Virginia-based Americana pioneers The Steel Wheels return with new single “Easy,” released via the band’s own Big Ring Records label. With a placid sound that reinforces the song’s title and an earworm of a chorus, the track is deceptively profound, as it finds the band asking whether it’s worth the cost to have the world waiting for us on the other side of our screens. 

Listen to “Easy”

Folk Alliance International (FAI) has unveiled the Official Showcase lineup for its 38th annual conference, January 21–25, 2026, in New Orleans, LA. More than 150 artists representing 34 countries will perform. The 2026 theme is Rise Up.

Highlights

Two-time GRAMMY winners Lost Bayou Ramblers (progressive Louisiana French/Cajun).

Bruce Sudano, songwriter for Donna Summer, Dolly Parton, Reba McEntire, and Michael Jackson.

I do not typically attend music festivals two years in a row. As a journalist who reviews festivals, I usually choose different ones each season, circling back only every few years to see how promoters have improved things. Yet over the Fourth of July weekend, I found myself once again at Nelson Ledges Quarry Park for the Grassfire Festival—barely a year since my last visit.

Nelson Ledges Quarry Park (NLQP) was an operational rock quarry for nearly 20 years until the late 1950s when mining operations accidentally tapped into an underground freshwater spring. Much like a dinghy with a hole, NLQP quickly filled with water, making it impossible for the miners to continue their work. Operations were shuttered, and local phreaks of all sorts became the only visitors to the 250-acre hidden lake near Garrettsville, Ohio.

Today, Virginia-based Americana pioneers The Steel Wheels have released new album Sideways via the band’s own Big Ring Records. Produced by Sam Kassirer (Lake Street Dive, Langhorne Slim, Josh Ritter), Sideways is at once a meditation on the nonlinear nature of personal growth and a joyous celebration of life. The band also shared the stop-motion video for the title track directed by Stefan Zeniuk.

Today, Virginia-based Americana pioneers The Steel Wheels have shared new single/video “Hero” ahead of the February 9 release of Sidewaysvia the band’s own Big Ring Records. The music video features the band performing a playful and contemplative dance routine choreographed by Wagler’s daughter and five of her classmates in the dance & choreography program at Virginia Commonwealth University, all of whom also star in the clip.

In the opening moments of The Steel Wheels’ new album, frontman/songwriter Trent Wagler sings, “This year hit like a hurricane. The winds they knocked me over.” From the jump, you understand that this record represents a series of poignant realizations for the long-running Virginia-based folk band.

When Trent Wagler, frontman/primary songwriter for the Virginia-based Americana band The Steel Wheels, was sending his daughter off to college, he finally understood how one person’s coming of age could be another person’s letting go. Today, the band shares new single “Baby Gone,” the second release from their upcoming LP Sideways (out 2/9 via Big Ring Records), and it chronicles Wagler’s experience with this.

Today, the Virginia-based Americana band The Steel Wheels announce that their new record Sideways will come out on February 9, 2024 via Big Ring Records. The group has also shared the first single from the LP “Easy On Your Way,” a hymn-like anthem to find solace in during life’s hard moments that defy explanation.

MerleFest, presented by Window World, is proud to announce the next round of artist additions for MerleFest 2022, which will be held April 28-May 1, 2022. Trampled By Turtles, Colin Hay, and The Steel Wheels will join an already outstanding lineup which includes performances by Emmylou Harris, Greensky Bluegrass, Rissi Palmer, Old Crow Medicine Show, Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, Steep Canyon Rangers, Allison Russell, We Banjo 3, and more.