BMP: How did the band start?

WOODY: Graham (Sharp), the banjo player, called the bass player and myself. We were in college together at The University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. We were really good friends and in our junior year we started playing some music together. Charles (Humphrey III) had just gotten a bass fiddle and Graham had a banjo. I was a guitar player who liked to sing.

BMP: You made a lot of impressive career moves. Was that planned or were you running on sheer luck?

WOODY: We were running on sheer luck. It was just a bunch of buddies from school who enjoyed playing together. We played a few gigs in Chapel Hill that were really well attended. We had called a few friends to join us. One was my buddy from Bravard, North Carolina, Mike Guggino, who is still our mandolin player, and a girl from Chapel Hill, named Lizzie Hamilton, who played fiddle for us. It all kind of evolved and has been evolving ever since. After we finished school, we realized that we probably had enough gigs to make a run at focusing on music as our main occupation. It was tough, and we worked some part-time jobs for a while, but a few years later we had enough dates to go for it as a full-time bluegrass band.

BMP: A few years ago it was tough for a young band. Is it easier now?

WOODY: It’s a little easier. We’ve gotten accepted on the traditional bluegrass circuit. We’re involved in a lot of festivals and venues that host traditional bluegrass concerts around the country. That enabled us to play 100 to 120 shows a year that, in turn, led to us making a living playing music. But it wasn’t easy. We’ve had to work really hard; putting in a lot of miles on the road, a lot of hours in practice and a lot of sacrifice to pull it off.

BMP: Do you consider yourself traditional?

WOODY: Yes!

BMP: Why?

WOODY: Well, we play bluegrass music within the style that Flatt & Scruggs and Bill Monroe played. They were the originators of the music and we definitely play a similar kind of music.

BMP: What do you mean "within the style?"

WOODY: There’s a formula that bluegrass music has that we tend to follow. We don’t necessarily copy it in our arrangements, but in our approach we feel like we add something youthful and fresh to bluegrass. We definitely, within the tradition, fit right in there.

BMP: Your description could fit into a number of progressive bands.

WOODY: If you don’t think we’re traditional, that would be your opinion. But, I would say that our style of bluegrass is more traditional than most.

BMP: I’ve got an old Steep Canyon Rangers CD with Lizzie Hamilton listed on fiddle. When was that released?

WOODY: I don’t know which one that is. We did two (recordings) with Lizzie. One was Old Dreams And New Dreams and Mr. Taylor’s New Home. Those were probably released in 2000 and 2002. That was a long time ago for us and we’ve grown a lot since then as a band. When we did the first record, Old Dreams And New Dreams, we were just learning how to play. It was a lot of fun, but we had not evolved as a group yet. Now, five or six years later, we’ve grown a lot individually and collectively. In hindsight, we probably recorded a little early, but I think everybody does. Once you get confident within your group, you get excited and want to record it. We sold a lot of those and people liked them. We learned a lot and the records have progressively gotten better as we’ve grown.