Jacob McCrea (in another thread) wrote:
Also, on the topic of touring, and for lack of a better place to put this, the musicians here should appreciate this website:
http://www.thesteelwheels.com/
Scroll down and check out the video of the tour that the band did - something like 600 miles in 11 days, with a bunch of shows, by bike. Their bikes are loaded down with what I guess are bluegrass instruments. That's a pretty tough band there.
Steel Wheels comes to Pgh for house concerts occasionally.
They are seriously impressive musicians. In a living room with no microphones, the lead singer's solo voice sounded so HUGE and rich that I had to look very closely at the other musician's mouths because I thought they might be doing quiet, but very precise harmonies (which they do sometimes, but they did not do the first song).
Their CDs, which are good, don't do the live act justice (which happens too often with good acoustic bands).
At least one of them works for Huss and Dalton luthiers, so they have a bunch of high-quality DIY instruments.
They come from a Mennonite background, so that is one reason for themn to avoid cars.
They live in the Shenendoah Valley near Staughton. I'm guessing that if you were biking through there, catching a Steel Wheels gig would be pretty special.
They will be in Pittsburgh March 7th. I think a ride to the concert is in order.
We saw this band Sunday night at The Purple Fiddle and they were exactly as Mick described above. I am not sure exactly where they fall in the spectrum of bluegrass, Americana, roots music, gospel, folk, and so on, but it was a really good show. And yes, a ride to the concert on March 7 is in order.
OMG I LOVE THE PURPLE FIDDLE SO MUCH! So great to hear someone else knows of it. Were you skiing down there?
Yes, the Purple Fiddle is an incredibly cool place. We did ski at Timberline, which was better than I expected. As good as the skiing is, Tucker County has great road riding if you don't mind 5-7 mile climbs like Location Road and Sugarlands. And Route 72 from Parsons to Canaan is "almost heaven," as the old song says.
I would absolutely be down for a ride to this. Never heard of them before but just checked out their website. It would be pretty cool to rock up to their show with a bunch of friends on bikes.
Links! (copy/paste is the extent of my skills in this category)
