The actor-comedian wrote or co-wrote all the songs and enlisted some heavyweight help for his debut album as a musician.
Steve Martin has a reputation as one of the toughest interviews in the entertainment business. He's known for clipped yes-no responses to questions about the making of his latest film, his thoughts on the art of comedy or, especially, his personal life.
But bring up a subject that's near and dear to his heart -- like, say, the banjo -- and he's a different guy. “I'm ready to talk music," Martin said recently between a raft of promotional interviews for The Pink Panther 2, which opens next week.
The music in question is his debut album as a musician, The Crow, subtitled, New Songs for the Five-String Banjo. He may once have relied on his banjo as one of the signature props in his stand-up comedy act, along with the fake arrow through the head and a set of fluffy bunny ears, but now that he's working it back into his life again, it's not for laughs.
Need proof? Just check the list of guests he's rounded up: country and bluegrass heavyweights Dolly Parton, Vince Gill, Earl Scruggs, Tim O'Brien and Tony Trischka are there, along with Irish singer Mary Black, helping out on 15 tunes that Martin wrote or co-wrote.
“I really started to think about it last summer," Martin, 63, said. “A record isn't like a movie -- you can get it together pretty fast. I first thought maybe I'd do a banjo presentation record, where I'd play a couple of songs and get a bunch of other players to do the rest. Then I realized I had enough of my own songs to do an album of them."
