Aaron Burdett will return to his solo catalog with Take the Good, an album that brings together four years of songwriting interrupted by an unexpected invitation to join Steep Canyon Rangers.
Crossroads Label Group imprint Organic Records will release the album Nov. 20. The collection gathers several previously released singles alongside two new songs, “You’re Gonna Pay” and “Path of Roses.”
Aaron Burdett Finds His Way Back
Burdett initially planned to release a new solo album in 2022. Instead, he joined the Grammy-winning Steep Canyon Rangers as a full-time vocalist, songwriter and touring musician.
“We were right on schedule to release singles and a new solo album way back in 2022,” Burdett said.
Although the opportunity changed his schedule, it did not end his solo work. Burdett continued writing and releasing music through Organic Records while recording and touring with the Rangers.
Take the Good traces that transition. Earlier songs such as “The Mountains You Carry” and “Denver Plane” reach back to the period immediately before he joined the band. More recent releases include “Paris,” “Rhyme or Reason” and July’s “Can’t Look Back.”
The timing gives “Denver Plane” an unusual place in the story. Burdett recorded the song before joining Steep Canyon Rangers, but its lyrics already mentioned the group that would soon reshape his career.
Rather than sounding like a collection assembled from unrelated singles, the album now serves as a timeline of Burdett’s last four years.
Two New Songs Complete Take the Good
Producer Jon Weisberger supports Burdett’s Americana songwriting with a bluegrass string band. The sessions feature Carley Arrowood on fiddle, David Benedict and Tristan Scroggins on mandolin, Kristin Scott Benson on banjo and Weisberger on bass.
Wendy Hickman and Steep Canyon Rangers bassist Travis Book contribute harmony vocals.
“You’re Gonna Pay” begins quietly before the band enters around Burdett’s reflections on work, love and the choices that accompany ambition. The song considers how moving toward one goal often means leaving something else behind.
Meanwhile, focus track “Path of Roses” takes the form of a fast bluegrass waltz and a sung prayer for someone Burdett loves. Its melody also contains a subtle connection to bluegrass history.
Weisberger noticed a phrase resembling Bill Monroe’s “Sitting Alone in the Moonlight.” Arrowood’s opening fiddle part acknowledges that connection before the song follows its own direction.
Together, the two new recordings bring Burdett’s interrupted album cycle into the present. He may have taken an unexpected route through Steep Canyon Rangers, but Take the Good shows that his solo work never disappeared.