Steve Martin harnesses an archetypal conceit — “Come to California!” — for his new song with the Steep Canyon Rangers. Called, simply, “California,” the bluegrass come-on is written from the perspective of a man beckoning his love in Oklahoma to move West and chase her dreams as a writer.
Not surprisingly, the song doesn’t travel the predictable route. Martin, who has written for stage, screen, song, stand-up routine and printed word, knows his way around a yarn. He also knows his way around his banjo. Since 2010, he’s awarded worthy players the Steve Martin Prize for Excellence in Banjo & Bluegrass, a prize he began giving out on “The Late Show With David Letterman.” Earlier this month, he announced he was donating the one-of-a-kind, gold-plated banjo given to him by the Kennedy Center when he won the Mark Twain Prize in 2005 to the American Banjo Museum in Oklahoma City. And for the past decade he’s participated in a series of collaborations with Grammy-winning bluegrass players the Steep Canyon Rangers.
Martin first performed with the Asheville, N.C., band at a 2009 benefit for the Los Angeles Public Library, and has since recorded two acclaimed bluegrass albums with them. The new song, “California,” is their first work since “The Long Awaited Album” in 2017.
“Took a house in California / Overlooks the Sunset Strip,” Martin sings to open the song, his phrasing short and sharp. “Said you’d join me when I’m settled / Now I sit here six weeks in.” Scene thus set, the singer and the band maneuver through a round of fiddle and banjo runs.