Arden, North Carolina (October 14, 2022) — In a turn of events that finds life imitating art, the new single from Organic Records’ Aaron Burdett offers a story rooted in the past that’s found an unexpected echo in the present.
Set to a driving beat supplied by Laura Ray (banjo), Zeb Gambill (mandolin) and bassist/harmony singer Kim France — the musicians who made up Burdett’s road band for the preceding year — “Denver Plane” unwinds an entertaining tale of a western North Carolina bluegrass band trying to make tight airport connections on their way out west, punctuated by a memorable chorus that almost demands a sing-along:
“Denver plane, Denver plane
We’ve got shows to play
But only if we make it on that Denver plane”
Yet as captivating as the song is in its own right, its invocation of the Steep Canyon Rangers will have listeners shaking their heads in amusement, as it arrives in the wake of the recent announcement that Burdett has been named as the newest member of the GRAMMY-winning sextet, known for alternating their own recordings and tours with ones made with legendary banjo-playing comedian and actor Steve Martin.
“In August of 2019 my band was flying out to Colorado to play some shows,” notes Burdett, “and we found ourselves traveling alongside the Steep Canyon Rangers, who were doing the same. We had a really tight connection at Charlotte, and I remember running between terminals for about 20 minutes alongside Graham Sharp, songwriter and banjo player for their band. Both of us were lugging heavy instruments and backpacks, and we were not optimistic we’d get to the gate in time. Fortunately we did get there just as the plane doors were closing, and I made a note during the flight with a song idea about ‘running with the Rangers.’ As often happens, it took me a year or two to flesh out the full song, and we finally recorded it in the spring of 2022.
“Here’s where the story gets interesting, though,” he adds. “In June of 2022, quite unexpectedly, the Rangers contacted me about the possibility of joining them, and now, as I write this in the early fall of 2022, I’m actually a full member of the band, ‘running with the Rangers’ on a weekly basis. You can’t make this stuff up!”
Listen to “Denver Plane” HERE.
About Aaron Burdett
Aaron Burdett’s lyrics are soul-touching, intelligent, witty, and poetic all at once, while his music style is a seamless blend of Americana, country, blues, bluegrass, and folk.
Aaron is listed as one of the Top 10 most important musicians of western North Carolina by WNC Magazine, alongside such greats as Doc Watson, Steep Canyon Rangers, and The Avett Brothers. He has also received critical acclaim as a songwriter, most recently winning the Chris Austin Songwriting contest at MerleFest for the bluegrass category for his song Rockefeller. His latest album “Dream Rich, Dirt Poor” (2021) debuted at #8 on the Billboard bluegrass charts and has had 4 top 10 radio songs to date.
Burdett took home the grand prize in the folk category of the USA Songwriting Contest with “A Couple Broken Windows” in 2018 and was also the winner of Our State Magazine’s Carolina Songs Competition in 2012 with “Going Home to Carolina.” Aaron’s song “Magpie” won third place bluegrass song in Chris Austin Songwriting Contest at Merlefest in 2013. Over the years Aaron has been a finalist in numerous other songwriting competitions, including The Mountain Stage Songwriting Contest, The NC Songwriter’s Cooperative Songwriting Contest, and the Hank Williams Songwriting Contest.
As a child, Aaron discovered John Hiatt, Bob Dylan, Cat Stevens, James Taylor, The Rolling Stones, Grateful Dead, The Beatles, The Band, and Rickie Lee Jones on vinyl records in his parents’ living room in the mountains of North Carolina. As a budding guitarist and songwriter, he was drawn to powerful communicators of the time like David Wilcox and Tracy Chapman and John Gorka. In his late teens, he discovered John Prine on a cassette tape dug out of a workshop drawer filled with rusty sixteen penny nails on a Wyoming ranch. He re-discovered the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band on that same trip in a second-hand store in Riverton, Wyoming.
In his 20s he was introduced to Doc Watson when he heard him play in the living room of an old farmhouse near Boone, North Carolina. That experience led him to Norman Blake, Tony Rice, David Grier, Tim O’Brien, Darrell Scott, and Gillian Welch.
Mix all those influences up, add time and pressure, seven full-album releases, thousands of live performances, and you get Aaron Burdett, the songwriter and artist you hear today.
Drawing heavily on both the traditions of Appalachian folk music as well as nationally known songwriters, Aaron’s music gives voice to the small rural areas of the Blue Ridge Mountains while also speaking to the working men and women throughout the country.