Send "Steve Martin " Ringtones to your Cell 
| Ew |
 Comedy legend Steve Martin used to pepper his stand-up routines with banjo-playing (and once ''dueled'' on that Deliverance tune with the Muppets). But this bluegrass collection is an almost entirely serious affair. On The Crow Martin showcases his fine five-string talents on instrumentals such as ''Pitkin County Turnaround'' and the wistful ''Freddie's Lilt.'' He also capably backs singers Vince Gill and Dolly Parton on romantic confection ''Pretty Flowers.'' The result is a rare album by a moonlighting movie star that doesn't make its creator look like a jerk....full text |
| The9513 |
| Aside from being one of the greatest comedic actors of our generation, an author, renowned art collector, and a playwright, Steve Martin is also a helluva banjo player with over four decades of experience under his belt. During his time as a teenage picker, he began a lifelong friendship with John McEuen, who would later see stardom as a member of the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band and who produced this project. Martin’s music has appeared on some of his comedy records throughout the years; however, The Crow is Martin’s first full-length album, one that he said was “forty-five years in the making.” It’s worth the wait. The meat of The Crow is its instrumentals, which make up eleven of the album’s fifteen tracks. Though Martin is primarily a Scruggs-style picker, he throws in “Clawhammer Medley” for good measure, proving that he is an able frailer as well. A few of the album’s songs are from Martin’s 1981 comedy album The Steve Martin Brothers, and the title track is from a song he recorded for Tony Trischka’s Double Banjo Bluegrass Spectacular, but he’s recorded new versions for The Crow. All of the re-recorded tracks sound better than their earlier incarnations, due in part to McEuen’s production, which should be commended for turning a collection of songs recorded in four cities on two continents into a polished whole. In general, bluegrass instrumentals tend to be forgettable and/or indistinguishable from one another. Many times, they are a vehicle for showing off just how fast a band can play. What separates the songs of The Crow from other bluegrass and bluegrass-influenced instrumental tracks is Martin’s ear for melody. Each song is a separate entity, recognizable from the opening notes, and the quality of the song is never sacrificed in favor of overly-fancy, overly-fast picking....full text |
| Bullz-eye |
| To anyone who’s only familiar with Steve Martin’s career as a comedian, the prospect of him recording an album of banjo instrumentals might seem like a joke – and one funnier than any movie Martin’s released since 1991, ha ha ha – but he’s always had an interest in the instrument, incorporating it into his stand-up and occasionally playing it in the movies; he even padded the back half of his last comedy album with songs he’d written. As he moved away from stand-up, he set aside the banjo in favor of other pursuits, including writing novels and scripts, but his playing always had fans – including Earl Scruggs, who invited Martin to play on his 2002 album Earl Scruggs and Friends. The result, the track "Foggy Mountain Breakdown," earned Martin a Grammy for Best Country Instrumental Performance. The award didn’t go to Martin’s head – he’s called it a "fluke" and joked that he likes to take it out when musicians come over to his house – but it did rekindle his passion for the banjo, and over the last several years, he’s made a point of dusting off his chops, even going toe-to-toe with Tony Trischka and Bela Fleck on "The Crow," a cut from Trischka’s Double Banjo Bluegrass Spectacular. "The Crow" was a high point of that album, and it resurfaces here as the title track on The Crow: New Songs for the 5-String Banjo, Martin’s first all-music release....full text |
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