Steve Martin extends his prolific creative legacy with his and frequent collaborator Alison Brown’s new album, Safe, Sensible and Sane. The project debuts at No. 1 on Billboard’s Top Bluegrass Albums chart (dated Nov. 1) with 2,000 equivalent album units earned in the United States Oct. 17–23, according to Luminate.
The set, on Compass Records, marks Martin’s seventh leader on the list in as many visits, five of which have opened at No. 1. Featuring collaborations with Jackson Browne, Vince Gill and Jason Mraz, among others, the album is Brown’s second to top the chart.
Once viewed as a sideline to his film and comedy career, Martin’s music has instead become a defining pillar. Since his 2009 debut, The Crow: New Songs for the Five-String Banjo — itself a 31-week No. 1 — the creative polymath has logged 84 weeks at the summit of Bluegrass Albums, the most among male soloists. Four of those leaders reached the top 10 on Americana/Folk Albums, while five have made appearances on the all-genre Billboard 200.
But chart success is nothing new for Martin. Long before his banjo ever hit the charts, his comedy albums were already fixtures, helping define a golden era of recorded stand-up. Between 1977 and 1981, he placed four comedy albums on the Billboard 200, including two top 10s, highlighted by A Wild and Crazy Guy, which reached No. 2 in 1978. Selections from those albums, “King Tut,” “Grandmother’s Song” and “Cruel Shoes,” even cracked the Billboard Hot 100, with “King Tut” dancing to No. 17.
Martin’s momentum only grew when the stage gave way to the screen. At the height of the home-video rental boom, he logged 22 top 10s, including five No. 1s, between 1984 and 2009 on Billboard’s since-discontinued Video Rentals chart. Among those titles: enduring favorites such as Roxanne, Planes, Trains and Automobiles, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels and Father of the Bride, movies that helped cement his reputation as one of entertainment’s most versatile storytellers.
After all these years, Martin seems to be enjoying the spotlight as much as ever. He’s still out on the road on a comedy tour with Martin Short — his co-star, along with Selena Gomez, among others, on Hulu’s Only Murders in the Building (which he co-created) — and recently co-hosted the 2025 IBMA Awards in Chattanooga, Tenn., with Brown.
Safe, Sensible and Sane adds another win to a career built on timing, curiosity and the kind of joy that keeps audiences coming back, no matter the stage.