Edie Brickell joined Steve Martin and The Steep Canyon Rangers for an evening of songs … and jokes … at Nashville’s Schermerhorn Symphony Center on May 30. Martin and Brickell were promoting their new, bluegrass-tinged collaborative album, Love Has Come For You.

Well into a North Carolina night in late April, the Steep Canyon Rangers are gathered around in the back of their tour bus, no more than an hour after their headlining performance at MerleFest, the famed traditional-plus music festival in Wilkesboro. Still in their trademark suits, the Rangers settle as best as they’re able into [...]

Comedian and banjo enthusiast Steve Martin has teamed with singer-songwriter Edie Brickell (“What I Am,” “Circle”) for Love Has Come For You, an album of co-written songs. The new disc, due April 23 on Rounder Records, was produced by Peter Asher (James Taylor, Elvis Costello). It features instrumental assistance from The Steep Canyon Rangers, who Martin [...]

The 26th annual Bridge School Benefit will take place on October 20 and 21st with an impressive and typically eclectic lineup. Benefiting the Bridge School, a charity created by Neil Young and his wife Pegi, the concert occurs every year at the Shoreline Amphitheatre in Mountain View, California. Joining Young is Jack White, Guns N’ [...]

Jack White will perform on Saturday Night Live in the next live episode March 3. It will be White’s first television appearance in support of his debut album Blunderbuss, out April 24. Check out the Blunderbuss tracklist: 1. Missing Pieces 2. Sixteen Saltines 3. Freedom At 21 4. Love Interruption 5. Blunderbuss 6. Hypocritical Kiss [...]

Steve Martin and The Steep Canyon Rangers have announced the dates for their 2012 tour in honor of their chart-topping bluegrass album, Rare Bird Alert. Released on Rounder Records, Rare Bird Alert features guest vocals by Paul McCartney and the Dixie Chicks, and even includes a live version of Martin’s “King Tut.” The album is [...]

Get ready to have your funnybone tickled. The Punch Brothers’ Noam Pikelny, who earned the first annual Steve Martin Prize for Excellence in Banjo and Bluegrass Music, is the subject of this new bluegrass mockumentary, starring Martin, Ed Helms, Gillian Welch, Bela Fleck, Earl Scruggs and more. Should banjo prodigies be allowed to sing? The [...]

In retrospect, Steve Martin was always destined to win the IBMA Entertainer of the Year Award. If you’ve ever seen him crack jokes while leading The Steep Canyon Rangers, his crack band of bluegrass vets, on the banjo, you’d know why. Says Rangers’ lead singer Woody Platt: “Working with Steve, we might be the most [...]

Troubadours: The Rise of the Singer-Songwriter (DVD/CD) Hear Music Rating: The title of the new documentary Troubadours is a play on the various writers/performers the film celebrates and The Troubadour, Doug Weston’s famous Los Angeles listening room. The eccentric Weston is the ghost in the film’s machine, and his club is cast as a musical [...]

The Rounder Records Story Rounder Records Rating: It’s not easy reviewing a four-disc, 87-track, four-decade-spanning record label box set—partly because, well, that’s a ton of music. But that’s not a bad thing when you’re dealing with a rightfully world-renown label like Rounder Records, the pioneer folk/roots organization formed by Ken Irwin, Marian Leighton Levy, and [...]

from the press release: NASHVILLE, TN – Compass Records artist Noam Pikelny has been announced as the winner of the first annual Steve Martin Prize for Excellence in Banjo and Bluegrass. Pikelny, together with Steve Martin and Punch Brothers, is scheduled to perform on the Late Show with David Letterman on November 4th. Pikelny was [...]

Last year, the Newport Folk Festival celebrated it’s 50th Anniversary, with performances from folk music legends Pete Seeger, Joan Baez, and Arlo Guthrie. This year, the venerable festival turns 51, and will welcome Levon Helm’s Ramble on the Road, My Morning Jacket’s Yim Yames, The Swell Season, John Prine, Andrew Bird, The Avett Brothers, and [...]