Here's a band that is truly an American institution. They go way back to 1966. The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band was THERE, for everything. They are such a part of the musical & political fabric of this country, yet when they came aboard the Music Fog/Celebrity Coaches bus in Nashville you would of thought they were trying to be discovered.
Unpretentious is probably the word that best describes the setting. And when John McEuen pulled out the banjo he intended to play for the session, the camera was drawn to it. You just could not take your eyes off of it. I began to wonder what history it had witnessed. It was obviously very old, and yet had a gentle sound. It became the one item in the room that reminded us all that The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band was THERE, for everything. They had witnessed and been a part of The Summer of Love. When Janis Joplin and Jimi Hendrix climbed to the top, they were there. When The Fillmore West was the center of the musical universe, they were there. And they never stopped.
I asked John about the banjo's history after the session was over. He told me it was built in the 20s, muttered something else, then shut the case and told me to "stop looking at it." Maybe because to him it was just a banjo. Or maybe, just maybe, it is all powerful and is the secret to life itself. One will never know.
Here is NGDB with the title track from their latest work Speed of Life.
-Beans
