Musically Speaking...

Quick post to remember a great evening.

I got a notice about Steve Martin the comedian/actor coming to the Lexington Opera House on Tuesday evening, June 21st. I ran it past Big Guy Clauda and he thought it sounded like a good idea to him as well. I purchased tickets.

Steve Martin plays the banjo. He actually is very, very good on the banjo.

His wife's family loves to vacation in North Carolina. Once while visiting they introduced Steve to a local band named the Steep Canyon Rangers. They struck up a friendship, the end result of which was to go on a tour together.

They have made an album together. That is my age creeping in...they have made a CD together. It is titled "Rare Bird Alert". Every song on this CD Steve Martin had a hand in. He wrote the lyrics and/or the music to each song. These were the songs they performed for us during the show.

The show was laced with narration humor from Steve Martin. So you really got a comedy show by him with the most excellent music to boot.

Steve told us they had been invited to perform on the Mall in Washington, DC for the upcoming 4th of July celebration on the PBS show. They will sing a special song Steve wrote about the historic ride of Paul Revere. The cute thing is that this song is sung from the perspective of the horse Paul Revere rode. Very cute and worth watching the PBS 4th of July show from the Mall in DC.

The audience gave several standing ovations during the show. After the 'final' number, we continued to stand and eventually they came back and did a few more numbers.

One of these numbers was the 'Orange Blossom Special' which is a very popular Bluegrass piece. The fiddle player ad libed in several places. I'm sure I heard 'Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring' in there. That was the first ad lib. As he did each successive ad lib the audience would roar with laughter as they recognized the piece that really wasn't a part of the 'Orange Blossom Special'. By the time the fiddler finished he had strings hanging from his bow that he just ripped off. Great fun.

The final encore number took us all by surprise. They played and sang "King Tut". this is a piece we all remember Steve Martin doing in an Egyptian costume.

The concert was sooooo good that I did something I hardly ever do after a concert. I went to the vendor and had Claude buy me a CD of this music. I has Steve Martin's autograph on the front as well as the autographs of each of the four band members.

I can highly recommend this show to anyone and everyone. Even if you don't know about or enjoy Bluegrass music, you will enjoy these guys and the humor of Steve Martin. A most excellent evening!!