It was the day before fall began, but summer was nowhere close to saying goodbye. When I pulled into Wilkesboro, NC, it was late morning, and temperatures were already in the upper 70s. A full day of music lay ahead, and I would emcee bands from the kickoff of the Carolina In The Fall Music & Food Festival to early evening, when I would switch gears and get this episode started with an interview of Trent Wagler and Brian Dickel of The Steel Wheels.

(L to R) Brian Dickel, Trent Wagler, Eric Brubaker and Jay Lapp perform at Carolina In The Fall on September 21st, 2018

In this podcast episode, you will get to hear Brian, Trent and several others familiar with the band talk about bringing new life to songs close to a century old, the push and pull of wanting to make music but also wanting to address the massive divides between us and help build community, how some Southern stereotypes drive them nuts, how drums and percussion have found their way into their sound and have helped build upon rather than remove their foundations, what podcasts they listen to on their way to playing some 120 shows each year, as well as a lot of their live set from the festival. There is a lot to the music and the lives of The Steel Wheels members that I did not know before diving into this episode, and I bet there is a lot that you will discover here, too.

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This is Southern Songs and Stories: the music of the South and the artists who make it.