The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band dug up some 1970s gold & Roots for its audience at The Egg in Albany, Sunday, April 19.
After a 60-year run that has morphed from long-haired, “cosmic cowboy” beginnings in Long Beach, CA, to stints in Colorado and Nashville, the eclectic band has emerged as an icon of Country Rock, Bluegrass and American Roots. It has changed band members, genres, instrumentation and even its name along the way, produced 25 studio albums (two of which went Top 10), landed three Grammys, three Top 40 singles including “Fishin’ in the Dark” and “Mr. Bojangles” and recruited big Industry names to participate in three versions of “Will the Circle Be Unbroken” between 1989 and 2002.
Those favorites were featured in a lively, hit-studded lineup Sunday night along with a few Bob Dylan covers to pay homage to the band’s Dirt Does Dylan album, as well as Rodney Crowell’s “Long, Hard Road,’’ which was based on Crowell’s parents’ sharecropping stories, and became the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band’s first Billboard No. 1 hit in the 1980s.
“It took us 20 years [to get that honor],” lead singer/guitarist Jeff Hanna quipped Sunday night with characteristic humility and humor.
Hanna started the band in 1966 with Jeff Kunkel after performing in The New Coast Two and Illegitimate Jug Band. In 1967, the duo added Les Thompson, Jimmie Fadden and (briefly) Jackson Browne, then firmed up the band’s blue-grass direction with John McEuen before Jimmie Ibbotson joined in 1972. Hanna still has a strong voice and spry body at 79 and appears to enjoy rockin’ Roots music with a band that is now 50 percent blood family and the rest long-time participants, except for the extremely talented and multi-instrumental Ross Holmes.
Holmes, whose credits include playing with Bruce Hornsby and Mumford & Sons, joined the Dirt Band eight years ago per Hanna, and was showcased on fiddle and mandolin Sunday. His talent is truly an amazing addition.
Also relatively new to the pack– and very talented– is Jeff Hanna’s son, Jaime Hanna, who did vocals, played a mean Stratocaster guitar and even took a turn at the drums while his uncle, almost-charter band member Jimmie Fadden, climbed down from the drum pit to sing the fantasy “Fish Song” mid-set.
“Jimmie wrote that song way back in the 1970s, so we have no idea what it was about,” Jeff Hanna joked, perhaps referring to the lifestyle of the times, as well as the surreal imagery of the lyrics: “Sat here by this stony brook until the gray day turned to dust, when up swam a fish with a children’s book, thought that I was lost” and …”While I slept in children’s dreams, the fish ran away with the moon…”
Fadden, who sounds a bit like Willie Nelson and, with the Dirt Band, joined Nelson, John Mellencamp and others for Farm Aid in 1985, also wrote “Workin’ Man” which followed “Fish Song” and a fast-strummed blue–grass classic, “Take Me in Your Lifeboat” Sunday night at the Egg.
Fadden played harmonica and drums simultaneously for that one and did harmonica interludes for several other numbers, too, including “Mr. Bojangles,” the Jerry Jeff Walker tune Jeff Hanna described as being on a “scratched up 45” when the band was introduced to it during a career lull in the late 60s or early 1970s. It went on to be a Top 40 hit on their commercial hit album, Uncle Charlie and His Dog Teddy, in 1972.
“I’m so glad he [Walker]wrote that song because it became ‘our song’,” Hanna said.
The tune also provided an opportunity for longtime band member Bob Carpenter (known as the “new guy” for many years) to take a break from keyboards and contribute accordion interludes.
Following “Mr. Bojangles,” to which the audience happily contributed the choruses, the house lights briefly went up for Jaime Hanna to make a heartfelt tribute to his father and the Dirt Band in keeping with the title of their tour: “All the Good Times Farewell Tour, 60 Years of Dirt.”
“My dad started this band in 1966 in Long Beach,” Jaime Hanna said. “Through all the years and all the genres…then asking me to play with this band, it’s been an honor. I grew up on this stuff.”
The tribute opened the door for several musical tete a tetes between father and son during Sunday night’s show, including a moment in the Jimmy Ibbotson tune, “Rippling Waters” where the older and younger Hannas faced each other and jammed as the pacing and intensity picked up from an easy-going country-western tempo in the song’s first verses.
Fadden got his turn at an intimate duet with his brother moments later after the band left the stage for a lengthy instrumental prelude to “Fishin’ in the Dark.” On harmonica, Fadden made what could be described as locomotive sounds that drawled into blues before Jeff Hanna communed with him on electric guitar.
Chugging sounds on the harmonica brought the rest of the band on board for a full-bodied rendition of the hit “Fishin’ in the Dark.” Jaime and Jeff Hanna and Holmes all sang vocals against a rich mélange of instrumentation.
“How’d you like to meet the man who wrote that song?” Jeff Hanna baited the audience. “He’s been standing there playing that electric bass all night: Jimmy Photoglo!”
Photoglo, whose credits include touring with Carole King, Dan Fogelberg and Vince Gill, did indeed stand unsung behind Hanna and significant sound equipment, for the entire concert until the curtain calls. He smiled widely at the shoutout.
The Dirt Band took a lighthearted veer with a “Coconut Grovel” cover, energizing the audience with overhead hand clapping, then launched into their last two numbers, saving, in my opinion, some of their best performing for last.
“Bayou Jubilee” was joyous but intense, to say the least, especially for Holmes, who had alternated between mandolin and fiddle for the whole show. His fiddle solo in the jubilee, however, reached a new level, gfraduating from sliding Cajun to fast strikes that reminded me of Gypsy or even bold Hungarian, Slavic or Russian rhythms before settling back to the bayou. The audience went wild, giving Holmes a partial standing ovation and loud applause.
As the last number, Bruce Springsteen’s “Cadillac Ranch” provided humor and foot-tapping rock n’ roll a la The Boss and featured instrumental solos on everything from keyboards and guitar to Jaime Hanna’s cheeks!
You read that right: his CHEEKS! The younger Hanna, open-mouthed, slapped his cheeks to produce popping sounds and clowned, pointing in the air, in between. The audience loved it –and the diverse, full sound of the whole number.
Meels, the warm-up act that preceded the Dirt Band with about 40 minutes of delightful country rock/folk, was much in the Dirt vein, and Jeff Hanna closed the main set with grateful comments to the opener.
“This is our last show [with Meels], maybe not forever, but we’re so glad to have traveled with Meels and Craig Jackson (Meels’ partner on guitar and vocal harmony),” he said.
“The Dirt band is on our adios tour,” he added.”So thank you for buying our records…our cassettes– and our eight-tracks!” The audience recognized the humor and laughed in response.
Meels, who brings sweetness (but power) and a bit of a yodel to her vocals, sounding here and there like Dolly Parton, joined the Dirt Band along with Jackson for a medley that segued from the award-winning “Will the Circle Be Unbroken” to a cover of The Bands’ “The Weight” and back to a bold chorus of The Circle.
Meels belted out her parts, dancing a little in between and contributing to the rich harmonies, especially at the end of the song.
In the curtain call, the band members didn’t lose their down-home appeal, waving between bows. I, for one, hope this isn’t their true adios tour. As they said in the 70s, boys, “Keep on truckin’.”
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