News
Old Town Road
- Released
- October 8, 2026
- Style
- Progressive Bluegrass
- Record label
- Compass Records
- Year
- 2026
- Featured
- Del McCoury & Dan Tyminski
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About the Song
Banjoists Steve Martin and Alison Brown continue their musical collaboration with a bluegrass reimagining of Lil Nas X’s smash hit “Old Town Road.” The new single features bluegrass legends Del McCoury and Dan Tyminski, alongside Ronnie McCoury on mandolin, Stuart Duncan on fiddle, and Garry West on bass.
Martin brings his signature humor to the track, writing new, “grass-ified” lyrics that trade the original’s country-trap influences for a banjo-forward bluegrass romp.
“I’ve always loved the idea of ‘Old Town Road’ as seen through bluegrass eyes,” Martin says. Brown embraced the idea but faced a musical challenge: “It’s such a well-known song that my challenge was to come up with an arrangement that would showcase our banjos without giving the song away too soon.”
“Fortunately, some of the best bluegrass musicians in the world agreed to join us, and here we are, ready to ride,” Martin adds.
The result is more than just a cover, delivering an unexpected and thoroughly entertaining ride that feels surprisingly at home on the old bluegrass road. It’s another inventive chapter in Martin and Brown’s ongoing exploration of the musical possibilities of the banjo, bringing together Martin’s irreverent wit and musicality, Brown’s distinctive banjo artistry, and an all-star cast of bluegrass greats.
Credits
- Songwriter
- Montero Lamar, Trent Reznor, Atticus Matthew Ross, Kiowa Roukema
- Lead Vocals
- Dan Tyminski, Del McCoury, Steve Martin
- Harmony Vocals
- Ronnie McCoury
- Harmony Vocals
- Steve Martin
- Harmony Vocals
- Stuart Duncan
- Dan Tyminski
- Guitar
- Steve Martin
- Banjo (left side)
- Alison Brown
- Banjo (right side), cello banjo
- Stuart Duncan
- Fiddle
- Ronnie McCoury
- Mandolin
- Garry West
- Bass
Alison Brown
GRAMMY Award winning banjoist.
Alison took an unusual path to becoming an internationally recognized banjoist. After completing her undergraduate studies at Harvard University and receiving an MBA from UCLA, she pursued a career in investment banking. But she missed the bluegrass music she’d grown up playing in Southern California so much that when Alison Krauss called looking for a banjo player, she made the decision to give up her Wall Street career to pursue music. She toured with Alison Krauss and Union Station, and Michelle Shocked before forming her own group, The Alison Brown Quartet, in 1993.
Since that time, Alison and her band have been winning over traditionalists and mainstream music fans alike with her unique style. They have toured extensively throughout the US and abroad with stops at some of music’s most prestigious venues including The Kennedy Center, Newport Folk Festival, Telluride Bluegrass Festival, MerleFest, New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, Philadelphia Folk Festival, FreshGrass, The Cambridge Folk Festival (England), Celtic Connections (Scotland), Dublin National Concert Hall (Ireland), Galway Arts Festival (Ireland) and Verbier Music Festival (Switzerland). The band has also traveled to Central and South America at the invitation of the US Information Agency and to Japan as Friendship Ambassadors on behalf of the Nashville Mayor’s office to celebrate a new sister city relationship between Kamakura, Japan and Music City.
Alison has recorded 12 critically-acclaimed solo albums, received a GRAMMY and multiple GRAMMY- nominations. She has also received the USA Artists Fellowship in Music and a Distinguished Achievement Award from the International Bluegrass Music Association. Alison has been featured on CBS Sunday Morning, NPR’s All Things Considered and in the pages of the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times among many other publications.
Alison is also the co-founder of the internationally recognized roots music label Compass Records Group which Billboard Magazine has called “one of the greatest independent labels of the last decade.” Compass Records Group oversees a catalog of nearly 1,000 releases across multiple label imprints, including Red House Records, Green Linnet and Mulligan Records. Alison currently serves on the Board of the Nashville Chapter of the Recording Academy, on the adjunct faculty of Vanderbilt’s Blair School of Music and as co-chair of the Steve Martin Banjo Prize.