Banjo-Playing Comedian Steve Martin to Kick-off Newport Folk Festival

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Steve Martin & the Steep Canyon Rangers will kick off the 51st edition of George Wein's Newport Folk Festival* at the International Tennis Hall of Fame at Newport Casino on Friday, July 30, 2010, at 8:00 pm. Tim O'Brien and Sarah Jarosz will round out the evening of talented bluegrass artists. The festival continues July 31 and August 1 at Fort Adams State Park.
Martin's use of a banjo in his off-the-wall stand up routine may be a memory for some. But when the 2010 Grammy winner for "Bluegrass Album of the Year" takes the stage with the Steep Canyon Rangers, it's no laughing matter. The North Carolina-based group lends a credible collaboration to Martin's bluegrass banjo.

With on-stage anecdotes that have compared a song's "sadness and melancholy" to the look on his agent's face when Martin "told him I wanted to be a banjo player, " concert-goers won't easily forget that Martin is a funny man. The collaboration performances have been known to mix in some of Martin's signature dry wit, but at the core is a tight band playing real bluegrass. With an upright bass, acoustic guitar, mandolin, fiddle, second banjo and deep Appalachian harmonies, it's enough to leave a comedy or bluegrass fan happy.

Martin's multi-talented, storied, and well-known career includes achievements as an actor, comedian, author, playwright, and producer, and has seen the entertainer contribute to some of the most popular movies of recent film history. His own Grammy Award winning banjo album, The Crow / New Songs For The Five-String Banjo, and appearances with The Steep Canyon Rangers, have cemented Martin as one of the most dynamic and successful performers of our time.

O'Brien first won renown as a member of one of bluegrass's premiere bands, Hot Rize, though he's been doing solo performances for a long time. Pressed for antecedents, he offers up figures like James Taylor and Joni Mitchell. "The folksinger with a guitar is a sort of an unassailable icon, " he says with a laugh. "Dylan, Woody Guthrie – what can you say."

Jarosz, 19, began singing at two, playing piano at six, and took up the mandolin at 10. When her parents took her to a weekly bluegrass jam outside of Austin, TX, "I was just hooked, " says Jarosz. With a fine, supple singing voice, she's a skilled writer, unusually assured and observant. And of course she can play: mandolin, clawhammer banjo, guitar, and piano.

Wein has, since 1959, found Newport a scenic and hospitable venue for presenting the very best of this country's blues, roots, gospel, country, bluegrass, Cajun and traditional folk music. Last year's 50th anniversary edition paid tribute to the great performers who wrote the proud history of this festival, notably co-founder Pete Seeger, Joan Baez, Judy Collins, Ramblin' Jack Elliot, Arlo Guthrie and Mavis Staples.

George Wein's New Festival Productions continues to build on the festival's historic past by featuring emerging young artists alongside some of folk music's most venerable names. This year's festival features Levon Helm's Ramble on the Road, John Prine, Steve Martin & the Steep Canyon Rangers, Yim Yames of My Morning Jacket, The Swell Season, Andrew Bird, The Avett Brothers, Brandi Carlile, Doc Watson & David Holt, Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros, The Preservation Hall Jazz Band, Sharon Jones & the Dap Kings, Calexico, Blitzen Trapper, Richie Havens, Sam Bush, The Low Anthem, Tim O'Brien, The Felice Brothers, Justin Townes Earle, Tao Seeger Band, A.A. Bondy, The Punch Brothers with Chris Thile, Dawes, Nneka, Horse Feathers, Pokey LaFarge & the South City Three, Ben Sollee & Daniel Martin Moore, Sarah Jarosz, Cory Chisel & the Wandering Sons, O'Death and Liz Longley.

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