The Steel Wheels are excited about bringing their own brand of string band and bluegrass/  inspired folk music to the Geomatic Attic, Oct. 4.
“This will be the fourth or fifth time we’ve come up to Alberta, though we usually only get to Edmonton of Calgary,” observed Trent Wagler of the Virginia based string band en route to Raleigh.
They enjoy playing Canada.

“I think audiences are more attentive and accepting in Canada. they’ll come out and see a band they haven’t seen before which is such a great feeling. In the U.S.  folk music still has a stigma,” he observed.
“ We really appreciate that people in Canada listen to everything
“And just looking at the Juno awards, it seems folk music is more integrated into music,” he said.

 They are touring in support of their new CD  “No More Rain”  which they released in the Spring. It has a lot of different types of folk music including a cover of Tom Waits” “Walk Away.”

“There’s a lot of music in there. And a lot of the songs are songs we wrote a long time ago and played with other bands. So people who have been listening to us for a long time are pretty excited that we recorded them. And it’s always a fun experience playing them for people who haven’t heard us before,” he said.

“ We have some good variety on it. There’s a cappella number and four part harmonies,” he said.
“These songs felt like a really good fit. We had probably 16 or 17 songs and some more we didn’t even get recorded. We wanted  this album to have this identity,” he said adding they are all related to the theme of rain and water.
“So the whole process was a really fun one,” he said.

The shows are carefully crafted.

“We make sure people get a variety of music. We l like to think of shows as  having a nice balance, like a good story with a beginning, a middle, a climax in the middle and an end,” he said.

 He has always been a Tom Waits fan.

“I’m a big Tom Waits fan from his earlier stuff which is more lounge singer stuff to more modern, experimental songs. And ‘Walk Away’  has always been one of my favourites. He’s one of the most unique artists. He doesn’t try to fit in. And I respect artists like that,” he said.
 The Steel Wheels are also unique.
 They just finished a bicycle tour of the states around their area.
“It was beautiful. We must have pedaled 400 miles towing our instruments. t was a lot of work, but a lot of fun. We didn’t”t want to take anything for granted.We just pedaled around North Caroline and Virginia. We’ve been doing that for the past four years,” he said.
 Tickets for the show are $32.50 The show begin at 8 p.m sharp at the Geomatic Attic.