Posted on 04/02/2009 6:01:47 PM PDT by murdoog
NASHVILLE, Tennessee (Reuters) - Comedian Steve Martin next month will make his debut on a new type of stage for the well-known television and movie star, plucking his banjo at country music's Grand Ole Opry. Martin, a veteran of TV shows like "Saturday Night Live and films such as the recent "Pink Panther 2," has long been a banjo player.
(Excerpt) Read more at reuters.com ...
Real men play the banjo.
I’ll tell my niece that.
I like Steve Martin. As far as I know he keeps his politics to himself.
Here is a video of Steve Martin & Earl Scrugs. I have always enjoyed Steve’s Banjo playing
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rrlqQ1_vZVE
My son hasn’t played with Martin but he’s played with Tony Triscka (sp?) and Bela Fleck who taught Martin.
I thin, way way back in the day, the Steve played banjo on the Smothers Brothers show...
thin = think, amigos.
I’ve liked Steve Martin since the old days, when he wore the arrow on his head. His banjo playing is awesome. He deserves to play at The Opry. Thanks for posting a good news story!
My hubby and I enjoy Steve Martin films. He is a regular wild and crazy guy.
Have you ever seen this?
Steve Martin gives Gregory Hines a run for his money!
http://www.clip4e.com/play_gregory_hines_amp_steve_martin_tap.htm
For some reason the banjo (at least the bluegrass 5-string variety) has always been associated with men.
Which make it ironic that the best bluegrass banjo player (by a pretty wide margin, imho) is Allison Brown. A woman. But when you get a bunch of (male) bluegrass banjo players to list the great banjo players, you rarely hear Brown’s name mentioned. Although I’m not sure why. I assume it is because she plays a lot of non-bluegrass (but she plays plent of hardcore bluegrass also.) She really is in a league of her own banjo wise.
BTW,I play the banjo. Poorly, but it still qualifes as playing.
I’m pretty sure Martin started playing banjo before Fleck was born, but I wouldn’t be surprised if Martin had taken some lessons from Fleck at one time.
On an early SNL, I recall Martin playing a Led Zep song (Stairway?) on his bango - absolutely hilarious!
Tony is a few years younger than Martin. It probably isn’t reality to say any one person taught another to play. My son has played with Tony and Bela but its more a matter of jamming although he has performed with Tony. I think that they would all give homage to Earl. :-)
What a cool story! It’s probably a dream come true for him.
If I ever got a tattoo it would be a banjo ....on my knee.
Totally in character. I read Steve’s book and have been a long time fan. He as always been a natural performer and has always pushed himself to do things that would be a stretch for him, or would seem impossible for others. Yet he always lands on his feet. One of the good guys for sure.
That’s really impressive.
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