Steve Martin’s Wild & Crazy Banjo Album

Jan. 26, 2009 — The banjo, Steve Martin remarked on one of his comedy albums, is such a happy instrument that had Richard Nixon played it, he might have survived Watergate.

Steve takes the instrument up in earnest on a new album, The Crow: New Songs For The Five-String Banjo, which gets released via Amazon on Tuesday. The CD is produced by John McEuen, of the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, and features such guests as Dolly Parton, Vince Gill and Earl Scruggs, plus Irish singer Mary Black and bluegrass stalwarts Tony Trischka, Tim O’Brien and Pete Wrenick.

"I started [playing banjo] when I was 17," he told Billboard. "I know what my specialty is — playing songs I write, and if I'm asked to step outside that specialty, I can get a little nervous. It's a dichotomy; on one hand I can play my own songs with anybody, but if I got into a really serious bluegrass crowd, I'd play a couple standards and retire."

Steve’s already done OK as a banjo player. He was part of an ensemble called Earl Scruggs And Friends that won a Grammy for "Foggy Mountain Breakdown" in February 2002. The "friends" included Vince, Marty Stuart, Leon Russell and Paul Shaffer, among others.

Steve hasn’t made any plans to tour, but figures his live performances might amount to "a bluegrass festival or something like that."

It’s not like he doesn’t have other things to do. He’s committed to shoot a movie with Meryl Streep and Alec Baldwin, while The Pink Panther 2 is set for release on Feb. 2. He’s also booked to host Saturday Night Live this coming weekend.