Edie Brickell Archives - Bluegrass Today

Bright Star Soundtrack tugs at emotions

The musical Bright Star didn’t have a long run on Broadway, but the soundtrack is grassy enough to deserve a spot on the playlist of anyone who loves bluegrass and story songs, or who just wants to thank Steve Martin for all he does for the genre.

The songs—the latest marriage of Martin’s banjo-based melodies and lyrics from indie star Edie Brickell—have bluegrass roots that are deep enough to show through the orchestration and big-stage choruses that are standard fare in musicals.

The arc of the story in Bright Star tugs at a range of emotions. There’s love and loss, hope and despair, country vs. city, birth and death, domineering parents and even a train. And all play central roles in the tender, touching score that, like a well crafted novel, leaves you rooting for the good folks and hoping the evil ones meet a painful demise. (The evil ones don’t, but hope springs eternal.)

From the spare banjo opening of She’s Gone to the finale, At Long Last, the Martin-Brickell tunes are singable and, for the most part, memorable. Aside from When You Get to Asheville, which had a fair amount of radio play from an earlier CD that the duo recorded, these songs won’t show up on the bluegrass charts. But they will most likely have a life beyond Broadway, in traveling ensembles and community productions, as well as in the music catalogs of those willing to stretch beyond traditional bluegrass arrangements.

In addition to Asheville and the title song, standouts include What Could Be Better – “10 minutes in my arms can’t do any harm” – Another Round, a raucous drinking song, and I Had a Vision, a lament about how life would be “if I could see my way back to you.”

On stage, Broadway rookie Carmen Cusack traces protagonist Alice Murphy from strong career woman in the 1940s, back to a spirited teen in the 1920s, and forward again. Without spoiling the plot or giving away the slightly too sweet ending, let me say that she and others in the cast must deal with life-altering challenges, as we all must. Cusack handles the songs with enough panache to tell me that we’ll be hearing from her and seeing her on the big stage again.

Here’s hoping, in the not too distant future, we get to hear from Martin and Brickell again, too. The partnership is magical. As terrific as Martin is at just about everything he touches, Brickell’s lyrics and vocals always seem to take him to a new, special place.

Having the Broadway run come to an end has to be painful, but as one optimistic anthem on the CD announces, The Sun is Gonna Shine Again.

Bright Star – Love, Loss, Laughs, and Bluegrass?

One hot new Broadway musical, complete with banjos, mandolins, fiddles and the like, is called Bright Star. It incorporates old timey and bluegrassy music and instruments in a story that takes place in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina. Weaving between 1945 and 1923, the play examines the interconnectedness of people, places… loves, and losses.

This presentation, the instrumentation as well as the singing, dancing, and plot, struck me as immensely satisfying. Book and music were written by Steve Martin and Edie Brickell, and the play is directed by Tony Award winner Walter Bobbie. Their initial concept for the story was inspired by an old news story that Edie read, which motivated she and Steve to give birth to this play.

The action centers around an eager young man named Billie Cane (played by A. J. Shively) in the 1940s, who leaves his rural small town for the big city in hopes of becoming a professional writer. He heads to the big city of Ashville where he strives to have his writing accepted into the premier writer’s journal of the day, where he must pitch it to the stern and hard-to-impress editor, Alice Murphy (played by Carmen Cusack). As the story begins, he (and we) have no idea what effect this move will have on his future and his wider world.

On top of the clever storyline, a favorite part for me was the choreography, not just of the actors and the dancers, but also the magical ballet of the props and stage elements that would float around between the scenes. A cabin, furniture, bars, bookshelves, and other props wheeled between and around each other to miraculously effect a seamless transition from one scene into the next.

The stage itself is set in one of the premier historic theaters of Broadway, the beautiful old Cort Theatre. This venue had its first show in 1912, and its walls and ceilings are covered with Louis XVI-style paintings and ornamentation, with balconies dotting the room. It has an impressive history, with a number of great plays and TV shows having filmed there over the years. The Cort Theatre has been officially designated as an official New York City Landmark.

One thing that I liked about this play over some others I have seen lately around New York is that the show highlights the musicians making the live music that accompanies the scenes, dances and songs. Many of the musicians are playing on the stage amongst the cast, often in a rustic skeleton of a cabin that can be wheeled to and fro, and the musicians never drop a beat through song and scene changes.

I wouldn’t want to give too much of the plot away and spoil your fun, but I will say that Bright Star captures the heart and mind, and engages the audience with its compelling story, not to mention live traditional-style music. I highly recommend seeing this play as an enchanting theater experience with its impeccable use of staging, set design, songs, and story.

