If you get comedian Steve Martin talking about his banjo, expect to stay awhile.
No, he will tell you, he doesn't have a collection of the instruments. But you'll see him pull several out during his show at the Fox Tucson Theatre Sunday night.
The 1940s Gibson original five-string will be there, producing "this hard driving fantastic Earl Scruggs type sound - beautiful, beautiful tone," he said.
"But I also play a brand-new banjo. It's a Dearing Mark Johnson model for what they call claw hammer style," he said during a teleconference with West Coast journalists to promote his tour with the Steep Canyon Rangers. "And it doesn't have a resonator. It has an open back. And it has a beautiful, beautiful tone."
Sounds pretty serious for a man we've grown to take not so seriously over his 40-plus-year comedy career.
People are also reading…
When it comes to playing the banjo and his quirky brand of bluegrass music, Martin tends to mix ha-ha's with harmony.
Take his bluegrass version of his 1970s pop novelty hit "King Tut." The addition of acoustic guitars and scorching fiddle against the tinny twang of Martin's banjo solo sounds like music you would hear played on the sunset porches in the Deep South.
But it would be hard to imagine Earl Scruggs and Lester Flatt singing the lyrics:
"Now if I'd known the line would form to see him (King Tut) / I'd take up all my money and buy me a museum (King Tut) / Buried with a donkey (funky Tut) / He's my favorite honky."
Most of his songs - from the quirky love song "Go Away, Stop, Turn Around, Come Back" to the faux gospel "Atheists Don't Have No Songs" - could easily be labeled novelties. Look beyond the titles and lyrics to the music itself, though, and you find admirable hooks and enviable musical chops from the self-taught Martin and the band.
Martin, 66, who has starred in countless movies since breaking it big in his self-penned 1979 movie "The Jerk," doesn't always play "King Tut" in his banjo concerts, which he's been doing regularly for the past couple years. The song closes out his second album, "Rare Bird Alert," released in March.
"I do it every once in a while. And I really put it on the record because I wanted the audience to know that our show was fun, that it wasn't just me standing with my back to the audience playing music," he said. "You know, we have a lot of strong songs."
Martin's music career is far from a vanity project. He has been playing the banjo since he was a kid, teaching himself from chord books.
"I just fell in love with it. I mean I actually remember as I listened to a record, I could block out the other instruments in my brain so I could focus on the banjo and what it was doing," he said.
"I lived in Laurel Canyon (in the 1960s-70s) and I was very friendly with the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band and John McEuen Band. ... And that's really where I got my musical training from, ... hanging out with those guys," he said, recalling how he used to open for Linda Ronstadt and her backup band, which went on to become The Eagles, at LA's pre-eminent folk club The Troubadour.
"But they weren't even the Eagles then. Nobody was anybody. The Eagles were a group - a duo (Glenn Frey and John David Souther) called 'The Longbranch Pennywhistle.' And Linda Ronstadt hung around there. And it was a very exciting place to be. But I was still mostly a comedian and banjo player," he said.
When it came to his performing career, Martin early on put the banjo in the closet and focused on his absurdist comedy on stage and on screen. In 1981, he tiptoed into the instrument when he recorded a live bluegrass performance on the flip side of his comedy album "The Steve Martin Brothers." But it wasn't until a few years ago that he fully reunited with the banjo after rediscovering on the Internet all those old records that inspired him in his youth.
"And then I identified some players that were new that I'd never heard of. And I actually contacted them just to say I really like your music," he recalled. "And then people started sending me their music. And then I started meeting the people. ... And then one of the players, Tony Trischka, asked me to play on his record."
Trischka went on to record Martin's song "The Crow."
Martin recorded the song himself on his 2009 debut full-length bluegrass album "The Crow: New Songs for the 5-String Banjo," which won the 2010 Grammy for Best Bluegrass Album.
"Right now, I'm really deeply enjoying going around playing music and also doing a show. And talking to the audience and refining it," he said.
If you go
• What: Steve Martin and the Steep Canyon Rangers in concert.
• When: 8 p.m. Sunday.
• Where: Fox Tucson Theatre, 17 W. Congress St.
• Tickets: Limited left, $65 to $150 through www.foxtucsontheatre.com
