Odd couple: Steve Martin and Steep Canyon Rangers

Jason Sandford

Jason Sandford is a reporter, writer, blogger and photographer interested in all things Asheville.

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Photo by Jason Sandford

GoTriad story here:

Last September, a surprise guest banjoist joined the Steep Canyon Rangers bluegrass band onstage at the Mountain Song Festival in Brevard.

Steve Martin.

Yes, that Steve Martin. The wild and crazy comedian from “Saturday Night Live.” The actor, writer and now musician with a new CD of his banjo music.

It was no one-time fluke. The Asheville-based band since has joined Martin on stage in Los Angeles, New York and, just last month, on radio show “A Prairie Home Companion.”

More shows are in the works, some possibly overseas.

“It’s definitely a bolt out of the blue,” Graham Sharp, band banjoist and Greensboro native, says about the success of the unexpected collaboration.

“It’s a chance to go to some of these venues, and put our music and his music in front of bigger crowds,” he says. “It is going to be huge for us.”

The Steep Canyon Rangers still do gigs on their own, and Martin won’t join the band when it performs Saturday at Triad Stage as part of EMFfringe, but the band might perform one of his songs, Sharp says.

That hasn’t hurt ticket sales. The band long has filled seats on its own merits. As of last week, just a few of the theater’s 300 seats remained unsold.