After all, things are looking decidedly rosy for the Steep Canyon Rangers these days. The group’s self-titled Rebel Records debut hit shelves in June and has spent 17 weeks on the Roots Music Report’s Bluegrass Airplay chart, topping the chart in the early fall. The band crisscrossed the country during the summer and fall, playing festivals from Florida to Montana and clubs from Colorado to their home state of North Carolina.

Based in the Asheville area in the mountainous western part of North Carolina, the Steep Canyon Rangers are somewhat atypical in the bluegrass world. That’s because the band is essentially a group of college buddies who were friends long before they were band mates. The Steep Canyon Rangers lineup includes Graham, Woody Platt on guitar, Charles Humphrey III on bass, Mike Guggino on mandolin, and newcomer Nicky Sanders on fiddle. (Woody and Mike handle most of the vocal chores, though everybody in the band takes his turn at the microphone.) “In bluegrass, a lot of pickers came up through different bands, playing for a bandleader as apprentices. But the younger crop of bands differ from that,” says Graham. “We’re groups of guys that got together and are kind of doing it our own way. Everybody has their influences and people that they’re recalling, but it’s great that nobody’s standing over you saying you can’t play like this or like that.”