The SteelDrivers Announce New Permanent Lead Singer
The hard-driving, Grammy Award-winning bluegrass band The SteelDrivers have a new permanent lead singer and guitar player. Kelvin Damrell, who is native of Berea, Kentucky, and grew up in a family of bluegrass Gospel singers, has been named as the replacement in a spot previously held by some very big names, including Chris Stapleton, Adam Wakefield of The Voice fame, and Gary Nichols, who exited the band in August of 2017 for undisclosed reasons.
“I was a big fan of The SteelDrivers before I got the call. Coming on board with such amazing musicians is an honor and a dream come true,” says Damrell about the distinction.
The SteelDrivers made the announcement on Monday (1-22) about the new addition.
“It took us a while to heal up and get it together. To be honest, we didn’t know for sure if we’d ever be able to replace such a massive talent. But we eventually found this young fella from the hills of Kentucky who can absolutely rock the grass! Much like G-Ray, Kelvin grew up singing and playing electric guitar in local rock bands. He’s a great musician. His singing is soulful and from the heart with a big dose of bluesy grit. On a personal level Kelvin is a hard working family man with a lovely wife and two young boys. We’re thrilled to have Kelvin join us”
Gary Nichols took over for now country music superstar Chris Stapleton when Stapleton left The SteelDrivers in 2010 to pursue a songwriting and solo career. Nichols was uniquely equipped to handle the soaring vocals of the band first started by Stapleton, as is Kelvin Damrell, who can be found covering both Stapleton and SteelDrivers tunes on YouTube. Though still solidly bluegrass, the SteelDrivers are known for their more hard-driving, almost Southern rock style, with exceptional and outstepping vocals talents not always indicative of bluegrass. They’ve received great attention over the last couple of years due to the rise in popularity of Chris Stapleton.
We’ve done a handful of shows with KD so far and those who’ve seen him have loved him,” say The SteelDrivers. “He got a rousing standing ovation on his very first show! We hope you will welcome KD into the SteelHead Nation.”
For those wondering if Kelvin Damrell could fill such big shoes in the SteelDrivers, a good sign is that Damrell won a Chris Stapleton cover contest held by Wide Open Country in 2017, walking away with $1,000. Now he will have a chance to do the real thing on a nightly basis.
The SteelDrivers also gave thanks to Adam Wakefield for his fill-in duties. “He was coming off a very successful run on the hit show ‘The Voice’ around the time when things started getting complicated for us. On very short notice Adam was able to squeeze us into his schedule, learn a bunch of songs and jump on stage. Adam was instrumental in keeping us afloat last year.”
The other members of the SteelDrivers are Mike Fleming, Tammy Rogers, Richard Bailey, and Brent Truitt. The band has a few upcoming dates where fans can see the new lineup.
February 2 Atlanta, GA
February 3 Birmingham, AL
February 23 Charlotte, NC
March 1 St. Louis, MO
March 2 Memphis, TN
March 3 Fayetteville, AR
March 8 Stoughton, WI
March 9 Minneapolis, MN
March 24 New Orleans, LA
January 24, 2018 @ 2:19 pm
Just get Adam Wakefield and it will be like old times.
January 24, 2018 @ 2:27 pm
I know that Adam Wakefield probably has his sights set on bigger things, but seeing how much other winners of The Voice struggle to gain any traction in their careers, it would not be a bad gig at all, and Wakefield could possibly take and already well-known band to the next level.
January 24, 2018 @ 2:21 pm
This is a great band, Stapleton or not, hope this works out for them. Looking forward to another album.
January 24, 2018 @ 3:16 pm
I’m with ya Don. They have an album in the can, so to speak featuring songs written and sung by Gary Nichols.Kinda problematic now that he’s gone.
I’ve been aboard with this band since the beginning, I can honestly say I saw the original lineup play when nobody knew who Stapleton was. And I loved the band through the Gary Nichols years just as much.
But another lead singer? I dunno. I won’t say no, I will see what they sound like live. I agree the band is wonderful instrumentally and I’ve always thought Tammy should get a chance to sing lead now and then. She has a great voice. Richards banjo picking is creative and outside the box, Brent is a decent Mandolin picker and Mike is a great bass playing anchorman. Their body of work is great and a lot of
that has to do with Stapleton’s tremendous writing.
I think going forward it’s gonna be very hard to even equal what they have done, especially with a new singer. The Lonesome River Band went through a few singers and survived, so it’s been done.
January 25, 2018 @ 12:34 pm
Great points, I was kind of thinking of the Lonesome River Band when I wrote that. Great idea to give Tammy the lead on some songs, she is what helps give TSD their flavor.
January 24, 2018 @ 5:52 pm
Idnt gonna b as good as chreeis but he idnt bad at all
January 24, 2018 @ 7:58 pm
I actually understood that yup int gona b as good as chrees. steel driving is good cold or warm.
January 24, 2018 @ 6:21 pm
I’ve been a big SteelDrivers fan from the outset; and I wish the new singer all the best. My concern is future songwriting. Stapleton-Henderson were great; Gary Nichols added some “Muscle Shoals” -style songwriting. Tammy can write, too. But I worry about where a full album’s worth of great songs are going to come from. Fingers crossed.
January 24, 2018 @ 9:48 pm
Good luck to him, and the band too. Only heard a little bit of his stuff on youtube videos where the sound is typically poor, but he seems to have the requisite soulful voice that is such an important part of The Steeldrivers’ sound.
Hope it all works our for them, they’re a brilliant group. I’m sure they’ll do fine, as the core of the band are fantastic. I guess it’s all about the songwriting really, so if they can pull that off to their traditional high standard without any of Henderson, Stapleton or Nichols then everything’s golden, though that’s certainly a rather large “if”.
Even if not, they’ve got four albums’ worth of fantastic material to fall back on. I reckon I’ll be listening to said albums til the day I die, that’s how highly I rate them.
January 24, 2018 @ 10:41 pm
Kinda like a bluegrass version of Van Halen.
January 25, 2018 @ 6:54 pm
I obviously don’t blame him one bit for taking the path he has and reaping the awards that have followed, but the selfish part of me wishes Chris Stapleton would have stayed with the Steeldrivers. That sound they had with him was just unreal. I still throw on Ghosts of Mississippi or Blue Side of the Mountain every now and then just to marvel at it.
January 28, 2018 @ 9:18 pm
If he had, though, we never would have gotten The Muscle Shoals Recordings from The SteelDrivers or From A Room: Vol. 1 and Vol. 2 from Stapleton. Three absolutely brilliant albums.
January 25, 2018 @ 8:09 pm
I discovered his cover of “I was wrong” a few months ago and was blown away, did not expect to see this news, best of luck to him!