The Steel Wheels at The Freight

20 years is a long time to spend doing anything at all. It’s an age for any group of people to sustain a collective effort. For a band on the road, 20 years can be more than a lifetime. Yet, after two decades of making music together in living rooms, listening rooms, clubs, theaters, and festival stages, The Steel Wheels are still growing, still pushing, still at it, and they’re marking the occasion with the release of their ninth studio album, The Steel Wheels.
Following the release of Sideways in 2024, their third record with producer Sam Kassirer at his Great North Sound Society studio in interior Maine, the band felt it was time for a change of scene. As the group began to select songs for a new album, they also had to find an answer to the question of where they would get down to the work of record-making. They didn’t know that answer was going to knock on their back door.
Late for the Train
Late for the Train was born from an eclectic group of musicians who all share a love of American roots music. Part songwriter’s storybook and part jamgrass playground, the band’s powerful live show uplifts the spirit and rouses the soul. They released their second studio album, The Flowers of Yesteryear, in April of 2024, with a third album forthcoming in 2026. Late for the Train debuted internationally at the Doolin Folk Festival and on national Gaelic TV in Ireland in 2024 and actively tours across the West Coast. In addition to performing, the members are passionate educators & community collaborators.