Hopefully this show will have a long run and show how successful bluegrass on Broadway can be. Hats off to the creators and all involved.

Details about ticket availability can be found online. An original cast recording is expected in late April.

Steve & Edie on the Tonight Show

Steve Martin & Edie Brickell are scheduled to appear on tonight’s October 29 edition of the Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon on NBC. They will perform the first single from their upcoming duet album, So Familiar, a song they wrote together called Won’t Go Back.

It’s another result of their unique writing style where Steve makes up melodies on his banjo, and then sends them on to Edie who gives them words. Not the most common songwriting paradigm in the music biz, but it works for these two.

You wouldn’t call this one a bluegrass song, but there’s Steve with his banjo all the same.

So Familiar is scheduled for release tomorrow on Rounder Records.

The Tonight Show airs at 11:35 (ET)/10:35 (CT). Look for them on TV again November 2 on Live! With Kelly and Michael.

Bright Star is Broadway bound

Bright Star, the new musical theater production written by Steve Martin and Edie Brickell is moving towards the Great White Way.

It was announced today that Bright Star will play an abbreviated run at the Kennedy Center over the winter holidays in Washington, DC before moving on to Broadway next Spring.

The show uses bluegrass-themed music to tell the story of an American soldier just back from WWII and his young bride. Set in the southern US, the two make a discovery together that will transform their lives.

It was developed and premiered in San Diego last year at the Old Globe, where this preview video was shot.

The DC run will include performances from December 17 through January 10, with previews beginning December 2. Casting information is expected to be released shortly.

Test Of Time from Edie and The Steeps

A new single was announced today from Edie Brickell and The Steep Canyon Rangers, a song written by Brickell and Steeps guitarist/vocalist Woody Platt. The song is Test Of Time, an old time bluegrass number that bounces back and forth between 3/4 and 2/4 time. It’s sung as a duet between Edie and Woody, with the Rangers providing the grassy accompaniment.

They are calling this an “in between” single, as it is not associated with any full length project, and all proceeds will be donated to the CAN’d Aid Foundation, a charitable effort of the Oskar Blues Brewery.

Woody said that the song is special to him, as it was written while he was in a dark place. He was feeling glum on the road until Brickell arrived on the scene.

“Edie Brickell and I wrote Test of Time on the tour bus as we were parked in the belly of a ferry traveling from Bellingham WA to British Columbia. We were on tour with Edie and Steve Martin; it was last Mothers Day. Edie climbed into the bus full of sweet bubbly energy (which was nice especially because I was very flat and sad – it was Mother’s Day, the first one since my mom died unexpectedly in July of 2013). Edie, being a mother herself, was in such a bright mood it lifted my spirits in a big way.

She hopped on the bus humming this fun melody and was determined to turn it into a song. We started working on it and were finished by the time we hit land in Canada.

It was great fun working this song out with Edie, while Steve was listening in. We played it with the rest of the Rangers on the show that night.

We had a project with Carl Jackson in August so we asked Carl if he was willing to produce the single. He jumped on board to help us get it recorded.”

Pre-orders for the single track CD are available now from the Steep Canyon Rangers web site, with digital sales commencing on March 31.

Martin, Steeps and Edie live DVD in March

Rounder has announced a March 11 release for Steve Martin’s first ever live concert CD/DVD. It bears the unwieldy title, Steve Martin and The Steep Canyon Rangers featuring Edie Brickell Live.

Recorded at the Fox Performing Arts Center in Riverside, CA last Fall, the package includes the live 2 hour program on both DVD and CD. Familiar numbers from Steve’s multiple albums with The Steeps and Edie are included, along with comedy bits and four previously unreleased songs.

Pre-orders are enabled now at Amazon.

The whole gang starts a Spring/Summer tour on March 14 in support, running across much of the United States and Canada. Select dates in April include Martin Short in for Brickell.

Tour details can be found on Martin’s web site.

Here’s the trailer released today…

The live concert will also be broadcast in March on Great Performances on PBS affiliate stations. The program typically airs on Sunday nights. Check local listings for broadcast times in your area.

Steve, Edie and the Steeps on Conan

Steve Martin made a stop at the Conan O’Brien show last night, with Edie Brickell and Steep Canyon Rangers in tow. They gave a lovely performance of When You Get to Asheville from their current CD, Love Has Come For You.

Bright Star from Steve & Edie

Steve Martin likes to joke when accused of being a Renaissance man that he would have to be 500 years old for that to be true. So that’s out. And while the term dilettante used to be used to describe someone who had expertise in a variety of fields, it has taken on something of a derisive tone in modern days. Scratch that. Even “jack of all trades” carries with it the unspoken rejoinder, “master of none.” No go there, either.

