The banjo has been getting more visibility in recent years, thanks to eclectic players like Béla Fleck and Tony Trischka. The five-string version is still much associated with bluegrass, but the instrument has found its way into a wider array of settings. Still, usually one banjo is enough. It’s not often one has two banjo players sharing an album, though in typically iconoclastic fashion, Béla Fleck appeared with his banjo-playing wife Abigail Washburn on a pair of albums.

This week we have another two-banjo recording, though the banjos are not always the focus. It’s by Alison Brown and Steve Martin, and it’s called Safe, Sensible and Sane.

Alison Brown is a long-time luminary in the bluegrass world. In 1991, she won the International Bluegrass Music Association banjo player of the year award, the first woman to achieve that honor. She and her husband Garry West founded Compass Records in Nashville in 1995, and it has become a notable independent label, home of folk and bluegrass artists. Ms. Brown has released 12 albums under her own name, ranging from straight bluegrass to jazz. Steve Martin, of course, is the comedian, actor, and writer, but also a very respectable banjo player. He has been using the banjo in his comic routines going back decades. But in the intervening years, he has become a serious player, recording and touring with the bluegrass band the Steep Canyon Rangers. And he won a Grammy Award for best Bluegrass Album.

Martin and Brown met when both were vacationing in the Caribbean. She had brought her banjo and they began to play together, and over the years have collaborated on writing songs, and releasing a series of singles. The new album is their first full-length joint recording, and they attracted a number of notable guest vocalists, including Tim O’ Brien, the Indigo Girls, Vince Gill, Jackson Browne, Jeff Hanna from the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, Aoife O’Donovan, and Jason Mraz. Most of the album consists of original compositions with the music by Ms. Brown and the lyrics by Martin, though there are also three instrumental tracks. Unfortunately, the supporting musicians are not listen in the digital version of the album, but the instrumentation ranges from a banjo duet, to some more produced material with drums and keyboards. The mood of the album is lighthearted, though Martin did resist the temptation to create comedy lyrics, as he has done in the past, when he does bluegrass.

Opening is a short banjo duo called Friend of Mine that shows how well Brown and Martin play together. <<>>

Tim O’Brien makes his appearance on a song called 5 Days Out 2 Days Back, about the life of a touring musician trying to balance career with raising a young daughter at home. The daughter eventually develops an interest in playing music herself. <<>>

Brown and Martin do the traditional song Cluck Old Hen. They are joined by the all-woman bluegrass band Della Mae. Martin writes that he felt the lyrics were somewhat misogynistic, so Ms. Brown thought it would be a good idea to create an answer section, which Martin penned, and which was sung by the members of Della Mae. <<>>

As a stylistic contrast to that is the almost jazzy song called Michael, sung by Aoife O’Donovan, with harmonies from Sarah Jarosz. <<>>

Another of the instrumentals is Evening Star with Irish musicians Michael McGoldrick, John McSherry & John Doyle. It’s very a very pretty arrangement, adding a further facet to this well-rounded album. <<>>

Jackson Brown appears on a song called Dear Time which considers the passage of time and one’s advancing age. Martin wrote it shortly before turning 80. Also appearing is Jeff Hanna of the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band. <<>>

The Indigo Girls appear on a more traditional-sounding song called Girl Have Money When You’re Old with the lyrics are also written from the standpoint of a woman. <<>>

Wall Guitar is a sad song about a breakup, with the vocal by Vince Gill, and another all-around nicely done track. <<>>

Safe Sensible and Sane the new joint release by banjo players and composers Alison Brown and Steve Martin is a genuinely nice album, with excellent songwriting, playing, and an impressive guest list, who apply their strengths to the songs on which they appear. Steve Martin sets aside his legendary comedic talents for an album that is musically serious, but positive and generally uplifting in mood and sound. His lyrics are articulate and the material is good enough that many of these songs could be recorded by others. <<>>

Our grade for audio quality is close to an “A” with a clean, warm sound all around on the acoustic instruments.

With banjos more in the spotlight, a two-banjo recording is still a bit of an anomaly. It’s also may also be a bit of a surprise to many who know Steve Martin’s comedic side, to hear him, at age 80, doing such great work on the banjo in such a symbiotic musical relationship with the versatile Alison Brown. You don’t have to be a bluegrass fan to enjoy this album.