Rare Bird Alert | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|
Studio album by | ||||
Released | March 15, 2011 | |||
Studio | Echo Mountain, Asheville, North Carolina | |||
Genre | Bluegrass, pop, country, comedy music | |||
Length | 41:30 | |||
Label | Rounder | |||
Producer | Tony Trischka | |||
Steve Martin chronology | ||||
| ||||
Steep Canyon Rangers chronology | ||||
|
Review scores | |
---|---|
Source | Rating |
AllMusic | [1] |
Rare Bird Alert is a 2011 bluegrass album by Steve Martin and the Steep Canyon Rangers,featuring guest appearances by Paul McCartney and The Chicks. This is Martin's second consecutive musical album,and comprises 13 songs. His first all-music album was 2009's The Crow:New Songs for the 5-String Banjo . Rare Bird Alert was first released on March 15,2011. The album was nominated for a Grammy on November 30,2011 (Best Bluegrass Album). "King Tut" is a new bluegrass arrangement of a song that was a Billboard top 20 hit for Martin in 1978.
All songs written by Steve Martin except where noted.
A Deluxe Limited Edition was released and is packaged in a full-length vinyl LP in gatefold packaging,and includes a limited edition t-shirt,novelty cards and DRM-free digital downloads of the entire album. Other editions include a mixed variety between vinyl,CD and digital download. [2]
"Jubilation Day" was made into an animated music video depicting the heads of Steve Martin,along with the Steep Canyon Rangers,over the bodies of various birds. [3]
Chart (2011) | Peak position |
---|---|
U.S. Billboard 200 [4] | 43 |
U.S. Billboard Top Bluegrass Albums [4] | 1 |
Stephen Glenn Martin is an American comedian,actor,writer,producer,and musician. He has won five Grammy Awards,a Primetime Emmy Award,and was awarded an Honorary Academy Award in 2013. Additionally,he was nominated for two Tony Awards for his musical Bright Star in 2016. Among many honors,he received the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor in 2005,the Kennedy Center Honors in 2007,and an AFI Life Achievement Award in 2015. In 2004,Comedy Central ranked Martin at sixth place in a list of the 100 greatest stand-up comics. The Guardian named him one of the best actors never to have received an Academy Award nomination.
Edie Arlisa Brickell is an American singer-songwriter widely known for 1988's Shooting Rubberbands at the Stars,the debut album by Edie Brickell &New Bohemians,which went to No. 4 on the Billboard albums chart. She is married to singer-songwriter Paul Simon.
"What Goes On" is a song by the English rock band the Beatles,featured as the eighth track on their 1965 album Rubber Soul. The song was later released as the B-side of the US single "Nowhere Man",and then as the tenth track on the North America-only album Yesterday and Today. It is the only song by the band credited to Lennon–McCartney–Starkey and the only song on Rubber Soul that features Ringo Starr on lead vocals. The song reached number 81 on the US Billboard Hot 100 in 1966.
Flaming Pie is the tenth solo studio album by English musician Paul McCartney,released on 5 May 1997 by Parlophone in the UK and Capitol Records in the US. His first studio album in over four years,it was mostly recorded after McCartney's involvement in the highly successful Beatles Anthology project. The album was recorded in several locations over two years,between 1995 and 1997,featuring two songs dating from 1992.
Anthony Cattell Trischka is an American five-string banjo player. Sandra Brennan wrote of him in 2021:"One of the most influential modern banjoists,both in several forms of bluegrass music and occasionally in jazz and avant-garde,Tony Trischka has inspired a whole generation of progressive bluegrass musicians."
Gerald Calvin "Jerry" Douglas is an American Dobro and lap steel guitar player and record producer. He is widely regarded as "perhaps the finest Dobro player in contemporary acoustic music,and certainly the most celebrated and prolific." A fourteen-time Grammy winner,he has been called “dobro’s matchless contemporary master,”by The New York Times,and is among the most innovative recording artists in music,both as a solo artist and member of numerous bands,such as Alison Krauss and Union Station and The Earls of Leicester. He has been a co-director of the Transatlantic Sessions since 1998.
"King Tut" is a novelty song performed by Steve Martin and the Toot Uncommons,about the Egyptian pharaoh Tutankhamun and the Treasures of Tutankhamun traveling exhibit that toured seven American cities from 1976 to 1979. It was first performed on Saturday Night Live.
