Steve Martin and Alison Brown are making it official, after years of trading songs and ideas, they’re putting out their first full album together. Titled Safe, Sensible and Sane, it drops October 17 through Compass Records. To kick things off, they’ve shared a new single, “Dear Time” with Jackson Browne and Jeff Hanna.

The record isn’t short on star power with names like Vince Gill, the Indigo Girls, Jason Mraz, Tim O’Brien and Della Mae all show up but the heart of it is Martin and Brown bouncing off each other, turning banjo lines and lyrics into something warm and alive. “We didn’t start out trying to make an album,” Brown said. “We were just having fun, and before we knew it, we had enough songs to tie it all together.”

“Dear Time” is a perfect example of that easy flow. With Browne taking the lead, the track plays like a conversation with time itself, funny in spots, a little bittersweet in others. Hanna’s harmonies bring it home, while the banjos weave around the voices with a kind of unforced grace. It’s simple, but it lingers.

The video was shot at the Troubadour in Los Angeles, a place loaded with history for all three musicians. Martin and Browne cut their teeth there in the ’60s, while Brown later hit the same stage as a teenage bluegrasser.

From reworked traditional tunes to bossa nova twists, the album promises to show the banjo in places you might not expect and in ways only Martin and Brown could pull off.

 Photo credit: Bonnie Tilley

Safe, Sensible, and Sane Track list

01 Friend of Mine

02 5 Days Out (feat. Tim O’Brien)

03 New Cluck Old Hen (feat. Della Mae)

04 Michael (feat. Aoife O’Donovan with Sarah Jarosz)

05 Evening Star (feat. McGoldrick/McCusker/Doyle)

06 Statement of Your Affairs (feat. Jason Mraz)

07 Dear Time (Prelude)

08 Dear Time (feat. Jackson Browne with Jeff Hanna)

09 Girl, Have Money When You’re Old (feat. Indigo Girls)

10 Bluegrass Radio

11 Wall Guitar (Since You Said Goodbye) (feat. Vince Gill)

12 Let’s Get Out of Here