Steve Martin and Alison Brown have given Lil Nas X's 'Old Town Road' a bluegrass makeover, releasing the cover on Thursday with an all-star lineup of genre veterans. The recording features Del McCoury and Dan Tyminski on vocals, Ronnie McCoury on mandolin and harmonies, Stuart Duncan on fiddle, and Garry West, Brown's husband, on bass. The result layers Martin's comic sensibility over what's described as a high, lonesome, multiple-banjo sound.
Martin and Brown spoke with Variety via Zoom on the eve of the song's release, with Martin stepping away from looping and Brown taking a break from banjo camp to discuss the project. It marks their first joint recording since last year's collaborative album 'Safe, Sensible and Sane,' which included guests such as Jackson Browne.
The pair's next collaboration will appear on 'Where the Soul Never Dies: Celebrating 80 Years of the Stanley Brothers,' a tribute album due out Oct. 16 on Brown's label, Compass Records. Martin and Brown's contribution is an updated version of 'How Far to Little Rock,' also featuring Ed Helms. Brown described the original as a 'kinda cornpone routine that the Stanley Brothers would do,' adding that their version arrives 'with some really excellent twists,' in a similar vein to the comic lyrics Martin added to 'Old Town Road.'
The Stanley Brothers tribute album also includes a contribution Brown solicited from the late Dolly Parton, along with appearances from Billy Strings, Rhiannon Giddens, Willie Nelson, Sierra Ferrell and others.
Photo: Peabody Awards, CC BY 2.0, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