So what do you call someone who has risen to the top of multiple artistic disciplines, with accolades and awards in music, comedy, film, television, stage and art criticism? I guess we’re stuck with calling him Steve Martin.

He’s been in the news again this past few weeks as his latest recording, Love Will Come For You, an album of co-written material with Edie Brickell, was released on April 23. But it turns out that their collaboration went deeper than this one project. In the planning stages for 2014 is Bright Star, a stage musical Martin and Brickell wrote which will include a few of the songs from this new record.

The one sentence synopsis, or log line, for the play tells us…

An editor of a southern journal discover a powerful truth about her past through the eyes of a young writer.

A casting notice appeared last week at backstage.com where we first heard about the play, which indicated that it will have a bluegrass score.

Steve shared a few more details about Bright Star, saying that the casting notice is for a workshop this summer with Lukas Pool playing banjo.

“The story is set in North Carolina in 1945, and jumps back to 1922 to reveal a woman’s true past. The director will be Walter Bobbie who directed Chicago on Broadway.

We’ve got about 23 songs in it, all written on banjo with Edie doing lyrics. Not all the songs will feature banjo; a lot will have strings, a full orchestra sound.

It’s a big adventure.”

It sounds as though Martin plans on keeping the banjo strapped on tight for the immediate future.

Steve, Edie and The Steeps on Letterman

Here’s video of last night’s performance of When You Get To Asheville on The Late Show by Steve Martin, Edie Brickell, The Steep Canyon Rangers, and members of the CBS Orchestra.

The song is the opening track from Steve and Edie’s just-released album, Love Has Come For You, reviewed on Tuesday at Bluegrass Today.

Steve Martin and Edie Brickell team up on Love Has Come For You

Back in the late 1950s and early 1960s, Steve Lawrence and Eydie Gorme were household names and stars on television and in popular music. Now there’s a new Steve and Edie – Steve Martin and Edie Brickell — teaming up to make music.

Their collaboration, Love Has Come For You, was released today by Rounder Records. It isn’t bluegrass, but it has something of an old time feel. Anyone interested in Steve’s work with the Steep Canyon Rangers, his banjo picking, or the collaborative work of songwriters will find a lot to like here. Anyone who remembers Edie as a new wave pop rocker will be in for a surprise. She passes for a country girl quite nicely, thank you.

The music is stripped down to a spare, sometimes haunting, elegance. In some cases, in fact, it seems like you’re listening to a song demo instead of a finished recording. To me, those songs are the stars of the project, especially When You Get to Asheville, which opens the record, Love Has Come For You, and Yes She Did. If I was in a bluegrass band, or produced one, I’d be in the studio right now giving Asheville a full bluegrass treatment.

Other standouts include Sarah Jane and the Iron Mountain Baby, Sun’s Gonna Shine and Shawnee.

Some of the cuts are more fully produced, with percussion, expressive bass lines from emerging jazz star Esperanza Spalding, guitar work from California soft rock studio stalwart Waddy Wachtel, the two former members of Nickel Creek not named Chris Thile (Sara and Sean Watkins) and, of course, Steve’s pals in the Steeps. Add legendary producer Peter Asher (James Taylor, Linda Ronstadt, Neil Diamond and Bonnie Raitt, among others) and you probably don’t know what to expect.

In fact, after reading the Rounder press release, I thought I’d hear a fully produced, even over-produced project and I was, frankly, prepared to not like it. I’m sure some of you are feeling the same way right now, based on the previous paragraph. But I gave it a chance, and you should, too. Love Has Come For You is about as far from over-produced as you can get and still need a producer.

Steve’s banjo work is pure and straightforward, and many of his melodies are incredibly catchy. Edie’s lyrics are a comfortable blend of old time stories and modern sensibilities. They wrote all 13 songs together, though they were rarely in the same room. Most of the time, in fact, they weren’t even on the same coast. Steve would record a banjo melody and email the digital file. Soon thereafter, usually the next day, Edie would send back a work tape of her lyrics over the banjo part.

I’ve co-written songs at a distance, but in reverse of the way Steve and Edie did it, sending lyrics to have a melody added. Their way sounds difficult, at least until you hear Edie describe it.

“With most of the songs, it was so easy. I’d just hear the tune and there all these images and pictures, and all you had to do was pull the lyrics out of them.”

Steve and Edie are touring in support of the CD and it seems likely they’re continue writing together separately, since both seem overjoyed at the outcome. And, well, because to them it’s easy. And it works.

Editor’s Note: Steve and Edie are appearing on a number of television programs this week in support of the new album. Look for them tonight (4/23) on the Late Show with David Letterman, and tomorrow (4/24) on The View.