Music

Steep Canyon Rangers

Grammy-winning bluegrass group Steep Canyon Rangers will be performing in a Free, All Ages outdoor show as part of the Muncie Three Trails Music Series

Grammy-winning bluegrass greats Steep Canyon Rangers will open our 2025 Muncie Three Trails Music Series with our first FREE CONCERT on Saturday, May 31st at Canan Commons in Downtown Muncie! Our first opening act of the 2025 season will be Muncie's Mike Martin & The Beautiful Mess! Lawn chairs, dancing, and all ages are welcome! Come early and come hungry for our local food/drink vendors too! Explore the Trails, Enjoy the Music! 

Learn more about the 2025 Series here:

https://www.MuncieThreeTrails.com

RSVP here:

https://www.facebook.com/share/1BnNozA8G1/

Over the band’s esteemed career, Steep Canyon Rangers have released 14 studio albums, three collaborative albums with actor and banjoist Steve Martin, and been inducted into the North Carolina Music Hall of Fame! Heralds of the Carolina sound for more than two decades, the GRAMMY-winning Steep Canyon Rangers find themselves in a unique seat at the table for their new release, Morning Shift. On this record, the band tell stories that both honor their roots, and expand upon the living art of bluegrass music. Recorded in Bat Cave, NC, at the Hickory Nut Gap Inn, a historical refuge settled near a long-forgotten crossroads of Southern Appalachia, this was the perfect space to feel confident in expanding upon that Carolina sound, the perfect runway to let their well-oiled machine do what it does best- craft stories from the ground up, as a unit. With a sure hand at the wheel was the distinguished Darrell Scott, whom the Rangers put full faith in to navigate the waters of producing their most important record to date. “It was like going to recording camp,” said Scott, “We ate together, we stayed at the Inn together the whole time, and we recorded. Going about it that way made for a very organic record.” A thoughtful approach to collaboration, ironclad creative trust, and a collective drive towards authentic storytelling, makes for not only a quintessential Rangers record, but a modern North Carolina classic.

Steep Canyon Rangers is made up of Graham Sharp on banjo and vocals, Mike Guggino on mandolin/mandola and vocals, Aaron Burdett on guitar and vocals, Nicky Sanders on fiddle and vocals, Mike Ashworth on drums and vocals, and Barrett Smith on bass, guitar, and vocals. Hailing from both the Appalachian and Piedmont regions of North Carolina, the Rangers have long held traditional bluegrass paramount, while possessing an exceptional ability to bring it down the mountain, and to incorporate accessible influences from all walks of the region. Too, newcomer Burdett brings a soul-stirring element to the Rangers’ mastery of mountain music. Burdett is an award-winning singer-songwriter, and a student of folk tradition. He provides a fresh, emotional context to the songbook, which “can reach out and touch your heart or slap you in the face,” to use the praise of drummer and multi-instrumentalist, Mike Ashworth. “I’ve always loved traditional Old Time and Bluegrass, and the concept of neo- traditional re-visitations and interpretations of those styles.” says Burdett. “Once I started singing with the Rangers, I saw an opportunity to try to write some songs for the band that brought in the traditional sounds and structures that I grew up hearing here in western North Carolina.”

With the band’s last few albums, they have gained recognition well beyond the world of bluegrass, earning a reputation as some of the most influential songwriters in Americana today. Steep Canyon Rangers have appeared on some of music’s biggest stages and in 2013, Nobody Knows You won the GRAMMY Award for Best Bluegrass Album, while 2012’s Rare Bird and 2020’s North Carolina Songbook garnered nominations in the same category!

Learn more about Steep Canyon Rangers here:

https://www.SteepCanyon.com

You are going to love this FREE show! And we're making sure of it with our great local opening act, long-time patrons of the arts in Muncie, Mike Martin & The Beautiful Mess! Their music has been called everything from folk to bluegrass to punk rock to Celtic to country. The band consists of Mike on guitar, Caryn Egan on viola, Ripley Owermohle on banjo and harmonica, James Reynen on bass, and CJ Barrow on drums (all but CJ also share vocal duties). The last two years the band has won Country Americana Band of the Year in Charleston, SC. Mike, an East Central Indiana native, states, “Muncie had a huge influence on my music and my music business." - come show them your love of Muncie too!

1st Thursday - Canan Stage 5-6:30 pm

   The AHB Jazz Combo is at June’s ‘1st Thursday Arts Walk’ — As long as you’re appreciating the best of Muncie’s artists — be sure to walk on down to the Canan Commons stage, and jive to the jazz talents of Muncie saxophonist George Wolfe & combo players. 

