A band with a new singer and a new record featuring their old singer, The SteelDrivers make it work

The timing's accidental, but Music City bluegrassers The SteelDrivers are celebrating both the release of Reckless, their second album for Rounder Records, and what loosely amounts to the anniversary of their 2005 founding. Yet there's a not-so-hidden danger lurking behind the occasion: At the end of last year, the quintet had to replace their most obvious focal point — sandpaper-voiced lead singer and songwriter Chris Stapleton. And while the musicians have successfully negotiated their way through the transition, the album itself runs the risk of being an orphan of sorts, featuring a lead singer who's no longer with the band.

If that happens, though, it won't be because The SteelDrivers are anxious to put the project behind them. A stout collection penned almost entirely by Stapleton and mandolin/resonator guitar player Mike Henderson (an equally redoubtable songwriter), Reckless emulates its acclaimed predecessor by juxtaposing some of the duo's earliest collaborations — including the letter-perfect country ballad "You Put the Hurt On Me" — with more recent stuff to serve up a mostly dark set that's heavy on the "four good ways to wreck your life": guitars, whiskey, guns and knives.

"That first album, we were all in one room and everything was live," Henderson says. "This time, we went in knowing that there were things that were going to be done later."

"Last time, we were intent on showing the world [that] this is what you're going to get when you see us live," adds fiddler and tenor singer Tammy Rogers. "But on this record, we wanted to take it a step further musically; we felt that the songs deserved a different treatment."

That makes Reckless sound a bit more produced than the album actually turned out to be, though on a couple of tunes — notably the scarifying homage to hard-core blues, "Ghosts Of Mississippi," where Stapleton's foot stomps and Henderson's steel guitar and harmonica add a new, if logically related dimension to the sound — there's a definite, if measured change. But as the band was starting to plan its mixing sessions, things took a sharp turn.

"I think everyone's stuff was done when Chris made his decision," says bassist and baritone singer Mike Fleming. "And so we had to figure out what to do next — there was no question that the rest of us wanted to keep going, but we also had to decide what to do with the record."

"It didn't seem like it would be a noble thing to do, to cut Chris out," Rogers says, betraying a concern with a kind of musical ethics that don't always count for much behind the closed doors of Music Row. "An album's like a snapshot of a moment in time, and we thought that this one truly captured the band as it was, so it seemed like it was only fair to come out in its entirety that way."

While the remaining members — Fleming, Henderson, Rogers and veteran banjo whiz Richard Bailey — were reaching that decision, they also began the chore of finding a replacement for the guy whose voice had been widely held to be essential to the SteelDrivers' sound. As it turned out, it didn't take long. "My wife rooted him up on some website — I don't know what it was, but they had a bunch of guys on there, country singers," Fleming recalls with a laugh. "She just started going through them like a hot knife through butter, and then she came right upstairs and said 'Mike, I think we've got your singer.' "

Gary Nichols, like Stapleton, is a gritty singer equally steeped in country, rock and rhythm and blues. He had a Music Row deal that wound up going nowhere and had written with Stapleton in those days. "I was a huge fan of his singing, too, but I didn't really know the band. So when Mike sent me their first album and I threw it on ... I loved every song and the band was great, so it was just a matter of passing the audition."

Signing on at the beginning of 2010, Nichols faced the twin jobs of following in Stapleton's path and blazing his own. "On songs from the two records that were already done, I'm just trying to sing as if I were channeling Chris Stapleton. And then things from here on out will definitely have a little bit more of my influence. But as it is, it's great, so I just try to do it justice."

Fans will be the ultimate judge of that, of course, but as the festival season winds down, things are looking good on that score. "Frankly, there have been a lot of fence-sitters," Fleming says. "And when we had to make the change, it hurt us with some promoters. But everywhere we've gone this year, the word from the people is that they love us and the way we're sounding with Gary. So we feel that we're back on the track a little bit."

Indeed they are, and there's a lot to look forward to. But in the meantime, don't forget Reckless. As a snapshot of a band at a particular point in time — and as a compelling set of songs — it is, or ought to be, more a favorite son than an orphan.

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