Steep Canyon Rangers announced the release of Be Stil Moses, a continuation of a collaboration with the Asheville Symphony and legendary Philadelphia vocal group Boyz II Men, due out on March 6 via Yep Roc Records. SCR also shared the album’s lead single, “Radio.”
Be Still Moses is a celebration of the Ashville music scene, of which Steep Canyon Rangers are at the forefront. The record sees SCR reworking a number of tunes from throughout their career and includes the Boyz II Men/Ashville Symphony collaboration “Be Still Moses,” from which the album takes its name. The vision of renowned Asheville producer Michael Selverne and executive director of the Asheville Symphony David Whitehill, the project has been a long time in the making, as Selverne explained in a statement:
In 2015, I met David Whitehill, ED of the Asheville Symphony, who wanted to integrate the symphony with the larger Asheville music community by creating a recording project for the symphony involving local musicians outside the classical community. We approached Woody [Platt] at Mountain Song Festival that year and he and the guys were onboard and eager. Woody and I spent a lot of time going back and forth about arrangements, arrangers and repertoire. The ease with which the Rangers deliver their music is deceptive because the guys are deeply talented and uniquely so. Messing with that is a daunting task but I still believed that the band could speak differently and still retain their character.
SCR’s Woody Plait also spoke about the project. “It was such a cool yet unusual experience to work as a band on a collection of songs we’ve recorded over the years and have performed live hundreds of times, by adding the Asheville Symphony and producer Michael Selverne,” Plait said. “This brought the songs to a new place with an entirely new life and sound. We also recorded with the band in a truly live setting to capture the energy of the performance.”
Listen to “Radio” from Be Still Moses below:
Be Still Moses Tracklist
- Easy To Love (’Nobody Knows You,’ 2012)
- Radio (‘Radio,’ 2015)
- Be Still Moses (‘Lovin’ Pretty Women,’ 2007 – remastered w. Boyz II Men, 2019)
- Call the Captain (‘Lovin’ Pretty Women,’ 2007)
- Let Me Out of This Town (‘Out In The Open,’ 2018)
- Blow Me Away (‘Radio,’ 2015)
- Between Midnight and the Dawn (’Nobody Knows You,’ 2012)
- Las Vegas (‘Tell The Ones I Love,’ 2013)
- Farmers and Pharaohs (‘Out In The Open,’ 2018)
- The Mountain’s Gonna Sing (‘Deep In The Shade,’ 2009)
- Auden’s Train (‘Steve Martin and the Steep Canyon Rangers feat. Edie Brickell Live,’ 2014)
