Big music weekend in Macon includes a band making its first local appearance
It’s a big music weekend in Macon, with ZZ Top and Lynyrd Skynyrd in town Sunday opening the new 12,000-seat Atrium Health Amphitheater. The amphitheater is good news, and it’s clearly set to bring great acts and a lot of big names. But under that exciting current there’s another important one: more acts, really good acts with uniquely talented musicians, are eyeing Macon and widening their circles to get here.
That includes The Steel Wheels, who are performing at Grant’s Lounge on Poplar Street Friday. It’s their first time in Macon, and they’re an example of new music enriching Macon amid downtown’s ongoing arts and music renaissance. The band was scheduled to perform the same night as Cristina Vane, a slide guitarist and singer-songwriter who was also expecting to make her Macon debut. But she confirmed Wednesday she wouldn’t be able to perform the show.
The Steel Wheels are an “Americana roots folk rock band” out of Virginia’s Blue Ridge Mountains, and they are known for great songwriting and exemplary musicianship with good-time shows. The band formed 20 or so years ago when high school friends started playing together showcasing Trent Wagler’s songs.
“I remember the first song I wrote was in high school when my girlfriend broke up with me,” Wagler said. “Classic, right? I didn’t understand it or the feelings and writing helped me work through it. I had little notepads and wrote a line on the back of each one capturing my heartbreak and the flavor of the emotions I was going through. I put different ones together and something clicked with me and songwriting. I never shared that song but it was the start of the magical feeling of going from raw emotion in my life to a song that has a life of its own that other people can relate to.”
After more than a dozen albums, three of them live, and thousands of concerts, Wagler and company are good at creating great songs.
Since they couldn’t tour during the COVID-19 pandemic, Wagler got the idea to write songs to order for people.
“People emailed us their occasion or situation and we wrote a song,” he said. “It seemed like a good idea but an unproven one at first. The hardest part of a song is getting the idea and the situation so it was interesting having people give us their story and running with it.”
They called the project “Everyone a Song,” and have two volumes of songs from it. Their latest album is “Sideways.” Find it and more about them at www.thesteelwheels.com.
“We’re excited to get to Macon for the first time and know it’ll be a fun show,” he said. “The power of music is you can sing songs in Macon on Friday then go to Athens the next day and it will be different because a lot depends on what the audience brings. The heart and soul of live music is in the moment of people together and that’s always different, magical.”
So, a new act in Macon Friday bringing great songwriting, great music and a great evening as more and more performers find Macon venues, some of whom will no doubt be filling the largest spaces one day. As two of Macon music’s biggest cheerleaders, Lisa Love and Sam Stephens of The Creek 100.9-FM say over and over we’ve just got to get out and have fun supporting it.
Thankfully, it’s an enjoyable task.
Friday’s Grant’s show starts at 9 p.m. and is $20 at the door or online at www.historicgrants.com.
Contact writer Michael W. Pannell at mwpannell@gmail.com.
