53-year-running quintet The Seldom Scene has always had an elastic relationship with the Bluegrass genre, incorporating songs and sounds from Rock and Roll, Country, and Pop. Now they have announced a brand new album, Remains to Be Scene, out on March 14th, 2025 on Smithsonian Folkways.

Comprised of mandolin player Lou Reid, bassist Ronnie Simpkins, banjoist and fiddler Ron Stewart, dobro player Fred Travers, and guitarist Dudley Connell (who was recently succeeded by Grammy award-winner Clay Hess), Remains to Be Scene features an interpretation of Jim Croce’s “A Good Time Man Like Me Ain’t Got No Business (Singin’ the Blues),” a pair of songs by Bob Dylan: “Walking Down the Line” and “Farewell Angelina,”while also revisiting a fan-favorite, “White Line,” from the their Live at the Cellar Door album and paying tribute to their inspirations, Flatt & Scruggs with “Hard Travelin’”.

The first taste of Remains to Be Scene comes in the form of the album’s first single, “Last of the Steam-Powered Trains,” a classic Ray Davies song from the repertoire of the British Rock band, The Kinks. Translating vintage rock and roll into hard-driving Bluegrass seems to come naturally for the Scene’s modern lineup.

Reid says about the song:

The Scene has always looked outside the box for material, and we thought this one fit the bill.