Steve has Emmy nomination for acting


Steve has been nominated for an Emmy as the Best Guest Actor in a Comedy Series for his episode of 30 Rock. These are for the 61st annual Primetime Emmy Awards for 2008. The awards will be presented in September, 2009.
- posted by sookeyjane 7/17/2009 02:08:00 PM PERMALINK 0 COMMENTS

 

John McEuen on Steve's Crow Album


http://www.pacificsun.com/news/show_story.php?id=909
Marin, California
Uploaded: Monday, June 29, 2009, 2:31 PM

Music: Nitty Gritty, wild and crazy...
Dirt Band founder teams with banjo-humorist for unlikely career resurgence...

by Greg Cahill

When Steve Martin decided to stop using his banjo as a prop in his comedy act--usually accompanied by an arrow through his head--he called his old friend John McEuen, the leader of the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, for assistance. The two had met as teens working at Disneyland and shared a love for the sometimes disparaged instrument. Martin went on to become a comedy writer (for the Smothers Brothers and other TV acts) before turning to stand-up comedy and the big screen. McEuen--whose brother William served as Martin's manager for many years--became an influential pop and country musician.

Last spring, Martin contacted McEuen to say he'd written and recorded a few original tunes for the five-string banjo. McEuen listened to the results, which Martin had recorded crudely on a PC, and added a few professional touches.

"Steve was amazed at the results," McEuen recalls. "He called me three times in a single day to discuss the project--I waited to respond because I was savoring his messages that he never knew anyone could make his music sound so good."

McEuen signed on as the album's producer.

"If I had any influence," he says, "it was that I suggested that he record his own music instead of the bluegrass standards he was considering."

He also brought in Dolly Parton, Vince Gill and other country music stars.

The result is Martin's new CD, The Crow: New Songs for Five-String Banjo (Rounder), which is selling, well, if not like hotcakes, then better than your average banjo album.

"How often do you get to make a banjo album with a big movie budget?" he says with a laugh.

Thanks to Martin's star power, McEuen and his banjo-pickin' pal even landed last month on the coveted American Idol finale.

For Martin, The Crow marks his first foray into the legitimate world of bluegrass. McEuen is an old hand at this sort of thing.

In 1966, he formed the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band with the intention of fusing traditional acoustical instrumentation with songs that could air on Top 40 radio.

"I got to do it a few times," he says.

The band scored crossover hits with "Mr. Bojangles" and later "House at Pooh Corner." In 1972, the band recorded the classic album Will the Circle Be Unbroken, featuring such bluegrass and country legends as Doc Watson, Maybelle Carter, Roy Acuff and Earl Scruggs. The album introduced a new generation to roots Americana.

McEuen left the band in 1987, for undisclosed reasons. He built a successful solo career and returned to the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band in 2001 to re-master the 30th anniversary edition of Will the Circle Be Unbroken, which has remained on the country charts for decades. "Some people call it the Dark Side of the Moon of country albums," says McEuen, referring to Pink Floyd's long-charting 1972 rock album. "It's the album that won't go away--just like the group."

Indeed, the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band has gone on to score 18 Top 10 country hits.

"The Dirt Band continues because the guys in the group appreciate having a chance to play the legacy of the band," McEuen says. "That's partly because nobody in the band wanted another job. Maybe it's persistence.

"Ultimately, our success is the result of the audience wanting us to be successful."

A new album, The Speed of Life, is due later this summer.

"I think it's the best thing we've done," McEuen concludes. "We're not the best band in the world, but we are the best version of what we do."
- posted by sookeyjane 7/01/2009 05:53:00 PM PERMALINK 0 COMMENTS

 

Steve filming in NY


http://www.lohud.com/article/20090626/NEWS02/906260396/1018/NEWS02

(New York's Lower Hudson Valley)
Streep, Baldwin, Martin movie shoot will close Hastings' Main Street
June 26, 2009

HASTINGS-ON-HUDSON - Part of Main Street will be closed later today and overnight for filming of a movie starring Meryl Streep, Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin.

The movie is untitled.

The closing affect Warburton Avenue to Broadway and the Boulanger Plaza parking lot. They will be closed from 4 p.m. today until 7 a.m. tomorrow Stores and restaurants will remain open. Parking is available at the Steinschneider Plaza lot, the post office lot and along Warburton Avenue.

=============

On a totally personal note, I loathe Alec Baldwin and have made it a practice to see absolutely nothing he is in, even if I think I would otherwise like it. The only exceptions I have made to this rule in years is where he appears with Steve. And now a movie -- what to do, what to do.
- posted by sookeyjane 7/01/2009 05:50:00 PM PERMALINK 1 COMMENTS

 

Steve jokes a bit about Michael Jackson


http://www.nydailynews.com/gossip/2009/06/28/2009-06-28_much_ado_about_michael_jackson_at_the_park.html

Rush & Molloy
Much ado about Michael Jackson at the park
Sunday, June 28th 2009, 10:20 PM


Even Shakespeare was upstaged by Michael Jackson at the Public Theater’s opening-night performance of “Twelfth Night.”

Nora Ephron, Liev Schreiber, Chelsea Clinton, Jane Krakowski and Amanda Peet had come to Central Park’s Delacorte Theater to see Anne Hathaway do her cross-dressing turn as Viola. But all conversation turned to the King of Pop when ABC News’ Diane Sawyer arrived with fresh news of Jacko’s passing.

“I was a writer on ‘The Smothers Brothers Show’ when he sang ‘Ben,’ ” Steve Martin recalled. “He sang so beautifully. I remember saying, ‘Who is this guy?’ ”

Still, Martin couldn’t resist whispering to tittering tablemates that Jackson’s death was untimely because “he had just one more round of plastic surgery to go!”

Martin Short told us solemnly that Jackson was a “huge talent.”

“That’s not what you said to me!” interjected Martin.

“Well, it’s what I thought!” snapped Short.

Director Mike Nichols recalled once trooping to Jackson’s Helmsley Palace suite with studio head David Geffen and “SNL” producer Lorne Michaels.

“We had an idea for him,” said Nichols, who was honored by the Public along with entertainment exec Susan Lyne. “David suggested I tell Michael the idea, but I couldn’t remember. So I asked Lorne and he couldn’t remember it. Michael said to us, ‘Am I on ‘Candid Camera’?”
- posted by sookeyjane 7/01/2009 05:49:00 PM PERMALINK 0 COMMENTS