The Steel Wheels - Vol. 1: Live At The Station Inn (2018)

Last year we looked back over our past schedule and realized this band will be celebrating 1000 shows together sometime in 2018. In that time, we've played the smallest of small venues and some of the most heralded and respected stages across the US and into Canada and Europe. We also realized that while the band usually gets such strong feedback on our live show, we haven't released any live recordings for far too long. So, we decided it was time to record some of what we're doing these days.

The first volume is a show at the Station Inn in Nashville, TN. We have the honor to play this unadorned and unchanged bluegrass haunt known for putting music and musicians before glitz and glamor. This room is a tribute to the many folk music societies, series, and festivals across the world that set up shop in the humblest of places, letting the music do the talking.

The second volume is a release that highlights The Steel Wheels at the Jefferson Theater in Charlottesville, VA over New Years weekend 2017/2018. For this show, we invited our producer, Sam Kassirer, to highlight some of the different audio landscapes we've added in the last year. Sam's studio contributions on our 2017 release, Wild As We Came Here, empowered us to think differently about our live show and add musical textures and sounds with electric guitars and keyboards we had always been slow to employ before his influence. Additionally, the Jefferson is a large space that begs a larger show. The Jefferson Theater recording represents this side of The Steel Wheels' performances.

Art is a moving object. Even a painting, delivered and completed centuries ago, is vibrant in galleries today because we are changing and so our eyes can catch something different by viewing that seemingly static art in new ways. Live music is no different, and perhaps more so. We hope these live reflections give you hope whenever you find yourself hopeless, harmony in the noise, and some sense out of the senselessness.