Lovin' Pretty Women Coming from Steep Canyon Rangers

Asheville, NC-based bluegrass band, Steep Canyon Rangers will be releasing Lovin' Pretty Women through Rebel Records (Ralph Stanley, Country Gentlemen) on August 14th, 2007. The band is supporting their new release by performing at nearly every summer bluegrass festival that matters, including Pickin' In The Pasture, Grey Fox and Hardly Strictly Bluegrass, to name just a few (please see complete schedule below).

The five-piece Steep Canyon Rangers formed in Chapel Hill, NC, where their varied musical backgrounds came together in the form of impromptu jams in the kitchens and hallways around town, fostered mainly out of their love for traditional American acoustic music. As their playing progressed, they were drawn more and more to bluegrass and started learning the genre's classic tunes. They immersed themselves in the music of Flatt & Scruggs and Bill Monroe while continuing to write their own music. Since none of them had ever been in a band before, they felt free to blaze their own path, generating much of their own material and creating a style all their own. Their first three albums all combine original songs with carefully chosen traditional tunes.

After completing their undergraduate studies at the University of North Carolina in 2001, these first-time bandmates found their exploding success and demanding gig schedule worthwhile enough to become fulltime musicians, and the blaze of fire they've left behind has engulfed bluegrass fans young and old. While the band is dedicated to bringing in the next generation of bluegrass audiences with their ongoing touring schedule, their allegiance to traditional bluegrass fans is spectacular, creating a sound that both takes you back and plunges you forward through generations of bluegrass, honky-tonk and blues.

Where 2006 saw the band capturing the IBMA Emerging Artist of the Year honors, 2007 sees the Steep Canyon Rangers releasing Lovin' Pretty Women, their second full-length for bluegrass traditionalists Rebel Records. The album, set for a August 14th, 2007 release, was produced by renowned bluegrass protagonist Ronnie Bowman and engineered by SCR guitarist Wyatt Rice. On Lovin' Pretty Women, the band's innate passion to bluegrass unfolds in each note played out, honoring the heritage of traditional bluegrass while simultaneously jumping ahead with a groundbreaking style of their own.

Steep Canyon Rangers Tour Schedule:
8/18/2007 - Granna, SWE Granna Bluegrass Festival
8/24/2007 - Lodi, NY Pickin' in the Pasture Bluegrass Festival
8/25/2007 - Gettysburg, PA Gettysburg Bluegrass Festival
8/31/2007 - Omagh, IREL 16th Annual Appalachian & Bluegrass Music Festival
9/1/2007 - Omagh, IREL 16th Annual Appalachian & Bluegrass Music Festival
9/2/2007 - Omagh, IREL 16th Annual Appalachian & Bluegrass Music Festival
9/8/2007 - Franklin, KY Franklin Music Festival
9/14/2007 - Bristol, TN/VA Rhythm & Roots Reunion Music Festival
9/15/2007 - Brevard, NC 2nd Annual Mountain Song Festival
9/19/2007 - N Bean Blossom, IN Bill Monroe Bluegrass Hall of Fame/Uncle Pen Days
9/21/2007 - Ashland, VA Ashland Coffee and Tea
9/22/2007 - Buena Vista, VA Nothin' Fancy Bluegrass Festival
9/28/2007 - Greenville, SC Gottrocks
9/29/2007 - Gadsden, AL Foggy Hollow Bluegrasss Gathering
9/29/2007 - Gadsden, AL Foggy Hollow Bluegrasss Gathering
10/1/2007 - Nashville, TN 2007 IBMA World of Bluegrass Convention
10/2/2007 - Nashville, TN 2007 IBMA World of Bluegrass Convention
10/3/2007 - Nashville, TN 2007 IBMA World of Bluegrass Convention
10/4/2007 - Nashville, TN 2007 IBMA World of Bluegrass Convention
10/5/2007 - Nashville, TN 2007 IBMA World of Bluegrass Convention
10/5/2007 - Chattanooga, TN Three Sisters Festival
10/6/2007 - Oak Grove, LA North Louisiana Fall Bluegrass Festival
10/7/2007 - San Francisco, CA Hardly Strictly Bluegrass No. 7
10/10/2007 - Asheville, NC Private Event
10/11/2007 - Atlanta, GA Red Light Cafe
10/13/2007 - LaGrange, GA Cherryholmes Bluegrass Festival
11/16/2007 - Bartlett, TN Lucy Opry
12/31/2007 - Nashville, TN Ryman Auditorium