As they settle into middle age and the Aaron Burdett era, Steep Canyon Rangers are returning to their bluegrass roots. 

Next Act is album No. 15 for the sextet and No. 2 with Burdett handling the guitar and vocals co-founder Woody Platt provided from 2000 to 2022. The collection of 14 songs finds the Rangers old enough to look back and young enough to look forward and evolve into a new band. 

Multi-instrumentalist and album producer Mike Ashworth, who joined in 2013, spends more time on Dobro and guitar than percussion, reflecting Next Act’s turn back toward bluegrass. Sharing lead vocals with baritone co-founder Graham Sharp (banjo) and 2018 joinee Barrett Smith (bass) Burdett’s status is sealed as he fronts the opening “Rumble Strips” and the title track, both uptempo numbers that look optimistically toward what’s to come. 

“One dream down/and a life to go,” he sings on “Next Act.” 

As much as the Rangers are changing, they are maintaining their Steep leanings. Original mandolin man Mike Guggino and fiddler Nicky Sanders (2004) remain essential parts of the mix and the group’s five-part harmonies tie the evolving music to the past. 

Longtime collaborator Steve Martin plays banjo on the cinematic “Heart’s the Only Compass,” a masterful movie as song sung by Barrett in his smooth tenor about which the less known on first listen the better. Elsewhere, Edie Brickell sings alongside Burdett on the gently rolling “Halfway to Reno” and Della Mae’s Celia Woodamith duets with him on the wobbly hopefulness of “Hard Times.” 

“When we look back in the fullness of time/gonna get back to these good ol’ hard times,” they declare. 

Next Act is an album of keepers. And this is as consistent a collection of songs the Rangers have released since 2018’s Out in the Open.