Song Festival. How far in advance do you start planning and what criteria do you look for in the artists you book?

WP: You know, we’re always thinking about it. As the Rangers are out touring around, we cross paths with bands every week, almost. We’re always like, “Oh, they’d be great for Mountain Song.” The looking around and searching for artists never stops, but as the festival wraps up every year, pretty much, to get your headliners — they’re the hardest to lock in — you pretty much have to start right away. It comes quickly. It’s kind of a never-ending process.

And as far as criteria, I think the festival sort of started with a bluegrass focus — obviously, because of the Rangers, and Doc Watson was there the first year. It was sort of narrowly focused in on bluegrass, more or less. But over the years, we’ve widened our scope. I feel like almost anything fits in, really. Anything that’s Americana, country, blues, or bluegrass. I think it’s more of an Americana festival. This year we have Preservation Hall Jazz Band, Tommy Emmanuel — things that aren’t anything like bluegrass. Last year, we had Robert Earl Keen and Taj Mahal. And the Rangers have started to stretch out further from the bluegrass roots, so the festival…it’s got open arms.

EA: That sounds pretty similar to Merlefest, which has obviously been going far longer, but it’s been neat to see them open up in recent years and welcome more artists with broader appeal. Do you see Mountain Song on that level, or close to it?

WP: Yeah, absolutely. I think Merlefest is not a bluegrass festival. It’s an Americana/Roots-type festival with a heavy focus — I mean, they get a lot of banjos and a lot of bluegrass bands there. But, yeah, I’d say the programming is similar for sure.

EA: You mentioned Preservation Hall being in that vein, and they feel like a pretty big get. How did you get connected with them?

WP: A couple of them climbed on our bus at Merlefest a couple of years ago. We’d had them play Brevard, I don’t know, 6 or 7 or 8 years ago at the Porter Center and it was very well-received. It was just a call to their agent. It took a while because there’s quite a few of them and they travel a lot. It’s logistically challenging. [Laughs] But they finally confirmed and I think the audience on Friday night is going to love it.

EA: Them coming to town also lines up well with their documentary from a few months ago, A Tuba to Cuba. Have you seen it?

WP: I have not. I should watch it.

EA: I think you’ll dig it. They go to Cuba and it’s about how Cuban music and New Orleans music have a lot in common. I thought it was great.

So, looking over the rest of the schedule, you’ve got a nice mix of nationally-known and regional acts. Do you have any particularly close ties with other artists who’ll be playing?

WP: A lot of them. A lot of these acts that we hire come out of personal relationships that either [my Mountain Song Productions colleague and Jupiter Coyote founding member] John Felty has or the Rangers have with different artists. Acoustic Syndicate, who kicks things off Friday, they were a huge influence on our band in the early days. They’re a very popular — I guess you’d call it sort of progressive, kind of jammy bluegrass band. We’re good friends with them.

And on Saturday, Chatham County Line was in Raleigh at N.C. State when we were in Chapel Hill at UNC, and we started our bands at same time. We’ve spent a lot of time together and played shows together and hung out at each others houses, all the way back to the college days, so we have a great history there.

And obviously Shannon [Whitworth] is my wife and she’s played Mountain Song every year. She’s incredible. The honky tonk band she’s playing with, Tonk, there’s a very unique thing there. Their bass player was in band with my brother Parker in college in Raleigh. Parker introduced them. The Argentinian band Che Appalachia, we spent time in Chapel Hill with their fiddle player. They’re incredible. And the opening band, the first band on Saturday, Po’ Ramblin’ Boys, we’ve gotten to know them recently out on the road. They’re an up-and-coming, real traditional band. They’re going to do an after-show downtown after the festival.

And on Sunday, Larry Sparks is one of our all-time favorites for the Rangers. We’ve attempted every one of his songs at some point in our career. And then Del McCoury, we’ve shared the stage with him quite often, and the Del McCoury Band is one of the greatest bluegrass bands ever, and Del is possibly the coolest living bluegrass player. And then you have David Grisman — and it’s great! It’s such a great thing. I mean, David Grisman was one of the first things we heard that got us into this music. We just recently collaborated with him in California.

And it’s kind of endless. Pretty Little Goat are great friends of ours — local, one of the up-and-coming old time groups. There’s sort of a direct personal connection to everybody that gets on stage. The only one we don’t know really is Tommy Emmanuel, but we’re big fans. He’s one of the best guitar players in the world. But other than that, there’s a direct connection to every band that comes to perform.

