Edie Brickell and Steve Martin at the Apple Store (Soho)

Tonight, thanks to the good eye of my dear friend Punjabi Tuba, I was able to catch second row seats to a free chat + salon concert from Edie Brickell and Steve Martin at the Soho Apple Store. The duo is promoting its first collaborative album, Love Has Come For You (Rounder Records).

My, are they easy to watch on stage. So relaxed, so comfortable, so inviting. Naturally — because, have-you-met-me? — I asked them about the process of making the album and Steve was kind enough to give me a thorough answer. Get this:

1. Steve conjured all of the music first with his banjo and sent Edie recordings by iPhone. Unusual.
2. Edie put lyrics and stories on top of the changes, recorded the results with Garage Band, sent them back to Steve.
3. When they had thirteen songs, they brought those rough "iPhone demos" to producer Peter Asher, who took care of the rest: corralling Esperanza Spalding, Waddy Wachtel, Sara and Sean Watkins, and the Steep Canyon Rangers to flesh out the arrangements.
4. None of this music was ever written down.

Steve Martin said that he spent the first half of his career in turmoil but when he finally accepted that his creativity wasn't going to go away he was able to enjoy it.

Edie added her own two cents: "When the images come just trust them and put them into words and sing." Easy.