Although they received a boost in popularity when actor/banjo player Steve Martin began collaborating with the group in 2009, North Carolina's Steep Canyon Rangers had already earned an audience with their progressive bluegrass sound. Beginning with 2001's Old Dreams and New Dreams, the band established themselves as one of the more innovative old-timey bluegrass units of the day. After winning a slew of International Bluegrass Music Association awards, they earned their first Grammy nomination in 2011 for the Steve Martin collaboration Rare Bird Alert and took home the award in 2012 for the album Nobody Knows You. The group continued to push against the boundaries of the genre into the next decade, teaming up with Boyz II Men on 2020's bluegrass, soul, and R&B mash-up Be Still Moses, and leaning hard into their Appalachian folk instincts on 2023's vibrant Morning Shift.