The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band lives … and delivers
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The legendary Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, with most of its original personnel, will perform at the Barre Opera House on March 24. PROVIDED PHOTO |
Toolbox
By ART EDELSTEIN Arts Correspondent - Published: March 12, 2010
I'm not going to even try and hide my unabashed excitement at the prospect of seeing the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band when they come to the Barre Opera House on Wednesday, March 24, at 7:30 p.m., for a very rare Vermont appearance.
This band has been a favorite of this writer since the days when hair was worn long (and we had lots of it) when tie-dyed T-shirts were in style, and much seemed well with the world. The last time they visited Vermont was the late 1980s and they performed in Lyndonville.
Here is a band whose music spans five decades. They come from the same musical era as The Grateful Dead, The Byrds, Poco, Crosby Stills Nash and Young, and The Eagles. The Smothers Brothers were a TV phenomenon and LBJ was president and Barack Obama was a child. The Internet didn't exist, e-mail was a dream, and cell phones were something the military might have had.
The other bands excepting the Eagles are gone, LBJ is in the history books yet the NGDB is still performing. If their latest album "Speed of Life" is a reflection of where this band is today, it reveals a quartet that has plenty of life, energy and fine music left in it.
When a performer has such a long career describing it can be a long process. Highlighting this band's career takes us back to 1966 when lead singer-guitarist Jeff Hanna founded the original group in Southern California. The band's self-titled debut album in 1967 included the pop hit "Buy for Me the Rain." But it was their fifth record, 1970's "Uncle Charlie and His Dog Teddy," that would become band's breakthrough project, yielding three pop hits including their version of Jerry Jeff Walker's "Mr. Bojangles." That song recently entered the Grammy Hall of Fame.
The NGDB also released the seminal "Will the Circle Be Unbroken?" album in 1971 which paid homage to the members' traditional and country music heroes. That concept has been revisited two more times since with updated albums featuring stars of country and traditional music. "Circle" remains such a significant effort that 30 years later it was one of 50 recordings to be honored and preserved by the Library of Congress.
The NGDB has centered its sound primarily in underpinnings of acoustic country and folk music with forays into bluegrass, Nashville country music and 1950s rock 'n' roll. While they've played electric guitars and have a full drum set I've never really thought of this band as an electric band. What has distinguished them in my mind over the years is the excellent material they have chosen to record.
They are not, in general, great songwriters, and have chosen to record other writer's songs. Early on this meant songs by such stalwarts as Jackson Browne. They also have recorded a variety of country standards such as Hank Williams' "Jambalaya." In their 1980s foray into Nashville the band had a string of hits with songs like "In Her Eyes" and "Dance the Night Away" from the album "An American Dream," and "Make a Little Magic" and "Anxious Heart" from "The Dirt Band." Here's a band with a whopping 33 albums to their credit since 1967!
What distinguishes the NGDB is their vocals. Jeff Hanna has one of the best voices around. It has stood out over the years because his singing can sound folk, country, even rock and roll without ever being forced or put on. His smooth delivery moves well through each genre. The band has other lead vocalists as well and currently Hanna shares the microphone with co-founder Jimmie Fadden who moved to drums in the 1970s from guitar, and keyboard player Bob Carpenter. Longtime fans of the band will be happy to know that multi-instrumentalist John McEuen, a stalwart on banjo, mandolin, and fiddle is with the band although another longtime member Jim Ibbotsen has departed.
With so many albums' worth of material to perform the band could spend the concert just doing its past hits and there are many, including the ones mentioned previously. I'm sure they're doing concerts in support of this recent album, but diehard fans will want to hear a hefty helping of early NGDB material. It could be a long and memorable concert of songs that take us down the memory lane that is this band's career and the musical heritage of those earlier baby boomer days.