About This Show
Unlike his Amish grandfather who had to form a string band on the sly, Trent Wagler is anything but shy about making music with The Steel Wheels. But like that harmonica-playing grandpa, the band both respects and breaks tradition with every note. Take the title track of the band’s new album, Red Wing. When Wagler, the band’s primary songwriter, heard the tune throughout his childhood while visiting family in Bean Blossom, Indiana, it was always played as an upbeat reel; he thought it was better as a slow, melancholy song, so he reinvented it with his own words. The Steel Wheels recorded it in a Shenandoah Valley cabin hideaway with internationally known folk harmonizers Robin and Linda Williams. This is a quintessential Steel Wheel’s project: taking a beloved traditional tune and making it new again, inspiring a wide range of fans.