LISTEN: Steep Canyon Rangers' 'Sunny Days' Brings Brightness

Steep Canyon Rangers bring a little bit of brightness with their new song "Sunny Days." The longing-filled track is premiering exclusively on The Boot; press play below to listen.

"Sunny Days" finds a familiar someone at at the door, "one step ahead of the storm" and seeking refuge with the song's protagonist, who's welcoming and offering a safe, warm place to stay, baggage and all. "Is it too much to hope for that you'd be mine? / What I wouldn't give to be with you just one time in the sunshine," the Steep Canyon Rangers harmonize.

“It’s got a driving pulse at the top of it, like a rock anthem, but it changes at th[at] line," explains the bluegrass band's Mike Guggino. “We knew the song had to change there, so we bring it down, and there’s a group solo with the banjo, fiddle and mandolin all playing at once with each instrument occupying a different space. The music releases as the speaker releases that wish to be in the sunshine.”

"Sunny Days" is one of 11 songs on the Steep Canyon Rangers' forthcoming new album, Arm in Arm. The band -- mandolin player Guggino, banjo player Graham Sharp, singer and guitarist Woody Platt, fiddle player Nicky Sanders and drummer Mike Ashworth -- is celebrating two decades together in 2020, and they recorded the new project at Nashville's Southern Ground studio, choosing for the first time to not use an outside producer.

“We’re not trying to sound like a style or genre. We’re not trying to fit into a certain mold," says Sharp. "For a long time, we were a traditional bluegrass band, and that meant the themes would have to fit into that mold: work songs, heartbreak songs, train songs. But we’ve evolved to play any groove, any style, and it has opened us up to so many more possibilities."

Arm in Arm is due out on Oct. 16 and available for pre-order and pre-save now. Visit SteepCanyon.com for more.

Listen to Steep Canyon Rangers' "Sunny Days"

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