Comedian, actor and author Steve Martin will show off his musical ability in a concert with his band, the Steep Canyon Rangers, at Ketchum’s River Run on Tuesday.

Martin brandished a banjo onstage in his early routines, but the instrument was mostly a prop for laughs. In private, however, Martin was a serious student of the banjo who first took up the instrument at age 17. He took his passion public after a collaboration with bluegrass legend Earl Scruggs in 2001.

Why the banjo?

“I’d like to think it’s because we’re Americans and the banjo is truly an American instrument, and it captures something about our past,” Martin said in a Sun Valley Center for the Arts press release, adding: “I don’t play hillbilly music.”

Martin uses an old-time mountain style of playing known as clawhammer or frailing. In this difficult five-fingered style, the instrument’s strings are pushed down by fingernails rather than pulled up with picks.

Critics have taken Martin seriously as a musician since the 2009 release of his debut bluegrass album, “The Crow: New Songs for the Five-String Banjo” (Rounder Records), which reached No. 1 on the Billboard Bluegrass Album chart and stayed there for 12 weeks, Sun Valley Center’s release said. He has toured last year and this summer with the Steep Canyon Rangers.

If you’re wondering what kind of demands Martin makes of his tour venues, visit www.stevemartin.com to read his hilarious “leaked” tour rider (and listen to a few musical tracks).

An Asheville, N.C., acoustic bluegrass quintet, the Steep Canyon Rangers were named “Emerging Artist of the Year” in 2006 at the IBMA awards ceremony in Nashville and were nominated for two International Bluegrass Music Association awards in 2008. The group has been regularly featured at the Grand Ole Opry, as well as at major U.S. festivals such as MerleFest, Telluride Bluegrass and RockyGrass.

Opening for Martin and the Steep Canyon Rangers on Tuesday is Punch Brothers, featuring mandolin player Chris Thile. The music starts at 7 p.m., and gates open at 6 p.m.

Tickets are $35 for Sun Valley Center members and $45 for others, at sunvalleycenter.org or 726-9491, ext. 10.