Steve Martin in London, England

Steve Martin in concert at the Royal Festival Hall, London. Photo by Brian Rasic/Rex (guardian.co.uk)Comedian Steve Martin had the opportunity on Tuesday night (11/10) to demonstrate to a British audience that he is a serious musician, and according to Wednesday’s review of his performance in the Guardian national newspaper he succeeded.

Martin was on British TV (BBC2) on Tuesday night also. He performed on Later Live, and will be on Later…with Jools Holland on Friday (13th) at 11.35 p.m. Video from that appearance will be available online.

Here is a taste of the Guardian review…

Dressed in a grey suit and tie, with his white hair and glasses, Martin looked like a doctor who was about to make an unpleasant prognosis. But instead he began with a barrage of self-deprecating jokes. Once he started playing, it became clear that he could hold his own against his impressive acoustic band, the Steep Canyon Rangers, both through his mastery of the claw-hammer banjo style, and – perhaps more surprisingly – his ability to write strong and varied material influenced by anyone from Scruggs to Bill Monroe, the father of bluegrass.

The full review can be found on the broadsheet’s web site.

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About the Author

Richard Thompson

Richard F. Thompson is a long-standing free-lance writer specialising in bluegrass music topics. A two-time Editor of British Bluegrass News, he has been seriously interested in bluegrass music since about 1970. As well as contributing to that magazine, he has, in the past 30 plus years, had articles published by Country Music World, International Country Music News, Country Music People, Bluegrass Unlimited, MoonShiner (the Japanese bluegrass music journal) and Bluegrass Europe. He wrote the annotated series I'm On My Way Back To Old Kentucky, a daily memorial to Bill Monroe that culminated with an acknowledgement of what would have been his 100th birthday, on September 13, 2011.