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Hop Springs Beer Park, 6790 John Bragg Hwy, is proud to announce Grammy winning bluegrass legends The SteelDrivers, along with special guest opener John Salaway & the Stones River Saints, will be performing on Hop Springs outdoor stage on Sunday night, October 24th starting at 7 p.m. Limited capacity and many acres of land for distance, dancing and relaxing. Camping chairs (without bags) and blankets welcome. All food and beverages on premises must be purchased at Hop Springs. General admission tickets are $25 in advance or $35 at the gate. Tickets can be purchased at hopspringstn.com
Bad For You, the chart-topping fifth album from Nashville's hard-edged bluegrass band The Steeldrivers, arrived after a period of triumph and adaptation. The band's 2015 release, The Muscle Shoals Recordings, won the GRAMMYÒ award for 'Best Bluegrass Album."
In bluegrass and acoustic music circles, respect for this Nashville quintet is so strong the win seemed somehow inevitable, like a box being checked off. For the band though, as well as its passionate audience of Steelheads, it was a much bigger deal. The GRAMMYÒ validated the vision and collective striving of a string band with a rock and soul heart. Industry recognition and better bookings followed. Then just when the follow-up album was coming together, vocalist and guitar player Gary Nichols decided he needed to go his own way.
It was a setback, to be sure. Negotiating the transition from the magisterial soul country voice of band co-founder Chris Stapleton to Nichols had taken work and perseverance, but it had led to the most cohesive, impactful Steeldrivers to date. With a second singer on his way out in eight years, there were questions about how to go forward, if they could at all. But this was a unique, highly resilient band, rooted in the kind of mutual respect only many years of personal history can forge.
Richard Bailey (banjo), Tammy Rogers (fiddle), Mike Fleming (bass) and Brent Truitt (mandolin) have been musical colleagues and friends for more than three decades, which is to say nearly all of their adult lives. They were bringing their instrumental, vocal and songwriting skills to various bands, ad hoc gigs, picking parties and recording sessions long before The Steeldrivers first came together. That happened in 2005 when Nashville veteran Mike Henderson and Stapleton, a young gun on Music Row, had co-written a batch of songs that felt right for bluegrass instrumentation. Some casual get-togethers with Bailey, Fleming and Rogers led to a run of shows, a deal with historic Rounder Records and critical acclaim.
In a story now well-known, Stapleton hit a streak of rocket-ride success as a solo country artist, and the Steeldrivers resolved to continue on, maintaining the overall soul-grass feeling of that founding voice without hiring a clone. Henderson stepped aside as well, with many things on his plate. The band, made of sturdier stuff than one voice or part, called on Truitt to play mandolin. The search for a new singer after Gary Nichols was trickier. They wanted to keep their cards close to the vest, and they weren't looking for a mainstream bluegrass singer.
It wasn't easy, but one day, says Tammy Rogers, "My daughter found him on YouTube." This designee was bound to be unconventional, and he was, a 25-year-old rock and roll singer from Berea, KY named Kelvin Damrell.
Local artist John Salaway and the Stones River Saints, who released an album "Salvation" April 29th, will open for the Steeldrivers with Cannon County native Tyler Powell performing in an after party following the concert in the Hop Springs Tap Room.
