Steve Martin and Alison Brown Give 'Old Town Road' a Bluegrass Rewrite
Steve Martin and Alison Brown have turned Lil Nas X's "Old Town Road" into a full bluegrass recording, with Del McCoury and Dan Tyminski sharing lead vocals. Billboard reported the collaboration on 8 October 2026. McCoury was 87 when it was recorded.
The band around them is drawn from the genre's working core. Ronnie McCoury plays mandolin, Stuart Duncan plays fiddle and Garry West plays bass, with banjos driving the arrangement. Bluegrass here means acoustic string-band music built around banjo, fiddle, mandolin and bass. Martin wrote new lyrics with a bluegrass lean, replacing the original's country-trap sound with acoustic strings.
Martin said he always loved the idea of "Old Town Road" as seen through bluegrass eyes. Brown said her task was to create an arrangement that showcased the banjos without giving the song away too soon.
The original still looms large. Lil Nas X's 2019 version with Billy Ray Cyrus spent 19 weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100, the chart that ranks the most popular songs in the United States. Country-trap, the mix of country songwriting and hip-hop drums heard on that recording, is gone in the new cut. The tune stays recognisable, but everything around it has been rebuilt.
Martin and Brown arrived at the project after working together on the 2025 album Safe, Sensible and Sane. That record included collaborations with Jackson Browne, Indigo Girls and Vince Gill, and earned seven nominations at the 2025 International Bluegrass Music Association Awards, the genre's main annual prizes. The pair are also featured in the American Currents exhibit at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum in Nashville, which tracks recent turns in country and roots music.
Their bluegrass credentials run deep. Brown was named banjo player of the year in 1991, the first woman musician to win an instrumentalist of the year honour from the association, which organises the awards. Martin was named entertainer of the year in 2011, and both have since received its distinguished achievement award. Martin and Brown were also announced as co-hosts of the 2025 IBMA Bluegrass Awards Billboard, where they were billed for two performances on the show Billboard.
What makes this stand out is the restraint. The singing from McCoury and Tyminski comes first while the banjos wait, then step forward. For listeners who know the hit only from radio, this means hearing how its shape fits fiddle, mandolin and bass without losing its outline.
