50th Anniversary Concert - Nitty Gritty Dirt Band

Our 36th anniversary gift to each other this year was concert tickets.  We have been fans of the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band nearly since their formation in 1967.  Mary has seen them in concert three times and I have seen them five times.  They put on a fun show and bridge so many musical genre from one number to the next.  They may do a straight up rock and roll song like "Baby's Got A Hold On Me" then change up to bluegrass "Foggy Mountain Breakdown", Cajun "Diggy Liggy Lo", County "Long Hard Road" and many others. 

John McEuan on banjo

They are credited with bringing an entirely new audience to bluegrass music with their 1972 album, "Will the Circle be Unbroken" that brought traditional folk, country and bluegrass musicians together with popular rock and roll acts of the time.  This concept was repeated in 1989 and 2002 with Circle II and Circle III.  In their 50 years, they had had a number of members come and go notably Jackson Browne, Bernie Leadon, Steve Martin, Bruce Kunkel and Jimmy Ibbitson.  The artists who have recorded with them is a huge list that includes some of the most recognized names in all genre of music.

NGDB front man, Jeff Hanna

This 50th Anniversary Tour, Circlin' Back, has four long time band members.   Lead guitarist, Jeff Hanna and drummer, Jimmy Fadden have been with the band for all or most of the 50 years.  John McEuen was a member near the beginning but left for a number of years before returning 15 years ago.  Keyboardist, Bob Carpenter joined 40 years ago.  The only person playing with them last night who was not a long time member was bassist Jim Photoglo who co-wrote "Fishing in the Dark" for them in the late 1980s.

John McEuan on banjo and Bob Carpenter on keyboard

The band opened with Bob Dylan's "You Aint's Goin' Nowhere" from their Circle II album which featured Roger McGuinn and Chris Hillman from the Byrds.  The show continued for two solid hours of some of their favorite songs.  The only breaks in the music were to introduce members of the band.  The band looked good, sounded good and seemed to still enjoy the music.  John McEuen is such an amazing instrumentalist playing guitar, fiddle, mandolin, lap steel and banjo.  For a bunch of 70 year old guys they were pretty darn good.
They returned for an encore of a medley of Will the Circle Be Unbroken and The Band's The Weight inviting a local gospel musician to join them on stage.  

It was great seeing the band doing so well after a half century together.  We would see them again any time.  The only negatives for the show were that the sound mix wasn't the best.  There was way too much bass and featured vocals and instrumentals weren't always brought up in time. The lighting crew didn't always respond in time.  I was a little surprised at how many covers they included in the show.  Nitty Gritty Dirt Band has so many hits so it confused me why they opened with a cover of Dylan and closed with a song by The Band.  It is true that these were popular songs from Circle II album but I would have liked to have heard more music from their many albums from the past five decades.  
We will order the DVD/CD 50th Anniversary concert from PBS that was recorded at the Ryman Auditorium and included many past members and collaborators like John Prine, Jackson Browne, Vince Gill and Allison Krauss.  
Since the only way I had to take snapshots was with my telephone, I have pulled photos in from the local newspaper.