Steve Martin & Alison Brown Stay ‘Safe, Sensible And Sane’ On New Collab Project

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Steve Martin and Alison Brown. Photo: Beth Herzhaft

Steve Martin and Alison Brown are joining forces on a new album, Safe, Sensible and Sane, due out Oct. 17 from Compass Records. A first taste of the collaborative new project, “Dear Time,” featuring Jackson Browne with Jeff Hanna, is out now.

“Dear Time” is a soul-baring letter to time itself, striking a powerful balance of light-hearted humor and wistful sincerity with lyrics by Martin and featuring harmony vocals from Hanna, who was Browne’s former bandmate during his brief stint in the first iteration of The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band. A video for the new tune was filmed at LA’s iconic Troubadour, where both Martin and Jackson Browne launched their careers in the ’60s during a historic period in that music scene, and where Brown later performed as a rising SoCal teen bluegrasser.

The album also features other special guests including Vince Gill, the Indigo Girls, Tim O’Brien, Jason Mraz, Della Mae and more, and includes standouts like the recently released “5 Days Out, 2 Days Back” featuring O’Brien which is nominated for Song of the Year, Collaborative Performance of the Year, and Music Video of the Year at this year’s International Bluegrass Music Association (IBMA) Awards, where Brown also picked up a nomination for Banjo Player of the Year.

Additional high points include “New Cluck Old Hen,” which reimagines a century-old Appalachian banjo tune and features the all-female bluegrass powerhouse Della Mae, “Michael” (feat. Aoife O’Donovan with Sarah Jarosz), a bittersweet reverie adorned with the breezy rhythms of bossa nova, and harmony-fueled track “Money When You’re Old” (feat. Indigo Girls).

In shaping the album’s intricately detailed but freewheeling sound, Brown and Martin worked with over two dozen renowned players, including Sam Bush, Stuart Duncan, Molly Tuttle and Sierra Hull.

“With the banjo, there are so many styles you can work with, but Alison and I both have an ear for its more melodic, melancholy aspect,” Martin shares. “We got together and played music for days, and ended up making a record where our entire banjo histories coalesce.”

“We didn’t start off by saying, ‘Let’s make an album,’” Brown shares. “We were just having a good time writing songs, and at some point we realized we’d written enough to gather them all together and put a bow on it. There was a joy and ease and sense of fun to the whole process, and now hopefully everyone who listens will share that joy.”

Brown and Martin have each earned accolades for their contributions to banjo music: Brown made history as the first-ever female musician to win an instrumentalist of the year prize at the IBMA Awards (where she was named Banjo Player of the Year in 1991), while Martin received the IBMA’s Entertainer of the Year award in 2011. In 2010, Martin launched the Steve Martin Banjo Prize, which has awarded more than $500,000 to banjo players, with past recipients including Rhiannon Giddens and Jake Blount. Also a longtime co-chair for the Steve Martin Banjo Prize, Brown co-founded the roots-music label Compass Records in 1995. Brown and Martin are set to co-host the International Bluegrass Music Awards next month in Chattanooga.

Safe, Sensible, and Sane Track List:
1. “Friend of Mine”
2. “5 Days Out” (feat. Tim O’Brien)
3. “New Cluck Old Hen” (feat. Della Mae)
4. “Michael” (feat. Aoife O’Donovan with Sarah Jarosz)
5. “Evening Star” (feat. McGoldrick/McCusker/Doyle)
6. “Statement of Your Affairs” (feat. Jason Mraz)
7. “Dear Time” (Prelude)
8. “Dear Time” (feat. Jackson Browne with Jeff Hanna)
9. “Girl, Have Money When You’re Old” (feat. Indigo Girls)
10. “Bluegrass Radio”
11. “Wall Guitar (Since You Said Goodbye)” (feat. Vince Gill)
12. “Let’s Get Out of Here”

Lorie Hollabaugh
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