It’s been fifty-plus years since John McEuen basically “replaced” Jackson Browne in the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band and the NGDB started crafting their indelible folk country rock sound, most famously (yet perhaps not as authentically) represented by their biggest hit, a cover of Jerry Jeff Walker‘s “Mr. Bojangles.”
But these days, McEuen is back on the road with some of his old NGDB bandmates along with a couple stellar musical cronies, playing a swirling, panoramic swath of his band’s and his own tunes from his exceptional half century of folk musical prowess. So as he goes from city to city, awash in the joy this part of his life brings, just what makes McEuen the happiest these days?
“Getting that second encore,” the affable and enthusiastic McEuen said chuckling, all as his John McEuen and the String Wizards Present: Will The Circle Be Unbroken tour ramps up, stopping at the Hamilton in DC on June 1st. “I mean, you figure people are gonna give you one encore if they paid $30-$40 to see you, they always want one more song. But it’s the second one, that is what really counts.”
Amazing that a half century ago, the original NGDB began, and now some of them are back playing together again. It’s surely not an automatic occurrence in the world of bands that a reunion of sorts ever happens, especially after all that time has passed, and people have drifted in and out of the band, including McEuen, and in and out of friendships. But for McEuen and his longtime cohorts, time is on their side and the String Wizards are doing it up live with a camraderie that goes back decades.
“In 1966, Les Thompson called me and said, ‘Hey, the guys at the music store are getting together. You want to come pick with us?’ ” said McEuen, now 73. “I was 20 years old, and he was only 16 or 17. And I did, and that lasted 50 years. But he drifted away about 10-12 years into it, so I called him up a couple years ago and said, ‘Hey, Les, some guys are getting together with me, you want to come play?’ And he did, so it’s just wonderful. He has had a rebirth and it’s great having him on stage. And then John Cable played with us in the 70s and is just one of the nicest guys I’ve ever played with. And I called him up and said, ‘Hey, why don’t we go do some dates because I’m putting this show together.’ And here we are.”
The String Wizards’ shows are actually somewhat of a folk music multimedia event, with images of the past compiled by McEuen melding with his stories to create a nostalgic atmosphere combined with some darn good folk music banged out by a bunch of virtuostic players, including McEuen, Thompson, Cable and guitarist Matt Cartsonis, all there to help celebrate the 50th anniversary of the legendary Will The Circle Be Unbroken record.
“I learned how to edit Final Cut Pro and put this (video) together that involves a lot of the footage of the early Dirt Band, it’s what goes on behind us while we’re playing. And when the video is running, we play to it. If it’s properly done, the video portion draws people into the time period and the sessions, it’s just so much fun. But the video, the multimedia aspect, is not the whole show, it’s about two thirds of it, and the rest, we draw off Made in Brooklyn, which is an album I put out last year, and it won the Best Americana Award from the Independent Music Association.”
McEuen has continued to thrive in this musical life he has chosen whether he is playing with his NGDB bandmates or not, collaborating over the years with the likes of Leon Russell, Bill Wyman, Dolly Parton, Johnny Cash and many more. And most recently, he hit a new high with his appearance in Ken Burns‘ yet-to-be-released documentary on country music.
“It starts broadcasting this fall, on September 15th. It’s an eight part miniseries, and I’m in three of the sections. There’s a big section, what is called episode 6, where there’s an extensive part delving into the Will The Circle Be Unbroken album. And I’ve licensed, I’ve given Ken pictures and do a lot of the narration for that.”
Another highly unique facet of McEuen’s extraordinary life is his longtime friendship with comedian Steve Martin, one that began in their youth and continued as both men found their highly successful respective entertainment niches. In fact, McEuen’s brother managed both Martin and the NGDB, and in the 70’s, Martin used to do his comedy act warming up the NGDB’s gigs.
“I started at 15 years old wanting to be a magician, and Steve Martin and I were both just dying to get a job in the Disneyland Magic Shop. So when we were high school seniors, we got our job at Disneyland. I worked an average of 60 hours a week, one week I did 92 hours. But I always believed in him, I believed in him more and more as he started writing new stuff and got away from the magic shop jokes. But I mean, his ‘arrow in the head’ schtick came from that magic shop. And the bunny ears he started using. You stand there with an arrow in your head doing the tricks and people will look at you and say, ‘What’s that?’ and you go, ‘What? What’s what?’ You know, the point was you tried to keep a straight face as much as you could. And that was great training grounds for him.”
And it’s no accident that when Martin decided to jump into the world of bluegrass, one that he would eventually thrive at, that he would consult his old friend and folk maven McEuen for what turned out to be award-winning counsel.
“(Steve) sent me 10 cuts that he’d recorded on his computer and said, ‘What do you think of these?’ It was just his banjo, so I took them and put them in my Pro Tools and overdubbed a bunch of chords and arrangements and moved things around, I put in a different solo, or I took a one minute banjo piece and made it two and a half. I sent it back to him, and my phone exploded. For two days, he was sending me messages like, ‘I didn’t know this was my music,’ and I said, ‘Well you just hadn’t heard the chords that you’re playing behind them.’ As insecure as some of his characters have been, he was even more insecure with his music. He’d say, ‘I don’t know if this is any good, I don’t know if anybody would like this, I don’t know if it’s too long or short…” I said ‘Steve, go ahead and just do it.’ So he was looking at some other production people for his album, and I said, “Steve, I know you. In your head, you like ‘Appalachian Spring’ by Copeland, The Music Man original soundtrack, Disney, and Ralph Stanley and Earl. I’m the one guy that can put your album together with all those sensibilities.’ He goes, ‘Yeah, I think you’re right.’ And it led to making The Crow album, and we won a Grammy.”
It’s still a wonder and a joy to McEuen that even though so much time has passed, and with he and his bandmates going their separate ways over the years, that the current shows feel so good to the heart and soul. And the whole Nitty Gritty Dirt Band experience has helped McEuen to thrive on his own as well as with his old buddies in the band.
“With the various musical differences that happen with people that start playing as teenagers together, sure, it came time to go separate paths. But I will always relish some of the things we did that nobody else will ever do, like being the first band to ever play in Russia. And I aspire to do those kind of things on my own and I’m very excited about having that as part of the path. And the way people are accepting the current new music that is put out in the shows, it’s very exciting to play a song nobody’s heard and have it go over like a hit. And there’s always at least one song that we haven’t played before that we might know that somebody yells out. And that really keeps it fresh in that sense, and I think it’ll help keep things fresh for a long time. Having more fun than the audience is what the challenge is.”
John McEuen and the String Wizards Present Will The Circle Be Unbroken on Saturday June 1st at the Hamilton, 600 14th Street, N.W. Washington, DC 20005. For tickets click here.