Steve Martin’s latest album has debuted at #1 on the Billboard bluegrass chart. “Safe, Sensible and Sane,” a collboration with Alison Brown, is Martin’s seventh bluegrass album, all of which have hit #1. Five of his bluegrass albums debuted at #1. The new album features the Indigo Girls, Jackson Browne, Jason Mraz, Aoife O’Donovan, Vince Gill, Tim O’Brien, Della Mae, and Nitty Gritty Dirt Band co-founder Jeff Hanna. Martin said he and Brown never intended for the album to be so guest-heavy record: “The good news is, neither one of us are really singers, so with any song with lyrics, we’d have to say, ‘Well, who can sing it?’ We ended up with some amazing people.”
His debut musical album, “The Crow: New Songs for the Five-String Banjo,” spent 31 weeks at #1. His musical albums have spent a cumulative 84 weeks at #1 on the bluegrass chart, which is the record for male artists. He has won five Grammys: three are for his music and two are for his comedy albums.
He also co-wrote the music for the Broadway musical Bright Star, which was inspired by “Love Has Come for You,” his 2013 bluegrass album with Edie Brickell. Although Bright Star was nominated for five Tonys, the show had the misfortune of opening the same season as Hamilton (which was nominated for 16 Tonys and won in all but two categories). The cast album peaked at #2 on the cast album chart (it was shut out by the Hamilton cast recording), hit #1 on both the bluegrass chart and the Americana/folk chart, and was nominated for a Grammy (again shut out but Hamilton).
5 Days Out, 2 Days Back (with Tim O’Brien)