AHB Swings at the Canan Commons Stage

   Bandleader Larry McWilliams keeps the AHB Big Band players hoppin’ with charts from the best swing & jazz composers ever known - as in Count Basie, Glen Miller, Billy May, and many more. Bring lawn chair, parasol, and maybe your dancing shoes! 

Grammy nominees gospel/soul group the Harlem Gospel Travelers will be performing a Free, All Ages concert as part of the Muncie Three Trails Music Series. This show is sponsored by Defur Voran

AHB Flute & Clarinet Choirs in Concert

AHB  Music Director Roger McConnell puts the ‘Spotlight’ on three distinctive instrumental sections of his ‘Hometown Band’ … 

at 6 pm: the spirited sound of a Dixieland    Combo (led by Larry McWilliams)

at 7 pm: the lovely multi-voice blends of the AHB Flute Choir & AHB Clarinet Connection musicians

July 4th at Minnetrista with AHB Concert Band

America's Hometown Band entertains the Independence Day crowd at Minnetrista - right up to Fireworks time. The music begins at 7 pm with George Wolfe's AHB Jazz Combo, and then at 7:30 the AHB Concert Band delivers the patriotic fare of the evening.

AHB brings back to Muncie - Crooner Myles Ogea, on July 17, 7 pm, at Munnetrista

   AHB Concert Band brings Guest Vocalist Myles Ogea back to Muncie - his hometown - to serenade us all with tunes in the Sinatra/Buble style.  Join us on the lawn at Minnetrista’s main building, from 7- 8:15 pm, July 17.
         Bring lawn chair & parasol 🎵

AHB Cool Tunes at Westside Park

     It’s Summer Swing Time with America’s Hometown Band‘s jazz/swing musicians — everyone‘s Havin’ it Made in the Shade at 8 pm, Thursday the 24th in Muncie !   
Lawn seating.  

Aug 7, 1st Thurs at Canan Stage, 5-6 pm only - Doc Peterson group hosted by America’s Hometown Band !!

  🎵 5-6 pm special !!  AHB hosts a rock band performance by Doc Peterson and group, on the Canan Commons Stage. Start your August Arts Walk in front of the Canan stage !

Bandleader & Trumpeter Larry McWilliams

Park your lawn chair under the trees at Westside & get ready for that Big Band Swing sound from AHB Jazz/Swing Band.  Bandleader is Larry McWilliams, creator of the Jazz Program at Ball State University. 

Blue Moon Marquee

Award-winning Canadian blues/swing/jazz group Blue Moon Marquee will be performing in a Free, All Ages concert as part of the Muncie Three Trails Music Series

The ‘very talented’ AHB Concert Band

This concert is a showcase of just a a few of AHB’s talented musicians - Soloists and Small Ensembles -  all of whom contribute to AHB’s big sound year after year!

Vanessa Collier

15-time Blues Music Awards nominee (and 4-time winner) Vanessa Collier will be performing in a Free, All Ages concert as part of the Muncie Three Trails Music Series

Jennie Devoe

Native Hoosier Jennie Devoe will be performing in a Free, All Ages concert as part of the Muncie Three Trails Music Series. This concert is sponsored by the Community Foundation of Muncie and Delaware County

Colby T. Helms

Country/bluegrass artist Colby T. Helms and the Virginia Creepers will be performing in a Free, All Ages concert as part of the Muncie Three Trails Music Series

AHB Concert Band performs at Field of Flags Display Closing Ceremony on Sept 11, at Minnetrista.

   On Patriots Day 9/11, AHB Concert Band accompanies the Field of Flags Closing Ceremony at Minnetrista. The week-long multi-flag display on the Minnetrista front greensward honors and remembers the victims and rescue respondents who perished in the New York City 9/11 terrorist attack of 2001 — as well as the service and history of the entire cadre of America’s disaster respondents. 

AHB is a tradition at the Old Washington St Festival - concert date for 2025 is Sun, Sept 14, at 2 pm.

    Under the bright red tent - at 2:00 pm on Sunday, Sept 14 - the AHB Concert Band performs its last concert of the 2025 season during Muncie’s long-running Old Washington Street Festival… and the audience areas are tent-shaded, too.   

Afro Peruvian Jazz Orchestra

Grammy nominees the Afro Peruvian jazz Orchestra will be performing in a Free, All Ages concert as part of the Muncie Three Trails Music Series