Sometimes all you need to do is ask. Next thing you know, you’ve got loads of musicians saying “yes” to your question, and you’re on your way to recording one of the most influential bluegrass and country rock albums of the last 50-plus years.
It was the early 1970s, and a young musician named John McEuen, along with his band Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, were looking to record their next album. McEuen had been in Boulder seeing Earl Scruggs at a venue called Tulagi, thinking it could be cool to have the legendary banjo player pick some on their forthcoming release. He asked, Scruggs said “yes,” and the bluegrass ball was set in motion.
Soon after, The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, Scruggs and other musicians began recording “Will the Circle Be Unbroken,” an album that still serves as a gateway record for many a musician venturing into the bluegrass and country rock world.
If you go
WHAT: John McEuen & The Circle Band present “Will the Circle Be Unbroken.”
WHEN: 7:30 p.m. Saturday.
WHERE: Community Concert Hall at Fort Lewis College, 1000 Rim Drive.
TICKETS: $30/$40, available online at https://tinyurl.com/293whckr.
MORE INFORMATION: Visit www.durangoconcerts.com.
John McEuen & The Circle Band, which features original NGDB members McEuen and Les Thompson, along with multi-instrumentalists Bryan McDowell and Danny Knicely, will be in Durango on Saturday at the Community Concert Hall at Fort Lewis College, performing cuts from “Will the Circle Be Unbroken.”
Once Scruggs committed to playing on that record in that Boulder venue, other musicians also jumped on board.
“I nervously said, ‘Earl, would you maybe consider recording with The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band?’ and he said ‘I’d be proud to,’” McEuen said. “The next night, Doc Watson was playing the same club. I asked, and Doc said, ‘Well, if Earl’s going be there I want to pick.’ Then my brother said, ‘I’m going to call Merle Travis,’ and Merle said, ‘I’ve always wanted to meet Doc Watson,’ so there was three of them. Then I called Earl and asked, ‘You think you can ask Mother Maybelle Carter?’ (of The Carter Family) and he said, ‘Maybelle would be awful glad to be there.’”
Ultimately, a who’s who of 1970s country rock and bluegrass players jumped onboard, including Jimmy Martin and Roy Acuff, Vassar Clements and Norman Blake, Randy Scruggs and more. When you get that much talent, studio skill and work ethic into a room, magic is bound to happen, which it did.
“It went very fast – six days – and we did 36 songs. That’s really fast, you know,” McEuen said. “One day, we did 10 songs! That was one 13-hour day. We were all on cloud nine, playing way over our heads in some ways.”
Ask any bluegrass musician who came of age in the early 1970s how they got into bluegrass, and their answer will be something similar to the phrase “because of the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band’s ‘Circle’ album.” It’s an all-star cast of pickers playing on an all-star album featuring cuts that sit high atop the country and bluegrass canon. While Saturday’s show remains a celebration of a classic album, it’s also a night to celebrate the achievements of The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, as The Circle Band will dish up appetizers from the NGDB catalog, with selections from “Will The Circle Be Unbroken” served as the main course.
“I like to tell the story of the early Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, and play some of that music, because Les and I played it. It would be a shame to leave ‘Bojangles’ out or some of the other songs, and that leads to the ‘Circle album,’” McEuen said. “We couldn’t do the whole album; it would take 3½ hours. But we do the best songs, or what I think the best ones are.”
Bryant Liggett is a freelance writer and KDUR station manager. Reach him at liggett_b@fortlewis.edu.
