Nicky Sanders | |
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Background information | |
Born | 16 August 1979 |
Genres | Bluegrass, Rock |
Instrument(s) | Fiddle, Vocals |
Years active | 2000 to present |
Labels | Yep Roc Records |
Website | SteepCanyon.com |
Nicky Sanders is a Grammy Award-winning, American fiddle player specializing in Bluegrass music. [1] He is best known for his work with the band Steep Canyon Rangers along with banjo player and comedian Steve Martin. [2] Raised in San Francisco, he began studying classical violin aged five. At 17, he became concertmaster of the Young People's Symphony Orchestra in Berkeley, California. Later he would graduate Berklee College of Music in Boston, Massachusetts earning a BA in Music with a major in performance (violin). Other studies while at Berklee included 20th-century classical music composition and Film Scoring.
In 2004, Nicky relocated to Asheville, North Carolina, where he joined Steep Canyon Rangers as full-time fiddle player. [3] His first CD appearance with the Rangers was on their fourth album, "One Dime at a Time" (2005) produced by Mike Bub (Del McCoury Band). The next year, Steep Canyon Rangers band won Emerging Artist of the Year at the 2006 International Bluegrass Music Association Awards ceremony. The Rangers recorded a fiddle tune written by Sanders entitled "Mourning Dove" on the 2009 album "Deep in the Shade." The song was nominated for IBMA Instrumental Song of the Year in 2010.
In 2013, the Steep Canyon Rangers' album Nobody Knows You won the Grammy Award for Best Bluegrass Album. [4] The previous year, the band's 2012 collaboration with Steve Martin, Rare Bird Alert , was nominated for the same award.
In May 2009, Steve Martin and the Steep Canyon Rangers performed their first joint concert at Club Nokia in Los Angeles, California. [5] The sextet appeared the following month on A Prairie Home Companion . [6] Since then, the Steep Canyon Rangers have continued to tour steadily with Martin and recorded with him on the Grammy-nominated bluegrass album Rare Bird Alert . [7]
On July 4, 2011, Nicky Sanders was featured in a performance of "Orange Blossom Special" with Martin and SCR at the Capitol Fourth celebration on the West Lawn of the U.S. Capitol Building. [8]
Sanders is a featured musician (with members of Steep Canyon Rangers) on Martin's 2013 duo album with singer-songwriter Edie Brickell, Love Has Come for You . [9]
Sanders first appeared as a guest with the jam band Widespread Panic in November 2013 at the Civic Center in Asheville, North Carolina, [10] after appearing on lead guitarist Jimmy Herring's solo album Subject to Change Without Notice (2012). [11] In April 2014, he sat in with Panic for a two-night stand at the Orpheum Theatre (Los Angeles) and then again 10 days later at the North Carolina Azalea Festival. In July, he appeared at the close of Panic's second set at High Sierra Music Festival. The final guest appearances in 2014 were in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, at the Riverside Theater and in Broomfield, Colorado, on November 2. [12] [13] In July 2015, Sanders returned to guest with Widespread Panic in Dallas, Texas, at the Winspear Opera House. [14]
Stephen Glenn Martin is an American comedian, actor, writer, producer, and musician. Known for his work in comedy films, television, and recording, he has received many accolades, including five Grammy Awards, a Primetime Emmy Award and an Honorary Academy Award, in addition to nominations for two Tony Awards. He also received the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor in 2005, the Kennedy Center Honors in 2007, and an AFI Life Achievement Award in 2015. In 2004, Comedy Central ranked Martin at sixth place in a list of the 100 greatest stand-up comics. The Guardian named him one of the best actors never to have received an Academy Award nomination.
Edie Arlisa Brickell is an American singer-songwriter widely known for 1988's Shooting Rubberbands at the Stars, the debut album by Edie Brickell & New Bohemians, which went to No. 4 on the Billboard albums chart. She is married to singer-songwriter Paul Simon.
Anthony Cattell Trischka is an American five-string banjo player. Sandra Brennan wrote of him in 2021: "One of the most influential modern banjoists, both in several forms of bluegrass music and occasionally in jazz and avant-garde, Tony Trischka has inspired a whole generation of progressive bluegrass musicians."
The Biscuit Burners are a bluegrass and Americana band from Weaverville, North Carolina ; they are on hiatus as of 2009.
James Bryan Sutton is an American musician. Primarily known as a flatpicking acoustic guitar player, Sutton also plays mandolin, banjo, ukulele, and electric guitar. He also sings and writes songs.
Carl Eugene Jackson is an American country and bluegrass musician. Jackson's first Grammy was awarded in 1992 for his duet album with John Starling titled "Spring Training." In 2003 Jackson produced the Grammy Award-winning CD titled Livin', Lovin', Losin': Songs of the Louvin Brothers – a tribute to Ira and Charlie Louvin. He also recorded one of the songs on the CD, a collection of duets featuring such artists as James Taylor, Alison Krauss, Dolly Parton, Johnny Cash, Emmylou Harris, and others.
