The Grammy Award winning group Nitty Gritty Dirt Band performed at Watertown’s Riverfest last night. This is one of my all-time favorite groups. I have been a fan ever since I heard their song “Buy for Me the Rain” way back in 1974.
The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band started out in California but they quickly centered their activities around Nashville and began exploring their Country roots with songs like “Mr. Bojangles”, “Fishin’ in the Dark,” and “Bless the Broken Road”.
Rascal Flats had a huge hit with that last song but the song was actually written a few years earlier by Dirters Jeff Hannah (guitar) and Bob Carpenter (keyboards). The other members of the current NGDB lineup are Jimmie McFadden (drums, harmonica) and John McEuen (mandolin, banjo, lap-steel guitar).
SPACER
In addition to their own songs, the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band has done all music lovers a great service by putting together three priceless compilations: Will The Circle be Unbroken.
Growing out of their love of Bluegrass and traditional Country music, Jeff Hannah and the band wanted to honor and preserve performances by the many older Bluegrass performers who were quickly passing from the music scene.
The first Circle appeared in 1972 and was followed by two other compilations in 1989 and 2002. If you want to hear some great pickin’ and a bit of America’s musical history, I can’t recommend strongly enough that you check out all three of these Grammy Award-winning albums.
