Steep Canyon Rangers’ Graham Sharp Offers ‘Truer Picture’ of His Songwriting Skills

Troubadour Graham Sharp invites us onto his front porch as he spins out rollicking bluegrass stompers, emotionally intimate and spare folk ballads, and a scampering rocker for his solo debut, Truer Picture.

On this solo debut for Sharp, whose main music gig is as banjo player, singer, and principal songwriter for North Carolina’s Steep Canyon Rangers, he and his producer, Seth Kauffman, handle most of the instruments, joined by Matt Smith on pedal steel and, on “Deeper Family,” David Hartley on harmony vocals. The sonic spareness of the album welcomes us, enveloping us in Sharp’s mellow baritone and allowing us to hear his John Prine-like lyrics.

The title track, which kicks off the album, opens with a circling finger-picked guitar, expanding into a shuffling ballad that punctures the superficiality of life and love and yearns for depth and the ability to see beyond the pose we present to the world. Smith’s lilting steel bathes the song in a pure sheen, much like Rusty Young did in early Poco songs.

“Generation Blues” skitters along in a rocking rhythm; the canniness of the lyrics and the down-to-the-bone licks channel Mike Nesmith. The Dylan-esque ballad “Love Yourself” weaves an exquisite circle of sound around memorable lyrics that convey the power of the song title’s message: “When fact and fiction fall together / And benediction falters in your throat / When all your connections come untethered / Wrap forgiveness all around you like the warmest winter coat.”

If you close your eyes when you listen to “North Star,” you might think you’re listening to John Prine, both for the lyrical genius of the song and for the instrumental spareness that makes it shine. The front porch stomper “Bad Apple” features Sharp trading lines in a call and response with his dazzling harmonica runs, while “Deeper Family” shimmers with a bright and laidback vibe that celebrates the roots of love and community. On the blues rambler “My Neighborhood” Sharp exposes the myth that green grass and white picket fences promise that evil doesn’t lurk behind closed doors, while the sparking banjo ballad “Coming Back to Life” is John Hartford resurrected. The album closes with the “changes-in-attitude” invitation to “Come Visit My Island.”

Sharp joins Hartford, Prine, and Dylan as troubadours who wrap their lyrical genius in a musical brilliance. Truer Picture gives us a glimpse of the depth of Sharp’s songwriting and artistry that we don’t often get to see when he’s playing with Steep Canyon Rangers. We can hope that Sharp has another solo project in mind for us down the road.