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The comic, actor and writer gets serious about bluegrass
By Mark Brown
Special to MSN Music
With the release of "The Crow: New Songs for the Five-String Banjo" he goes public as a serious picker, but Steve Martin has loved the banjo and bluegrass for 45 years now. It was always featured in his stand-up act.
It was the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band that backed him on the smash "King Tut." Martin had sat in on their classic sessions for years (the Dirt Band's John McEuen, who produced "The Crow," is the brother of Martin's early manager Bill McEuen). He even played with the Muppets and the "Gong Show" and won a Grammy a few years back with Earl Scruggs.
Martin, 63, is now touring behind "The Crow," which features guest appearances by Vince Gill, Dolly Parton, Jerry Douglas, Pete Wernick, Earl Scruggs and Irish singer Mary Black, who will open for Martin when he performs in London. The bluegrass world and music at large have embraced the album warmly, putting it on the bluegrass charts and a host of rave reviews. "We haven't gotten a bad review -- that I know of, anyway," Martin said wryly.
MSN Music: Fans who don't know your musical background might think this is something out of left field.
Steve Martin: I've seen a couple of stories that say "You might not know that Steve Martin plays the banjo" and I completely understand that. ... I kinda like that it's a surprise. You know who Jim Nabors is, "Gomer Pyle"? One night on "The Ed Sullivan Show" he sang and had this amazing bass voice. It was pretty corny but it was still amazing. I believe he sang "I Believe" or something like that. You just went "Wow." I like a little "wow" factor.
It's hard to imagine what the early folk scene was like growing up in Orange County.
I was going to clubs in the early '60s. There were a lot of folk music clubs, it was everywhere. There was the Troubadour, there was the Mecca, the Prison of Socrates. They always had those kinds of names. The Paradox. The Rouge Noir. They were coffeehouses, essentially. They started as beatnik places, then the beatnik thing fell out. The folk music craze started with all these acts. It was very exciting. I saw the Dillards, acts you thought that would live forever.
How did John McEuen end up producing "The Crow"?
He's the one high school friend I'm still connected with. ...I sang a song for him, I recorded it on an iPhone. I put it on a CD and said, "Here's a song I'm thinking of recording." He sent it back with some augmentation and orchestration.
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