The SteelDrivers bring rocksteady bluegrass to Roots N Blues festival

The sound of wood and strings on air might sounder warmer, a little more resonant to Mike Fleming on Sunday evening as that air rests over Stephens Lake Park.

Fleming calls St. Charles home, and spent formative years in Columbia. A University of Missouri graduate, he played tennis and studied social work on campus in the 1970s.

Fleming's homecoming story is layered, as he will arrive in Columbia with a band that feels like a true musical dwelling place. After years of gigging across genres, he's found a home playing bass for The SteelDrivers, a modern bluegrass mainstay gracing this year's Roots N Blues festival.

"You’re grateful and flattered that people love the music so much," Fleming said of the way audiences have welcomed The SteelDrivers since its first stirrings in 2005.

The band continues to experience momentum, and took home a best bluegrass album Grammy in 2015, but rewards were never the point, Fleming said.

"The goal ... is steady. Steady work, steady people love you," he said.

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Bluegrass beginnings

Fleming grew up playing along with the soundtrack of his youth, first tuning his guitar to the electric stylings of The Beatles and their peers, then gravitating to the acoustic timbres of Simon and Garfunkel and Bob Dylan.

Toward the end of his MU days, Fleming encountered a song and sound many artists of his generation would owe their bluegrass futures to — the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band and "Will the Circle Be Unbroken."

Picking up the banjo, he played in various groups, including the Hell Band with fellow MU student — and future SteelDrivers co-founder — Mike Henderson as well as eventual local legend Forrest Rose, who would write for the Tribune and play a constellation of notes on countless stages before dying in 2005.

Observers often praise The SteelDrivers for weaving strands of rock and soul into their bluegrass sound.

"While there's a strong traditional streak in the SteelDrivers' sound, they bring a passion to their delivery that adds a distinctive flavor, and they're not afraid of adding a forceful grit to the music that adds undertones of blues, soul, and rock," Mark Deming wrote for AllMusic.

Fleming sees at least two elements at play, weathering the band's deeper, wider aesthetic.

"I look at bluegrass like hillbilly jazz, in a way," he said. "There’s song structure, and then instruments take solos. There’s kind of a kindred spirit there."

SteelDrivers members also know many styles from the inside out, playing widely for the sake of their musical growth — and to earn a paycheck on their way to this band, Fleming said. They can't help but carry past experience into the music's present tense; and feel confident they can infuse any song with the same power as an electric band, he said.

"It wasn’t like we were scared of a song," Fleming said.

How The SteelDrivers welcome listeners in

The SteelDrivers' origins involve early songwriting sessions shared by Henderson and a mighty oak named Chris Stapleton, the band's website notes. The pair folded Fleming, banjo player Richard Bailey and fiddler Tammy Rogers into their dynamic, with Stapleton first leading the band from the microphone.

The band knows a little turnover and a lot of longevity. Fleming, Bailey and Rogers remain — and mandolin player Brent Truitt has been with the band for a decade, Fleming noted. Henderson has since moved on, and Stapleton's exit began a revolving door of singers, including country artist Gary Nichols.

The SteelDrivers pursue a certain relationship with their vocalists, hoping to achieve something like a "Southern rock singer in a bluegrass band," Fleming said. Current singer Matt Dame more than fits the bill, he added.

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Ever grateful for the response from listeners, The SteelDrivers try to create a "big living room" feel and a sense of togetherness in concert, Fleming said. Or perhaps, in the case of Roots N Blues, a giant front porch.

"We’re letting you into our world," Fleming said of the band's mindset. "... We try to get really cozy. ... If you can come off stage and people think, 'I know those guys now. I’d like to go out and have a beer with them,' something like that, I think we’ve done our job."

Fleming's capacity for fostering such a feel is directly influenced by his time in Forrest Rose's presence. The late artist was "just a Renaissance fellow" and "a people person," he said. Rose often regaled the crowd with stories and quips between songs.

Now, splitting the crowd work with Rogers, Fleming feels able to hold any kind of conversation with concertgoers.

"He was a consummate bass player," Fleming said of Rose. "And how he held himself on-stage and talked to the audience like, 'Hey, I know you all.' That rubbed off on me for sure."

The SteelDrivers play the MU Health Care Stage at 4 p.m. Sunday. For a full Roots N Blues lineup, and remaining ticket options, visit https://rootsnbluesfestival.com/.

Aarik Danielsen is the features and culture editor for the Tribune. Contact him at adanielsen@columbiatribune.com or by calling 573-815-1731. Find him on Twitter @aarikdanielsen.

This article originally appeared on Columbia Daily Tribune: MU grad Mike Fleming leads soulful string band SteelDrivers to Roots N Blues