Grammy-winning band releases song based on a Wilmington writer's book with a local setting
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In a bit of cross-genre, cross-platform pollination, a new song from a prominent western North Carolina band was inspired by a Wilmington writer's novel, a book based in 1980s-era Oak Island.
On Aug. 8, the roots/bluegrass band Steep Canyon Rangers released the song "Recommend Me" from their upcoming album "Morning Shift," due out Sept. 8.
A folksy, comforting serving out of the singer-songwriter playbook of the Steep Canyon Rangers' Graham Sharp, the song was inspired by "When Ghosts Come Home," the 2021 novel by Wilmington author Wiley Cash about a sheriff in Oak Island beset on all sides by family, personal and societal crises.
In a line taken directly from Cash's novel, the song starts with the lyrics, "Don't look down and don't look back/ No doubt the hounds are on our tracks/ They're wailing on the nearest hill/ But the silent ones are closer still."
Sharp said he's based songs on books before, including one on "Look Homeward, Angel" by Thomas Wolfe, who hails from the band's hometown of Asheville.
After Cash, with whom the band is friendly, gave them a copy of "When Ghosts Come Home," Sharp said he was taken by the novel's lead character of Sheriff Winston Barnes, and the book's idea of how "all of a sudden this great, decicive moment comes on you like a tidal wave."
Steep Canyon Rangers is known largely for up-tempo songs and virtuosic playing, as well as its past collaboration with actor, writer, comedian and banjo player Steve Martin. The more measured, introspective approach of "Recommend Me," with its reliance on three guitars, marks something of a departure for the band.
Cash, who has written four novels, all set in North Carolina, said he saw the collaboration as a way of perhaps creating some overlap between his readers and Steep Canyon Rangers' listeners.
"If I can get Graham to write a song about it," Cash said, maybe their fans read his book, and his readers listen to their songs.
"We started coming down to Wilmington pretty early on," Sharp said, playing venues like the late, lamented Soapbox Laundro-Lounge in the early 2000s. He added that, in recent years, Greenfield Lake has become a home away from home for the band.
"It's nice to have places around the country or especially around the state that are touchstones for the area, places where we feel at home. And Greenfield Lake is definitely that," Sharp said.
This article originally appeared on Wilmington StarNews: Steep Canyon Rangers song inspired by Wilmington writer Wiley Cash