Steep Canyon Rangers is an American bluegrass band based in Asheville and Brevard, North Carolina.
Rare Bird Alert is a 2011 bluegrass album by Steve Martin and the Steep Canyon Rangers, featuring guest appearances by Paul McCartney and The Chicks. This is Martin's second consecutive musical album, and comprises 13 songs. His first all-music album was 2009's The Crow: New Songs for the 5-String Banjo. Rare Bird Alert was first released on March 15, 2011. The album was nominated for a Grammy on November 30, 2011. "King Tut" is a new bluegrass arrangement of a song that was a Billboard top 20 hit for Martin in 1978.
Nobody Knows You is a studio album by Steep Canyon Rangers released in 2012 through Rounder Records. In January 2013, the record won the Grammy Award for Best Bluegrass Album, which was presented to Steep Canyon Rangers as artists and co-producers of the album alongside Gary Paczosa. The album peaked at #2 on Billboard's Top Bluegrass Albums chart.
The Grammy Award for Best American Roots Song is an award category at the annual Grammy Awards, a ceremony that was established in 1958 and originally called the Gramophone Awards, to recording artists for quality songs in the American Roots Music genres such as blues, bluegrass, folk, Americana, and regional roots music. Honors in several categories are presented at the ceremony annually by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences of the United States to "honor artistic achievement, technical proficiency and overall excellence in the recording industry, without regard to album sales or chart position".
Love Has Come for You is a 2013 bluegrass music CD featuring a collaboration of 13 original songs composed by Steve Martin (music) and Edie Brickell. The album cover art is a painting entitled "After Dinner Drinks" (2008) by Martin Mull; the original work is in Steve Martin's personal art collection.
So Familiar is a studio album by bluegrass duo Steve Martin and Edie Brickell. It was released on October 30, 2015 by Rounder Records.
Bright Star is a musical written and composed by Steve Martin and Edie Brickell. It is set in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina in 1945–46 with flashbacks to 1923. The musical is inspired by their Grammy-winning collaboration on the 2013 bluegrass album Love Has Come for You and, in turn, the folk tale of the Iron Mountain Baby.
Radio is the ninth solo album by Steep Canyon Rangers, their eleventh overall. It was released on August 28, 2015. The album peaked at No. 1 on the Billboard Bluegrass Albums chart on 18 September 2015 and spent a total of 41 weeks on that chart. The title song was nominated for Song of the Year by the International Bluegrass Music Association in 2016.
Alfred Francis Platt III, known as Woody Platt, is a Grammy Award-winning, American guitar player and vocalist specializing in bluegrass music. He is best known for his work with the band Steep Canyon Rangers along with banjo player and comedian Steve Martin.
Arm in Arm is the 13th studio album by American bluegrass band Steep Canyon Rangers. It was released on October 16, 2020 through Yep Roc Records. The album debuted at No. 2 on the Billboard Bluegrass Albums chart, and spent 16 consecutive weeks on the chart. Arm in Arm also reached No. 4 on the Americana/Folk Albums chart, No. 10 on the Current Country Albums chart, and No. 24 on the Record Label Independent Albums chart.
Be Still Moses is the 12th studio album by American bluegrass band Steep Canyon Rangers. The North Carolina label, Yep Roc Records, released the album digitally on March 6, 2020, then on CD and LP on April 10, 2020. The album was made in collaboration with the Asheville Symphony. The album's title track, "Be Still Moses," features the Philadelphia R&B/Soul group Boyz II Men. Be Still Moses reached #1 on Billboard's Bluegrass Chart, #2 on the Classical Crossover Chart, and #8 on the Americana/Folk Chart.
North Carolina Songbook is the 11th album from American bluegrass band Steep Canyon Rangers. The album was released on Yep Roc Records on November 29, 2019, for Record Store Day/Black Friday. The digital and wide releases for North Carolina Songbook came on April 10, 2020. album debuted at #1 on the Billboard Bluegrass Albums Chart. It also reached #9 on the Americana/Folk Albums chart, #22 on the Current Country Albums chart, #29 on the Record Label Independent Albums chart, and #119 on the Top Current Albums chart. North Carolina Songbook was nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Bluegrass Album in March 2021.
Brandon Bell is a Grammy Award winning record engineer, mix engineer and producer based in Nashville. His credits include Alan Jackson, Sarah Jarosz, Joni Mitchell, Steep Canyon Rangers, Zac Brown Band, The Highwomen, Foo Fighters, Tanya Tucker, Parker McCollum, Brandi Carlile, Earl Scruggs, Reba McEntire, Alison Krauss and Union Station, Dierks Bentley, Miranda Lambert, Allison Russell, and Blackberry Smoke.