American bluegrass band Steep Canyon Rangers will be performing at The Community Arts Center on Thursday, March 2.

The North Carolina-based, Grammy Award winning band has been making music together since 2000.

“The band started and continued for a long time to be a very traditional bluegrass band,” said bassist Barrett Smith. “It’s been 20 years and here we are. Still a bunch of really good buddies. Making some good art together.”

The band first came together in Chapel Hill, N.C., as a group of friends making music together.

“I was there in the beginning, watching it all go down, and the band was really devoted to being really traditional at that time,” Smith said. “That was before my time of actually being in the band. All those years ago, when the band started at Chapel Hill, I was there too. We were all really close. I have these really old relationships with band members. So when they needed a new bass player, I was a good choice at least partially because I was there in the beginning, watching it all go down,” said Smith.

Since then, the genre-defying band has somewhat transformed its sound.

“The band has changed over the years. It has a pretty broad spectrum of musical interests in general. As the years wore on, those other influences, man, they just crept in and started to stretch and strain the traditional bluegrass model,” Smith said.

“Before we knew it, we were doing a lot of songs that were not staying in the mold so easily,” Smith said. “There are pros and cons to that. We felt all the while that we didn’t have much of a choice in the matter, we are just doing what we like and what we really believe in. It just kind of slowly morphed.”

The band is well-known for their touring collaboration with actor and banjoist Steve Martin.

“There’s just us, the band, which is normally what it is. And we travel far and wide, just doing that. And then Steve Martin and Martin Short, they have a stage comedy show that they do. And we’re basically the house band for that,” Smith said. “It’s a lot of traveling. We cover a lot of ground, we see a lot of people and play a lot of music for different types of audiences and all different venues,” he added.

The band was introduced to Steve Martin 12 years ago and have since been working together.

“He’s really serious about music and devoted, specifically banjo music and bluegrass music. He’s very knowledgeable about what’s going on at any given time in contemporary bluegrass — he knew of the band just because he knows about that world,” Smith said.

“It’s a really great relationship. And it seems that was apparent, right from the get-go. We all kind of fell in love with each other in a musical and professional way, immediately. And we’ve been his band since then,” Smith said.

According to Smith, Pennsylvania has an especially large bluegrass following, often bringing the band back to the area.

“It turns out that there are a lot of big bluegrass fans in central and south Pennsylvania. At the time some years ago that caught us off guard being from the south, that there would be such a stronghold in Pennsylvania of all places. But it’s definitely true and Pennsylvania has been really good to us and we have really deep fan relationships that are kind of almost like family to us at this point,” Smith said.

“So we expect we’ll see them in Williamsport, all kinds of old friends, and then they bring their friends. It’s a party when we come to Pennsylvania. It’s a really good scene for us,” Smith said. “When we see a Pennsylvania town on the touring schedule, we all get pretty excited about it. We love playing music for people and we love our live show and feel real proud of it. So we’re really excited to bring some really good music to that crowd,” he added.

“We think it’s gonna be a really special night. We got it marked on our calendar and we can’t wait to be there to play for the people in Williamsport. It’s gonna be a great night,” Smith said.

To purchase tickets for the Steep Canyon Rangers performance, visit www.caclive.com.