The Jerk, The Man With Two Brains, All of Me, Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid, Three Amigos, Little Shop of Horrors, Roxanne, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, Parenthood, L.A. Story, The Spanish Prisoner, Bowfinger... These are but a few of the reasons why we worship Steve Martin.

So it was pretty wild and crazy to pick up the phone and hear Mr. Martin's voice on the other end of the line.

The occasion? Today marks the release of his very first album solely dedicated to music, The Crow: New Songs for the Five-String Banjo.      

Of course, throughout his stand-up career in the Seventies, when he was playing arenas, the banjo was always a stage prop for Martin. His 1981 comedy album, The Steve Martin Brothers, even included some of his own compositions on banjo. But around that time Martin quit doing stand-up, and his banjo skills started to suffer.

"I just played it at home," he says. "In the mid-Eighties I played a song called 'Clawhammer Medley' in a movie called Simple Twist of Fate, which was not a hit. So I was still up to speed." Then his banjoes began collecting dust, until Bluegrass legend Earl Scruggs asked Martin to play on his 2002 album, Earl Scruggs and Friends. "I told him, 'I'm not sure, I'm a little rusty,'" says Martin. "At that point I got into it  again." And Martin would join a handful of pickers on the Scruggs tune, "Foggy Mountain Breakdown," which would go on to win a Grammy for Best Country Instrumental Performance. 

"I sit there and look at that Grammy and I'm going, 'This is a fluke,'" says Martin. "The Grammy actually says, 'Best Country Instrumentalist.' I like to have it out when musicians come over."

Finally, with the encouragement and participation of banjo legends like Scruggs, Tony Trishcka, John McEuen and Pete Wernick, Martin has compiled an album of his own compositions, some of which date back to the late Sixties. (Vince Gill, Dolly Parton and the great Tim O'Brien contribute some vocals, as well.) "It was because of a lack of formal instruction that I started writing my own songs," he says. "The others were written in the last four or five years."

Martin will host SNL this weekend, where he'll perform "Late For School," the only track on The Crow that features his very own vocals. "I'm going to sing," he says. "First time since 'King Tut!'"

Enjoy our favorite cut from the album, "Freddie's Lilt," below.