It is still a bit of a rarity to see a bluegrass band made up of players aged 20s to 30s who are committed to preserving the traditional sounds of the first generation of bluegrass founders, while still striking out for their own sound with a repertoire of predominately original songs.

"Lovin' Pretty Women," the third Rebel Records release by the Steep Canyon Rangers, shows that such a band can thrive in bluegrass.

"We kind of came into it backwards as far as a traditional sense," say mandolin player Mike Guggino by phone from his home in Brevard, N. C. "We definitely didn't listen to the traditional stuff at first. That's not what got us directly into bluegrass, but as we got into being a band and playing longer and longer, it seems our tastes in what we like to listen to and sound like was beginning to get more traditional."

The Rangers originally formed around the trio of banjoist and vocalist Graham Sharp, guitarist and lead vocalist Woody Platt and bass player Charles R. Humphrey III when they and a few others began a weekly jam session while attending the University of North Carolina. Platt soon brought childhood friend Guggino into the group.

"Woody brought Charles and Graham up from Chapel Hill, up to the mountains where we live one summer right before school started, and we picked," Guggino says. "We were like 'man, let's put a band together.' I remember driving down to Chapel Hill that fall and playing our first gig at a local club there. I was driving down from Brevard and Asheville to Chapel Hill to play a lot of shows with them when the band first started."

After a few line-up changes, fiddler Nicky Sanders joined the band around three years ago to solidify the current line-up.

Although Guggino didn't grow up listening to bluegrass, it was a style of music he took to quickly.

"I listened to a lot of different kinds of music, and I still listen to a lot of different kinds of music, but I always heard bluegrass growing up in North Carolina. I always heard it, but maybe because my family wasn't into it - my parents didn't listen to it - that's not what I listened to at an early age. As I got into high school and college is really when I discovered bluegrass and just fell in love with it and kind of jumped in head first into it and started playing the mandolin."

The community aspect of bluegrass was an initial draw for Guggino as he became more involved in the music.

"I think what I liked about it was that people could just get together and just play together, jam together, pick together and have a good time, and it didn't seem like it tried to exclude people from playing," he says. "Everybody could just get together and play and have a good time, and people really liked it. It just has a certain energy about it that I just fell in love with. I just loved the sound of the mandolin, and that's why I chose to play the mandolin. I love the role that the mandolin had in the bluegrass band, and I was immediately drawn to that instrument - Bill Monroe and some of those guys - when I got into the music."

Guggino also was influenced by mandolin players such as Ronnie McCoury, Mike Compton and Doyle Lawson along with varying styles of mandolin music.

"I listen to all the different styles of mandolin and take what I like from all the different styles and put it together and do it the way I do it," he says. "Italian mandolin music has been something I've gotten in to in recent years that I'm sure has had influence on the way I play. And the mandolin players I listen to, for sure. I think it kind of creeps into our music as a whole, as a band, different influences, but yet we really try to make it a traditional bluegrass type sound, but we try to make our own sound and our own songs."

While the Rangers' original introduction to bluegrass came through more progressive groups such as New Grass Revival, Tony Rice Unit and Leftover Salmon, their commitment to the traditional sound and structure of bluegrass began as the group fell deeper in love with the originators of the genre.

"As we all started playing and getting exposed to it and buying more bluegrass records and listening to more bluegrass radio, it never was a conscious effort, but we all started falling in love with the traditional bluegrass sound," he says.

Even with roots in the progressive side of the genre, don't look for any stylistic jumps from the Steep Canyon Rangers any time soon.

"I think now that we're at the point that we are in our career, I don't think we would ever go in that direction," he says. "There are so many great players out there and so many great bands that do that style and do it well that I don't think that's one of our goals as a band. I think we're more into keeping the traditional bluegrass aesthetic, but charting our own path and writing our own songs and having our own songs in that way."

That commitment to the heritage of bluegrass and those that have come before them helped them gain a reputation within the bluegrass community that lead being named International Bluegrass Music Association's Emerging Artist of the Year in 2006.

"One of the reasons we were so excited about the nomination is that over the years of doing this, we sort of felt like the bluegrass community at large had accepted us and what we were doing and our sound," Guggino says. "I think people were starting to recognize it, and it made us feel really good about what we were doing."

"Lovin' Pretty Women" continues that traditional sound with help from producer Ronnie Bowman. He began his professional bluegrass career with Lost & Found before serving 11 years with Lonesome River Band. After leaving LRB in 2002, he embarked on a solo career that including having his songs cut by many mainstream artists such as Brook & Dunn, who took Bowman's "It's Getting Better All The Time" to the number 1 spot on the Billboard Country charts in 2005.

"It was an awesome experience," Guggino says of working with Bowman."Ronnie is such a great guy and such a wonderful musician. He's got so many ideas and so much energy. We had no idea going into the session because we didn't know him. We had never met him before; we didn't know him at all. Our management and his management kind of hooked us up together, and we weren't sure how it was going to work. We knew of Ronnie, and we knew his music, and we knew what he did. We didn't know if he knew what we did or liked what we did, but it actually worked out to be a great combination, and we're really proud of how the album came out."

Bowman's experience in songwriting and producing helped guide the band as they played music in the studio, swapping suggestions and tips.

"It was really democratic, and he had a lot of ideas," Guggino says. "I think immediately, he figured out what our style is and what we were good at and what we did, and he didn't try to change that and make us do stuff that we never do or wouldn't feel comfortable doing stylistically."

The album showcases the songwriting skills of Sharp and the band's input, as well as Bowman's.

"There's a lot of songs on this record that we really, really like, and that's one thing about this record that we're so proud of is that we think every song on it's really strong, really good," he says. "That has a lot to do with Ronnie Bowman helping us sort through our songs for which ones we should record because we had more songs written that we didn't record that were good songs too, but we felt like he helped us sort through them and figure out which ones would be best for the record, and he brought some to the table that we hadn't thought of. We think every song on there came off really strong, and they're all a lot of fun to play live."

And the band is doing a lot of live playing, from opening Merlefest on the Watson stage, the festivals main stage, to doing their first shows in Europe this past summer.

"This will be our first trip to Europe and we're actually doing it twice in one month," he says.

Even with the world traveling ahead, one of the festivals the band is looking forward to most is one that hits closest to home. The Mountain Song Music Festival is a benefit for the Boys & Girls Club in Brevard, N. C., home of both Guggino and Platt. Last year's festival was headlined by Doc Watson and the line-up for this event includes the Steep Canyon Rangers, the Del McCoury Band, the Claire Lynch band and the Peter Rowan and Tony Rice Quartet.

"It's a one day festival, and it's at the Brevard Music Center which is beautiful open air amphitheater, it's covered, but it's open air and seats about 2,000 people," he says. "Last year it sold out. All the seats sold out, and there were lawn seats on either side full of people. The weather was perfect and they raised a lot of money for the Boys & Girls Club. We can't wait for it again this year; it's just going to be great.

"Woody and I both grew up in Brevard and we both moved away for college and stuff, but we both came back and both live here now again and settled down here. "So this place means a lot to us and the community has definitely supported us growing up and now supports the band. We love to do stuff for the community in Brevard, for sure, and this is a great way to give back to the community."