Steve Martin's Blog, page 12

Steve Martin and The Steep Canyon Rangers featuring Edie Brickell performed in Nanaimo, BC at Port Theatre last weekend. Read the review here:

Review: Flawless night for Steve Martin show
Nanaimo Daily News
by Julie Chadwick, May 15, 2014
- read review-

Click here to listen to Steve Martin's recent interview on the Dinner Party Download.

The new animated short "Almost Home" by DreamWorks Animation is voiced by Steve Martin, Jim Parsons, Rihanna and Jennifer Lopez. It is a teaser for the upcoming animated comedy Home, in theaters November 26, 2014.

Steve Martin and The Steep Canyon Rangers, featuring Edie Brickell, have released their first ever live concert CD/DVD package capturing their performance at the historic Fox Performing Arts Center in Riverside California last fall. The live performance was recorded for PBS Great Performances and features material from Martin and Brickell's Grammy-nominated album Love Has Come For You, as well as music from Martin's Grammy nominated collaboration with The Steep Canyon Rangers, Rare Bird Alert, and his Grammy Award winning album The Crow: New Songs for the Five-String Banjo.

Order now from Amazon.

Visit pbs.org to watch a video of Steve Martin and Edie Brickell performing "Love Has Come For You" with The Steep Canyon Rangers in this excerpt from "Great Performances: Steve Martin and the Steep Canyon Rangers featuring Edie Brickell in Concert," airing in March on PBS (check local listings).

Steve Martin and the Steep Canyon Rangers featuring Edie Brickell Live premieres March 4th on PBS' Great Performances and will be available March 11th on Rounder Records CD/DVD.

Steve Martin's First Ever Televised Live Concert Performance with Edie Brickell and The Steep Canyon Rangers Will Be Released on CD/DVD Via Rounder Records March 11th, 2014

Steve Martin and Edie Brickell, fresh off their GRAMMY win last week (Best American Roots Song) are set for their first-ever live concert television broadcast as PBS' Great Performances premieres "Steve Martin and the Steep Canyon Rangers featuring Edie Brickell Live" March 4nd, 2014 on WNET. (Check local listings for airings in your area.) 

In addition, on March 11th, 2014, Rounder Records will release a deluxe two-disc CD/DVD package documenting this special event.  Highlighting Martin's unique blend of comedy and bluegrass, this extraordinary live performance was taped in stunning HD and recorded in crystal clear 5.1 audio at the historic Fox Performing Arts Center in Riverside, California in the fall of 2013.

With music supervision by the renowned Peter Asher (Linda Ronstadt, James Taylor), the concert features material from Martin and Brickell's GRAMMY-winning collaborative album "Love Has Come For You" as well as songs from "Rare Bird," Martin's highly acclaimed GRAMMY-winning project with The Steep Canyon Rangers in addition to music from his GRAMMY-winning solo album "The Crow: New Songs for the Five-String Banjo."

Watch "Pretty Little One" taken from Great Performances:

Wow! Still exciting after all these years. Grammy for best Americana Song, with @ediebrickell

I am very upset that a tweet I sent out last week has been interpreted by some to be insulting to African Americans. By now media coverage of the unfortunate tweet has only added to this perception. To those who were offended, again, I offer a deep, sincere, and humble apology without reservation.

But I feel I need to tell you the context and origin of the joke.

I was riffing on Twitter, inviting people to ask me grammar questions. I replied with what I hoped were funny answers.  For example, a person might write “What’s the difference between “then” and “than?” I would say, “then” is a conjunctive preposition, and “than” is a misspelling of “thank.” I have done similar things to this on other occasions, and there is a great spirit of fun between me and the Twitters followers.

I was going along fine when someone wrote, “How do you spell “lasonia?” I wrote: “It depends if you are in an African American neighborhood or an Italian restaurant.” I knew of the name Lasonia.  I did not make it up, nor do I find it funny. So to me the answer was either Lasonia (with a capital), or Lasagna, depending on what you meant. That they sounded alike in this rare and particular context struck me as funny. That was the joke. When the tweet went out, I saw some negative comments and immediately deleted the tweet and apologized. I gathered the perception was that I was making fun of African American names.  Later, thinking it over, I realized the tweet was irresponsible, and made a fuller apology on Twitter.

Then, Salon.com reported on the story and changed the wording of the tweet. They wrote: “It depends if you are in an African American restaurant or an Italian restaurant.” Clearly, this misquote implies that an African American restaurant can’t spell “lasagna” on the menu. And my name was attached to the misquoted tweet. Other websites, including TMZ.com picked up this incorrect version and for the next four days, and more, it continued to spread and I couldn’t get out of hell.

When the error was fixed, neither TMZ nor Salon footnoted it. However, one website which had jumped on me harshly, Twitchy.com, made a generous apology:

“The original version of this post stated that Martin’s tweet denigrated the spelling ability of people who live in African American neighborhoods. A more likely explanation is that he was referencing the tendency of some African Americans to use names that include the prefix “La.” If we misinterpreted his joke (and we think we probably did), we apologize.”

I felt a little better, but not a lot.

Comedy is treacherous. I used to try out jokes in clubs and the audience’s feedback would tell me when I had crossed a line, or how to shape a joke so it is clear. Today, the process is faster.  It’s your brain, a button, then millions of reactions. But it’s my job to know.

GRAMMY ALERT: Steve Martin & Edie Brickell have been nominated for two Grammy awards:
Best Americana Album (Love Has Come For You)
Best American Roots Song ("Love Has Come For You")

The 56th Annual Grammy Awards will take place on Sunday, January 26, 2014.