Grammy Award-winning bluegrass band SteelDrivers will be taking the stage at the New Daisy this Friday, March 2nd, at 8 p.m.
SteelDrivers has been nominated for various Grammys in this last several years, including Best Bluegrass Album for their album Reckless and Best Country Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals for songs “Blue Side of the Mountain” and “Where Rainbows Never Die.” In 2016, the band’s latest album, The Muscle Shoals Recordings, recorded with Jason Isbell, won them their first Grammy Award for Best Bluegrass Album.
Although the band is commonly considered bluegrass or country, banjoist Richard Bailey, who is originally from Memphis, classifies the band as a jam band and describes their sound as an “edgier, bluesy sound. But I wouldn’t call it bluegrass or country.” Others have described the band’s music as having elements of Americana, country, blues, rock, and soul.
Bailey lists some of the band’s influences as Ray Charles, David Allen Coe, Jackson Brown — “a little bit of everything.” Bailey says, “I think that’s why all of us work together so well, because we have such a broad interest in music.”
Bailey says many of the band’s songs are like stories and that the subject matter often centers around “a whole lot of drinkin’ and a whole lot of killin.’” He says their song “If it Hadn’t Been for Love” is one such song and has been covered by Adele.
So far, SteelDrivers has released four albums through Rounder Records, and they plan to release a fifth by the end of next year. “We are rehearsing for it right now,” says Bailey.
Although the band is based out of Nashville, Richard Bailey grew up in Memphis, where he attended Bartlett High School. Soon after beginning his freshman year, Bailey discovered his passion for playing banjo. After graduation, he pursued a commercial music production degree at Memphis State University (now University of Memphis), and from there, he began producing jingles for commercials. In 1987, after the jingle-making business in town dried up, Bailey and country/bluegrass musician friends Billy Joe Foster and Joe Diffie made the move to Nashville to immerse themselves in the country music scene.
After a casual jam session with singer Chris Stapleton and multi-instrumentalist Mike Henderson in 2005, Bailey joined up with the SteelDrivers, which included Stapleton, Henderson, Mike Fleming (bassist), and Tammy Rogers (fiddler). Three years later, in 2008, the band released their self-titled debut album, The SteelDrivers.
Despite numerous band lineup changes (including the departing of original members Stapleton and Henderson and the gaining of newer members Brent Truitt and Kelvin Damrell) over the last 10 years, the band has seen increasing achievements, including the aforementioned Grammy award, three International Bluegrass Music Awards nominations, and a number one spot on Billboard’s Bluegrass charts.
SteelDrivers has played bi-monthly at the Grand Ole Opry for 10 years and has performed at numerous music festivals the likes of Bonnaroo, Roots, and Telluride Bluegrass Festival, the latter two of which are a couple of Bailey’s favorite venues.
A few of Bailey’s past musical projects include recording a gospel album with Al Green in 1981, playing with Grammy Award-nominated band Rolling White Band, and playing with Memphis-based bluegrass band Tennessee Gentlemen before his move to Nashville.
This will be Bailey’s second performance at the New Daisy. Before his move from Memphis, he performed a jingle he had written for a First Tennessee commercial at a commercial premier celebration at the New Daisy.
