Randy Steele

Randy is a friend of the show and its most frequent co-host.

A record player and a jam band

Randy grew up in Bradley County, Tennessee. His grandfather loved bluegrass but could not play it. What he had was a double live album from Bean Blossom, Bill Monroe's festival, with the Osborne Brothers, Jim and Jesse and the rest of the old guard. Randy listened to it with him over and over.

His own path ran through the Grateful Dead, Phish and the Allman Brothers. He played electric guitar in a regional jam band and studied studio music and jazz guitar at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville. Then he took an EMT license, went to work on an ambulance, and joined the Chattanooga Fire Department. For a few years music took a back seat.

The banjo pulls him back

O Brother, Where Art Thou? sent him back to bluegrass. A friend put a banjo in his hands, he found a good teacher, and he fell hard. He started on fiddle first, and he recommends it as a strategy.

"Nothing is as annoying as learning how to play the fiddle, I promise you."

After a year or two on the banjo, he saw Noam Pikelny play a trio show with David Grier and Shad Cobb at Barking Legs Theater in Chattanooga. It changed what he thought the instrument could do. Trevor was in the room that night too. So were the future members of Slim Pickins, none of whom knew each other yet.

"Bluegrass banjo is what pulled me back into playing music. Ever since then, I've really been attached to it."

Slim Pickins and the road

His first bluegrass band was a weeknight picking circle with friends. When he wanted to play with stronger players, he answered a Craigslist ad for a banjo player and joined Slim Pickins. The band started playing out in 2008 and opened for the Infamous Stringdusters early on.

In 2016 Slim Pickins toured Europe for about a month, playing Belgium and Holland and something like 31 shows in 28 days. The trip showed Randy how much he wanted to play live. It also formed the core of a new band. For the first half of the tour they ran as a four piece, with Randy, mandolinist John Boulware, bassist Justin Hupp and a young picker named Tyler Martelli.

Songs from the Suck

Randy wrote most of Slim Pickins' songs, and the Europe trip pushed him to make a solo record. He cut much of Songs from the Suck at FAME Studios in Muscle Shoals and finished it near Soddy-Daisy. The title points to Suck Creek, which meets the Tennessee River just upstream of Chattanooga. Before the TVA dams, the rapids there, known as the Suck, were among the most feared stretches of the river.

One song, "Mobile Soon," won the 2018 Independent Music Award for Bluegrass Song of the Year and took Randy to the ceremony at Lincoln Center in New York. The 2018 EP Moccasin Bender followed, and its song "Age of Ben" made the semifinals of American Songwriter's song contest. In 2019 he played 134 solo shows across more than 20 states while still working full time at the fire department. In 2023 he was one of 24 finalists in the Kerrville New Folk competition for emerging songwriters.

The High Cold Wind

After the pandemic, Randy wanted to play as much bluegrass as he could. The High Cold Wind started as the band on a record and became a working unit in 2022. Most of its members came out of Slim Pickins. The lineup now is Randy on banjo and vocals, Brad Clark on guitar, John Boulware on mandolin and Justin Hupp on bass.

Lately the band has worked on opening up its jams. Randy learned to improvise in jam bands and jazz school before bluegrass, and he has pushed the band to stretch and listen harder, even running drills at practice. In March 2025 he released "The Extra Mile Is a Gravel Road," produced by Nick Lutsko.

"It's about having a good time, and as long as we keep it about having a good time, I think we're in good shape."

In June 2026 the band drove 1,600 miles to the Telluride Band Contest in Colorado. They made the final four, played the main stage, and finished second to the Litch Brothers of Orcas Island, Washington.

Bluegrass church on Tuesdays

Randy hosts a free jam every Tuesday at Barrelhouse Ballroom in downtown Chattanooga. It opens with a slow jam for beginners. He posts an eight-song set list a week ahead, mostly songs in G, C and D, so newcomers can practice. After that the floor opens to anyone. It grew fast.

"We try to introduce ourselves to every person that comes in the door and treat it like a bluegrass church."

Festival campground jams hooked Randy as a young player. The Tuesday jam puts that experience in public, where anyone can find it.

Bringing the World of Bluegrass home

When IBMA announced it would leave Raleigh, Randy sent an email to the right people in Chattanooga. He is quick to hand the credit to Visit Chattanooga, who took the idea and ran with it. WMOT later described him as the only musician on the local organizing committee that worked with IBMA. When IBMA leaders came to look at the city in late 2023, Randy made sure there was a pop-up bluegrass band waiting for them at dinner. IBMA's executive director at the time, Ken White, was one of the visitors.

World of Bluegrass came to Chattanooga in September 2025. That week the High Cold Wind played Noontunes downtown and two official showcases on the Bluegrass Ramble, their first. Randy retired from the fire department as a captain earlier that year.

Before the festival, Randy co-hosted two episodes with Trevor, walking through the Ramble and main stage lineups.