Jeff Hanna Serves Up the Dirt
The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band singer looks back on his group’s remarkable career
In the surest sense, the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band can lay claim to being one of the architects of what’s now known as modern Americana.
By the late ‘60s, they had shifted their stance from that of jug band enthusiasts and forlorn folkies and codified a then-revolutionary crossover that found many of country music’s forbears sharing studio time with the band and their contemporary colleagues. The album that resulted, Will the Circle Be Unbroken, ranks as one of the most essential documents that defines the modern country music continuum. It created a bond between the old guard of essential country music — Earl Scruggs, Mother Maybelle Carter, Roy Acuff, Norman Blake, and Doc Watson, among others — and a younger generation of musicians, effectively breaking down the barriers between roots music and rock and roll. The album is now considered a major turning point. It served as the first of three Circle albums and became a milestone in the evolution of Americana music.
That crossover instigated by the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band and such like-minded contemporaries as the Byrds, the Eagles, the Flying Burrito Brothers, Poco and the Grateful Dead, among the many, helped define the very essence of roots rock, contemporary country and the larger spectrum of essential Americana.
Wider acclaim would follow, courtesy of such mainstream hits as “Mr. Bojangles,” “American Dream,” “Make a Little Magic,” “Some of Shelley’s Blues,” “House at Pooh Corner” and “Fishin’ in the Dark.”
In May 1977, the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band became the first American group allowed to tour the Soviet Union, resulting in 28 sold-out concerts. A televised special that documented that event was estimated to have been watched by 145 million people.
They can also be credited with giving a young Jackson Browne his start as both a singer and songwriter during his brief tenure with the band early on.
Now, nearly 60 years later, the band is still going strong, with original members Jeff Hanna (vocals, guitar) and Jimmie Fadden (drums, harmonica) still at the helm alongside longtime colleague Bob Carpenter (keyboards), and newer recruits Jim Photoglo (bass), Jeff’s son Jamie (guitars, vocals) and Ross Holmes (fiddle, mandolin). Their most recent album, 2022’s Dirt Does Dylan, found them broadening their palette while also returning to their roots courtesy of Dylan’s own archival origins.
The band’s current tour is billed as their last, although they still plan to play individual dates and festivals from time to time. They’re doing the schedule in blocks, and in so doing, plan to take the tour well into next year and possibly beyond.
“Our goal is to get to 2026, which would be 60 years,” Hanna suggests. “We’ll see. I don’t know if we’ll go beyond that. But here’s the point. We can’t play 200 shows a year. So we’re going to do like 60 this year. In order for us to get everywhere we want to get on this farewell tour, at least a lot of it, we’ve we got to spread it out over a couple of years.”
It’s obvious in speaking with Hanna that he relishes all the band has accomplished since the very beginning. “We’ve had a great time,” he insists. “We’ve played an awful lot of shows between ’67 and now. It’s been a great, and we’re extremely grateful to have been able to do something that we’ve loved for our entire adult life. In the case of me and Jimmie and Bob, we’ve managed to keep it going into our 70s, which again, is pretty great.”
It’s clear as well that he doesn’t take their success for granted. “A lot of people would give their eyeteeth to be able to play music and get paid for it,” Hanna muses. “We’re so lucky in that regard. We’ve had great fans, and we’ve had terrific luck at radio at various times over the years, and people have bought our music and of course, we love that. We love that we’ve be able to express ourselves by making albums. It’s been so cool. Nevertheless, the live thing is clearly the most fun part for us. We’ve always made albums so that we have something new to play on on tour. There are bands that are more sort of studio creatures than we are.”
Hanna also admits to being somewhat nostalgic as well. “I sometimes go back and listen to those records that we made in the ‘60s and ‘70s,” he suggests. “I think, ‘Who are those guys?’ It’s fun to listen to the early records at this point. I can step way back from the picture, as they say, and see it with a different perspective. My perspective is from the guy who has been doing this for nearly 60 years, most of his life. So it’s been quite a ride. It’s terrific. And it’s really been fun.”
AUDIO: The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band “Fishin’ in the Dark”
He also offered praise for the band’s newer recruits. “Bob’s been making music almost as long as Jimmie and I have,” he noted. “He joined the band in ’79. Jim Photoglo joined up back in 2016, but we’ve known him for decades. And of course, he wrote ‘Fishing in the Dark,’ so it’s really fun having that guy on stage with us. He’s a really great singer and great bass player as well. Then there’s my buddy Ross Holmes, who joined up on fiddle at the beginning of 2018. And a couple of months later, along came Ross’s friend, my son Jamie. Those guys had great careers prior to being in our band. Ross was in a cool bluegrass band called Cadillac Sky, and later on, he was famously with Mumford and Sons and played a long stint with our buddy Bruce Hornsby and the Noisemakers. Jamie, of course, started with the Mavericks, and then landed a record deal with his cousin Jonathan McEuen. They made a really fine record called Hanna McEuen. Jamie was also in Gary Allan’s band for several years. In fact, he was doing that when he joined up with us. In fact, he was playing in two bands for a couple of months, ours and the Gary Allan Band as well.”
When asked to guess how many concerts the band has performed since the very beginning, Hanna answered succinctly.
“It’s hard to sort of compute,” he said. “There are certain guys that count every show and can tell you an exact number, but I’m not one of them. I would say that if you average between the number we played between ’67 and ’87, somewhere in the 100 and 150 range as an average per year. We were really going after it, but then we started slowing down some in the ‘90s, meaning we were down to no more than 100 or so each year. Once we got into this decade, we paired it back to between 60 and 75. We’ll end up doing a few in the 60 show range this year, and maybe a couple more than that. It’s hard to say right now.”
Asked about the possibility of a new album, Hanna was less certain.
“I wouldn’t take that off the table,” he replied. “We’ll see. We’ll see how we finish up this year. I’m hoping that maybe early next year we can get in the studio and do some new stuff. We’re gonna be pretty busy through November, so you kind of have to conserve your energy.”
Whatever the future holds, Hanna insists that the last few years have been among the most rewarding for all concerned.
“The crowds have been great,” he said. “Our fans are so cool. They’ve supported us through every twist and turn and in every tangent that we got off on. If you look at the nucleus of the band, Jimmie and Bob and I have been doing this together since 1980, and I’m proud of that. Bob and Jimmie are my best friends. So we want to finish on a high note while we’re still healthy.”
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