Steve Martin

Comedian, actor, author, playwright, and musician Steve Martin joins up with his fellow Texas native Edie Brickell (singer-songwriter who initially burst onto the national scene as New Bohemians front-woman) on this, their second studio album collaboration, entitled "So Familiar". The Grammy-winning duo showcase an organic, evolving relationship that continues to bring out new creative strengths. This new collection's stirring, sublime set of jointly written compositions match Martin's inventive, expressive five-string banjo work with Brickell's distinctive vocals and detail-rich lyrics.

"The Long-Awaited Album," Steve Martin's brand new project with the North Carolina group the Steep Canyon Rangers, is full of stories that mix humor and melancholy, whimsy and realism, rich characters and evocative details. And lots of banjos. That instrument-so dexterously, even acrobatically picked and strummed-proves just as crucial to relating these tales as the lyrics themselves, each chord and riff revealing depths to Martin's narrators and to his musical talent.

"The Long-Awaited Album," Steve Martin's brand new project with the North Carolina group the Steep Canyon Rangers, is full of stories that mix humor and melancholy, whimsy and realism, rich characters and evocative details. And lots of banjos. That instrument-so dexterously, even acrobatically picked and strummed-proves just as crucial to relating these tales as the lyrics themselves, each chord and riff revealing depths to Martin's narrators and to his musical talent.

Steve Martin and the Steep Canyon Rangers, featuring Edie Brickell, released their first ever live concert CD/DVD package capturing their extraordinary performance at the historic Fox Performing Arts Center in Riverside California last fall. The live performance was recorded for PBS Great Performances and features material from Martin and Brickells Grammy-winning album Love Has Come For You, as well as music from Martins Grammy nominated collaboration with the Steep Canyon Rangers, Rare Bird Alert, and his Grammy Award winning album The Crow: New Songs for the Five-String Banjo. This special live CD/DVD features Martins unique blend of comedy and bluegrass and is a first class evening of excellent entertainment.

Steve Martin picked up his banjo again in 2009, recording his first-ever all-instrumental album with his Steep Canyon Rangers, and then he wound up devoting the better part of the next half decade to the instrument he loved since a teenager. Never shy on-stage, he nevertheless wasn't a natural frontperson, so once he ran through two albums with the Rangers, he joined forces with Edie Brickell, an unexpected but natural fit.

Rather than a departure, Martin's musical career is an extension of the storytelling impulse that drove his work as a comedian, an actor, a screenwriter, a playwright, an essayist, and a novelist.