Watch Steve Martin play banjo at Paul Revere's house

• Tweet

In case you forgot, actor, writer and comedian Steve Martin is actually a quadruple threat--he plays a mean banjo.

Martin joined bluegrass band Steep Canyon Rangers at Paul Revere's historic home in Boston Tuesday for a surprise performance of Martin's song "Me and Paul Revere."

Inspired by the legend of the patriot Revere's iconic ride, Martin's song tells the tale from the point of view of Revere's horse Brown Beauty.

"We turned north through Cambridge town and on the Mystic Road, nostrils flared and galloped strong, my legs on fire below. We got up to where they slept, woke Adams and Hancock, and they said who's that? That's Larkin's horse. She's steady as a rock. Brown Beauty is my name, Brown Beauty is my name. Revere and I, one and the same. Brown Beauty is my name."

Martin and the Rangers were in Boston on their nationwide tour promoting his bluegrass album "Rare Bird Alert."

“It just occurred to me that we had this opportunity to play here at Paul Revere's house with song about Paul Revere,” Martin told WHDH-Boston.

In an interview with NPR in 2011, Martin described his respect for Revere.

"He was not only Paul Revere, silversmith. He was a rabble-rouser, too, as well as a patriot. And he was a pretty tough guy," Martin said.

Having first learned the instrument when he was 17, Martin played banjo on many of his stand-up comedy albums in the 1970s.

He also performed "Me and Paul Revere" in last year's July 4 celebrations on the National Mall in Washington, D.C.

If you're not already following Steve Martin on Twitter, do it now.