About Steve :: Person ::
Banjo Player

Steve has been a banjo player since high school. Self taught, he has played with a number of world renowned banjoists, has recorded his music, and has included it in his act and movies.

These articles are miscellaneous ones about his banjo playing.

    
   
2002 Grammy Award for Best Country Instrumental Performance
Foggy Mountain Breakdown with Marty, Earl Scruggs, Randy Scruggs, Glen Duncan, Steve Martin, Vince Gill, Gary Scruggs, Albert Lee, Paul Shaffer, Jerry Douglas and Leon Russell
 		    
   


http://carverdoug.com/Martin.html
The Steve Martin Banjo
Doug Rowell

Steve Martin and I have been friends since high school in 1960.

10 years later, In 1970, we were both living in Laurel Canyon, L.A.

I was singing and carving and Steve was writing for the Smother's Brothers TV show. Steve started talking to me about making him a solid body (non-electric) banjo.

I had some other projects in the works, so I kind of put him off. Then I found a motorcycle I wanted to buy. The Harley was $500.I called Steve and said, "I'll carve your banjo for $250... if you'll pay me in advance and loan me another $250." He agreed, gave me the $500. I bought the Harley and the wood.

About a week later, I was hired to play the lead role in the first national tour of the musical "HAIR". I told Steve the banjo was going to happen, but it would take longer than I originally thought.He said, "O.K."

For the next couple of years, I worked on this banjo in my spare time in hotel rooms all over the United States and Canada. In

The body is walnut. The back of the peghead is an eagle.The back of the neck is a history of American war (revolutionary, civil, indian, "Old Ironsides", W.W.I - bi-planes, W.W.II - Iwo Jima, & the atomic bomb) A mushroom cloud sweeps into the "Mountain Whiporwhill"scene with cornicopias, angels, a banjo & a fiddle on the body's back.

The face is covered with white suede. The front of the peghead is inlaid with a take off of the Martin guitar logo... "S.G.Martin- est. 1945" The fingerboard is inlaid with a sort of boroque design

    
  http://listproc.ucdavis.edu/archives/banjo-l/log0004/0831.html
Jamming with Steve Martin
From: Bill and Ann Fisher (wfisher@mediaone.net)
Date: Mon Apr 17 2000 - 15:15:42 PDT

I got to jam with Steve Martin last Wednesday in my living room here in Oak Park, Illinois. Here's what happened. About three weeks ago the people hired to find sites for the movie Novocaine (with Steve Martin as a dentist, Laura Dern as his girlfriend, and Helena Bonham Carter) chose my neighbor's house for its exterior and first floor to be used as Laura Dern's house. However, their bedroom was too small for the bedroom scene so they went looking elsewhere on the block for a bigger one and chose mine. Wednesday was filming day.

About noon, there was a break in the action and Steve Martin came downstairs, I assumed to go to his trailer out on the street. He stopped when he saw my banjos on stands in the living room. "Banjos" he says, "Who plays banjo?" My wife told him I did and he asked if he could play one. (Duh, that was sure a hard question to answer). So he sat down and started playing and my wife ran and got me. When I came in he saw me and asked if they were my banjos. When I said yes he said, "Sit down and let's play." And so we did. We didn't know a lot of the same tunes so we traded off playing. He was a little disappointed that I didn't have a set of finger picks he could use but did a fine job playing clawhammer, up-picking and a little quiet bluegrass. He tried my new Bart Reiter Regent but preferred my old Gibson RB-170 openback since that's what he uses for frailing. (For BG he has a Gibson Florentine)

One of the props in the movie was a picture of him at age 17 playing his RB-170. He says he learned to play banjo in high school about the time the photo was taken. He went to high school with John McEuen (Nitty Gritty Dirt Band) and I got the impression they learned together. He learned mostly from books (Mel Bay, etc.) and by slowing down records. He also said sadly that he doesn't get much chance to play anymore but he did play "The Cuckoo" which he had "just learned"

Besides Cuckoo he (or we) played Green Corn, Blue Skies, Auld Lang Syne, Foggy Mountain Breakdown, Old Joe Clark, Waterbound, Cripple Creek and many, many more. (I was too stunned to think straight, so have forgotten a lot) Pretty soon he had to go back to shooting but the rest of the day and night whenever there was a break he'd be the first one down the stairs and say "Let's play." In all we had seven sessions lasting from 10 minutes to half an hour. At one time we were playing Old Joe Clark together and I looked up and there was Helena Bonham Carter sitting cross-legged on the floor watching us. I just about lost it there.

We only got a couple of photos (we weren't supposed to take any) no video or tapes. If anyone is interested in seeing them they should contact me by e-mail since we're not supposed to send attachments to the list.

By the way, are my Gibson RB-170 and my Bart Reiter Regent worth more now that Steve Martin has autographed them? Just curious, I'm not planning to sell them.

Bill Fisher

 
 
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