Steve Martin Preps Follow-Up To Grammy-Winning 2009 AlbumSteve Martin Preps Follow-Up To Grammy-Winning 2009 Album

Buoyed by the Grammy Award-winning success of his 2009 album "The Crow: New Songs for the Five-String Banjo," Steve Martin ready to record another one.
Martin tells Billboard.com that he and his touring group, the Steep Canyon Rangers, are planning to hit the studio in August with producer Tony Trischka, with a tentative early 2011 release. "I have most of the songs," Martin reports. "I have 11 songs, and I think we need 12 or 13 -- and I'm very happy with them." He says the new album will be "a little more bluegrassy" than "The Crow" and that he's expecting "to economize on it a little bit," with fewer guests and remote recording sessions than its predecessor.
The album will once again be comprised of all original material, Martin confirms. "There's no point for me not to do orginal compositions," he says. "What do I do -- cover somebody else's song? That's ricidulous. They could get a better singer to do it. The only contribution I cold make, really, is in the writing. And sometimes I think I'm at the limit, 'I can't write another song!,' and then I go on vacation and pick up the banjo and write two songs." Read more at Billboard.com/