James Bryan Sutton is an American musician. Primarily known as a flatpicking acoustic guitar player,Sutton also plays mandolin,banjo,ukulele,and electric guitar. He also sings and writes songs.
Nancy Jane Dolman Short was a Canadian comedic actress and singer. She had a recurring role as Annie Selig Tate on the ABC sitcom Soap. She appeared in her husband Martin Short's 1985 cable television special Martin Short:Concert for the North Americas.
The Chicks are an American country music band from Dallas,Texas. Since 1995,the band has consisted of Natalie Maines and sisters Martie Maguire and Emily Strayer. Maguire and Strayer,both née Erwin,founded the band in 1989 in Dallas,Texas,with bassist Laura Lynch and vocalist and guitarist Robin Lynn Macy. They performed bluegrass and country music,busking and touring the bluegrass festival circuits and small venues for six years without attracting a major label. In 1992,Macy left and Lynch became the lead vocalist.
Steep Canyon Rangers is an American bluegrass band based in Asheville and Brevard,North Carolina.
Nobody Knows You is a studio album by Steep Canyon Rangers released in 2012 through Rounder Records. In January 2013,the record won the Grammy Award for Best Bluegrass Album,which was presented to Steep Canyon Rangers as artists and co-producers of the album alongside Gary Paczosa. The album peaked at #2 on Billboard's Top Bluegrass Albums chart.
Love Has Come for You is a 2013 bluegrass music CD featuring a collaboration of 13 original songs composed by Steve Martin (music) and Edie Brickell. The album cover art is a painting entitled "After Dinner Drinks" (2008) by Martin Mull;the original work is in Steve Martin's personal art collection.
Nicky Sanders is a Grammy Award-winning,American fiddle player specializing in Bluegrass music. He is best known for his work with the band Steep Canyon Rangers along with banjo player and comedian Steve Martin. Raised in San Francisco,he began studying classical violin aged five. At 17,he became concertmaster of the Young People's Symphony Orchestra in Berkeley,California. Later he would graduate Berklee College of Music in Boston,Massachusetts earning a BA in Music with a major in performance (violin). Other studies while at Berklee included 20th-century classical music composition and Film Scoring.
Radio is the ninth solo album by Steep Canyon Rangers,their eleventh overall. It was released on August 28,2015. The album peaked at No. 1 on the Billboard Bluegrass Albums chart on 18 September 2015 and spent a total of 41 weeks on that chart. The title song was nominated for Song of the Year by the International Bluegrass Music Association in 2016.
Alfred Francis Platt III,known as Woody Platt,is a Grammy Award-winning,American guitar player and vocalist specializing in bluegrass music. He is best known for his work with the band Steep Canyon Rangers along with banjo player and comedian Steve Martin.
Arm in Arm is the 13th studio album by American bluegrass band Steep Canyon Rangers. It was released on October 16,2020 through Yep Roc Records. The album debuted at No. 2 on the Billboard Bluegrass Albums chart,and spent 16 consecutive weeks on the chart. Arm in Arm also reached No. 4 on the Americana/Folk Albums chart,No. 10 on the Current Country Albums chart,and No. 24 on the Record Label Independent Albums chart.
Be Still Moses is the 12th studio album by American bluegrass band Steep Canyon Rangers. The North Carolina label,Yep Roc Records,released the album digitally on March 6,2020,then on CD and LP on April 10,2020. The album was made in collaboration with the Asheville Symphony. The album's title track,"Be Still Moses," features the Philadelphia R&B/Soul group Boyz II Men. Be Still Moses reached #1 on Billboard's Bluegrass Chart,#2 on the Classical Crossover Chart,and #8 on the Americana/Folk Chart.
North Carolina Songbook is the 11th album from American bluegrass band Steep Canyon Rangers. The album was released on Yep Roc Records on November 29,2019,for Record Store Day/Black Friday. The digital and wide releases for North Carolina Songbook came on April 10,2020. album debuted at #1 on the Billboard Bluegrass Albums Chart. It also reached #9 on the Americana/Folk Albums chart,#22 on the Current Country Albums chart,#29 on the Record Label Independent Albums chart,and #119 on the Top Current Albums chart. North Carolina Songbook was nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Bluegrass Album in March 2021.