The Jerk plays The Banjo

Steve Martin
with the Steep Canyon Rangers

Saturday, October 3, 2009

Speedway Meadow, Golden Gate Park, San Francisco

Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival

Hoedown at Alice's->
Freddie's Lilt->
The Crow
Daddy Played The Banjo*
Pitkin County Turnaround
Late For School
Nowhere To Law Low**
Be Still Moses**
Jubilation Day
Clawhammer Medley
Hide Behind A Rock
Words Unspoken
Tin Roof
Calico Train
Orange Blossom Special

* with Tim O'Brien; ** without Steve

Fun show. A really good time, definitely well worth it! Steve is crackin' jokes between nearly every song because, after all, he's Steve Martin! What do you expect him to do, just play music and humorlessly leave it at that? Heck no, dang it! He gives the crowd many truly laugh out loud moments not to mention some great banjo playin'. The Steep Canyon Rangers as Steve's backup band are just excellent. Is this world class bluegrass? Ya know what, I can't tell ya... I can only tell ya what I like and me likes this mucho, thank you very much. Late For School has gotta be my favorite here as it's just this totally nonsensical jolly meandering tale that could almost be something out of Saturday Night Live. And then at the end of Orange Blossom Special my feeling of elatedness for the greatness of the musical presentation sank to sadness for I simply did not want it to end. Ah well, this ain't no jam band, just a bluegrass band, and what they gave the crowd was, for my money, nothing less than splendid.

Have a listen to Orange Blossom Special

10-3-09 a.k.a. 10-03-09 a.k.a. 10/3/09 a.k.a. 10/03/09 a.k.a. 09-10-03

Download The Show Here (320 kbps) Steve Martin - Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival 2009 stealth audience recording by Easy Ed from the fourth row directly in front of a speaker stack (about 20-30 feet away) Rode NT4 stereo microphone mounted to the top of a cowboy hat > Sony D8 DAT (with microphone preamps modified by Oade Brothers) @ 44.1kHz > Tascam DA-P1 DAT (playback) > coax digital out > Sek'd Prodif Plus soundcard > Sound Forge 7 (fade in and out, track markers) > .wav files > Trader's Little Helper > FLAC level 8 encoding (align on sector boundaries)

Musical Steve... Pre-Bluegrass

Steve Martin - King Tut skit on Saturday Night Live