Photo by David Simchock

EA: I’m also curious about the Rangers’ role as hosts, as far as what that entails and how that affects what you play during the festival?

WP: We’ve been the host band every year. And really, it’s just being a common face for the audience. Backstage, we try to be hospitable and welcome the other groups and invite members of other groups to collaborate. You know, just kind of be a constant part of the festival every year — the one non-interchangeable component of the festival.

That’s been a lot of fun to be able to curate something like that and try to control the experience that the guest artists have, because as we travel, we know what we like and don’t like about certain situations and how you’re treated and what you eat and the space you’re given to rehearse and prepare. That’s all part of the show for an artist. It’s not just the stage, it’s the whole experience — how you’re received when you get there. If you’re treated with respect and taken good care of, it leaves you feeling great about the event, even before you get on the stage. So, we try to make that as good as we can with the artists, and I think it’s worked with a lot of people. This it the third time Del McCoury has been there and the third time David Grisman’s been there. Those are big players, so for them to be willing to come back and to travel all that way, it’s special.

EA: Now, one of the other fun parts about Mountain Song each year is speculating whether Steve Martin will make an appearance.

WP: [Laughs]

EA: Maybe you want to keep that a secret, but do you think he’ll be there?

WP: Well, you know, I would love for Steve to show up. It’s usually kind of last minute. I would think he would. We have a great relationship and he loves the music and we have a lot of songs together that we can play, so I would imagine that he would show up. He’s not on the bill, so it’s not a given, but a surprise appearance from Steve would be wonderful.

EA: It certainly would! Well, in addition to Mountain Song coming up, the Rangers made waves this week with the release of your Boyz II Men collaboration “Be Still Moses,” which I think is a terrific track. What’s the story there?

WP: We just finished up a project with the Asheville Symphony called Be Still Moses, but it’s a collection of songs, retrospective throughout our career — a couple of songs off each record or a song or two off different records. We got to “Be Still Moses” and we sing it as a quartet, but we thought it would be great to get a guest singer on this song, just because we’ve never really done much of that. We threw around some names — Gladys Knight, Mavis Staples — and the producer, Michael Selverne, said, “How about Boyz II Men?” He was like, “You guys sing this in harmony with multiple voices, so why not see if they want to do that?” [Laughs] And he had some connections. He’s sort of a cat — he’s a player in the industry and has been for a long time, and he has direct connections to pull that all together. It’s a really unique collaboration with the symphony, Boyz II Men, and the Rangers, and we’re excited about it. It’s something we didn’t expect — we didn’t see it coming, but we’re really excited about it.

EA: Nice! Now, did you recruit other guest vocalists for that album or is that the only track?

WP: No, just that one. The rest of it is just the Rangers doing their thing, but it’s got such a different voice because every song has a 40-60 piece orchestra on it. It’s pretty neat.

EA: And then with the album slated for an early 2020 release, which coincides with your annual Asheville homecoming show, might that gig be a full-on collaboration with the symphony?

WP: We thought about some of that. I’m not sure that’s going to happen or not, and I’m pretty sure that we’re not going to do the January show, but save it until Spring and try to get outside somewhere. We've been doing inside shows in Asheville for so many years that we just want to try one in the early part of the Spring and see if people would consider getting outside and dressing out a little bit. That’s where we are with that and I think there’ll be more to come on that over the next few weeks. It’s currently being sorted.

EA: And lastly, it looks like the Rangers have a busy Fall on the road, including down in Australia. Is that with Steve Martin and Martin Short?

WP: The Australian tour is a Steve Martin/Martin Short tour. That’s going to be fun! That’s sort of a bucket list trip for us. We’ll have a night off and do our own gig there, so we’ll get to do a little Rangers music while we’re over there. A lot of the guys are bringing their families and making a trip out of it, so that’s exciting. As far into our career as we are, it’s cool when something comes up that’s kind of bucket list that you haven’t done.

IF YOU GO

What: Mountain Song Festival
When: Friday, Sept. 6-Sunday, Sept. 8
Where: Brevard Music Center, 349 Andante Ln. mountainsongfestival.com
Tickets: $37-$57 per day

(Photo by David Simchock)