After 20 years of rolling across the country and with their 11th album nearing March 13 release, the Steel Wheels continue to steamroll genre boundaries and create music that is entirely their own. 

The Wheels’ undefined, defining characteristic was in full effect Feb. 27 inside Columbus, Ohio’s, Woodlands Tavern, where the quintet leaned heavily on new, well-received songs from its forthcoming self-titled LP and old, well-loved tracks like the ubiquitous, folksy and harmony-rich “Red Wing,” which frontman Trent Wagler dedicated to family in the audience, and the rarely played “Rain in the Valley.”

The latter closed the main set a cappella save for Wagler’s tambourine stick and Kevin Garcia’s thunderous drums. The Wagler original presented as a traditional spiritual as the songwriter, acoustic guitarist and banjoist; bassist Jeremy Darrow; fiddler Eric Brubaker; and Jay Lapp (guitar/mandolin) sung into a single mic:

“There’s a rain comin’ down in the valley/ain’t no devil goin’ where I go,” they intoned as their voices filled the space. 

Next, the band was playing Wilco’s “Jesus, Etc.” as the first half of its encore. And the Wheels’ non-traditional, circuitous path around Americana music was on display for anyone theretofore unaware. 

The band set off 85 minutes earlier with “Chase it All Away,” which found Lapp, on electric guitar to the audience’s right, ripping through Wagler and Brubaker’s banjo/fiddle tapestry while the rock ’n’ roll rhythm section of Darrow and Garcia, bookending Lapp on the left, stitched up the music. 

Wager, Brubaker and Lapp channeled Crosby, Stills and Nash on the following “Sideways.” Next, the Wheels did donuts over bluegrass as Lapp and Darrow unplugged and Garcia swapped brushes for mallets and played keyboards with his free hand on “Love You Like I Should.” 

Thus established the aural zigzag that dominated the best Steel Wheels’ gig I’ve experienced in 10 years of seeing the band. Brubaker and his fiddle dominated the instrumental “Past the Brakes” and the man with the bow sung the hootenanny that was “Cumberland Gap.” 

He ran his fiddle through a MIDI device to mimic keys on “Hero.” “Wild as We Came Here” and “Scrape Me off the Ceiling” found concertgoers dancing for joy as someone blew bubbles into the primary colors of the stage lighting and Lapp banged his head like an arena-rock star. “Banjo for Everyone,” meanwhile, found Wagler acknowledging with a wink that banjo is not, in fact, for everyone. 

The Wheels’ penchant for everything and every sound was fully realized when Lapp switched to electric slide; Darrow and Brubaker menacingly bowed their bass fiddle and fiddle-fiddle, respectively; Garcia pounded staccato drums and shook strings of wood and bells as the banjo-wielding Wagler asked: “Who Wins the War.”