Steve Ray Ladson
- Susan Marquez
- 4 hours ago
- 3 min read
Steve Ray Ladson strolled confidently across the America’s Got Talent stage to the microphone. Cowboy hat, dreads, overalls tucked into boots, holding a banjo. With a big smile, he spoke, commanding the stage. “I’m Steve Ray Ladson.”
Judge Howie Mandel asked if he made a living making music. “Yes, I do.”
Mandel asked, “What’s the dream?”
“The dream,” said Steve, “is to do my own thing. I’ve been on tour with a lot of professional bands, but I’m here today to bring my own genre of music to the world.”
The genre is one of his own making: Blackgrass Brothercana, and Steve Ray Ladson owns it.
“It’s part bluegrass, part Americana, but with hip-hop, rock ‘n roll, funk, and soul mixed in,” he explained to me via telephone from Ireland, where he was scheduled to play at the Folk in the Fusion festival. ‘They say it’s from Nashville to Belfast. I am so excited to be here.”
Steve says his appearance on AGT was life changing. “It put me on a national stage that I hadn’t been on before. It was one of the best moments of my life. It’s somewhat unpredictable, so I told my band we just need to do what we do, and if they like it, they like it.”
They liked it.
Steve leaned into the microphone and looked at the audience. “Are you ready?,” he shouted. Then he began to play a song he wrote called “In the Back of My Truck.” The crowd went wild, as did the judges.
Sophia Vergara said it was her favorite act of the season. Former Spice Girl Mel B. said, “I like seeing things I haven’t seen before. The swagger, the lyrics, I love all of it.” And hard-to-impress Simon Cowell said, “That was on point. I love the song. I love you. I love the band. This is when I love my job. That song is a hit.”
Steve got a unanimous “yes” from the judges to move on in the competition. For his next song, during the live round, He sang “Boots Like Mine.” Confetti rained down on Steve and his band when Sophia Vergara hit the Golden Buzzer. It was validation for the artist and a reward for his life of hard work.
Born and raised in Hopkins, South Carolina, Steve got his music training both in the chorus at school and in church. “I was in the school chorus from elementary school through high school, and I loved it. I learned so much by doing that. I made the all-state choir, so I had the opportunity to sing with students from other schools as well. Being in the chorus shaped me in so many ways.” Steve says he would have loved to be in the band as well, but he played both football and basketball in high school, and sports practice schedules overlapped with band. But he did sing in church, where his father was a preacher.
He toured with the Blind Boys of Alabama, an experience that taught Steve stage presence, including how to build a moment that lands. Those tours took him around the globe and gave him a broader worldview. “That also helped with my arrangement skills and expanded my musical knowledge about rhythm.”
A multi-instrumentalist, Steve plays banjo, Dobro, and bass guitar to Hammond organ, harmonica, keyboards, drums, and he can also play a mean set of spoons.
Steve writes about what he knows. He was raised on a farm, and his lyrics are not only catchy, but they are also personal mission statements. He draws on his lived experiences to write, arrange, and produce songs that hit with audiences.
He’s working on a new album now, recording in both South Carolina and Los Angeles. A single, “I Like it Like That,” was released in February.
As a young black man, Steve didn’t always feel that he fit in with the bluegrass and country mold. But he has widened the definition of who can play bluegrass or country. “If you’re going to be boxed out of genres, create your own.” That’s what he did when he coined “Blackgrass Brothercana,” a unique musical genre where he tells his stories his way. Stories of family, farm, church, and the road.
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