Jew World Order

40 years ago, a bunch of long haired California rockers did the unthinkable. They brought a group of Grand Ole Opry legends into the studio to record their next studio album. The resulting album was the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band’s history making “Will the Circle Be Unbroken.”

On the 40th anniversary of that great album, “Will the Circle Be Unbroken” has been released in a special vinyl box set. I sat down with Nitty Gritty Dirt Band founding member John McEuen to discuss the album. You can read the two part discussion about “Will the Circle Be Unbroken” here and here. But I couldn’t let a legend like John McEuen go without talking about his impressive body of work collaborating with other artists.

We’ve talked about how Earl Scruggs was such a great mentor to young banjo players and that’s a role you’ve taken on quite a bit as well. You’ve worked with a lot of artists in recent years, probably most notably with Steve Martin, where you guys won a Grammy for his album. The Dirt Band has had a relationship with Steve for a long time. Some people might not know that you guys are the Toot Uncommons from the “King Tut” song.

Yeah, The Dirt Band was the band on “King Tut” for the recording. My brother was managing Steve and producing his albums and also managing us. Steve had come up with “King Tut” a week earlier before one of our shows in Los Angeles. Steve had kind of mapped it out where he’d say “you guys say ‘Tut, Tut’ and when I sing ‘King Tut’, you guys sing ‘funky tut!” So we worked it up that night in the dressing room and we did it that night at our show in the Chandler Pavilion in L.A. The place just blew apart. Then we got together a week later in Aspen and recorded it.

For a guy who made his living as a comic and actor, Steve Martin has really been dedicated to the banjo and has some real talent with the instrument.

He always has. He and I went to high school together and worked together at the magic shop. We both got banjos when we were 18. I was always impressed that he might not be able to play “Flint Hill Special” more than halfway through, but some of the songs he came up with on his own, “Pitkin County Turnaround”, is one of the coolest banjo tunes ever written. I’m jealous! -laugh-

It seems like the banjo has come back into fashion in recent years. If you look at the charts, at least on the Adult Oriented Rock side, a lot of the bands who are on top like Mumford & Sons, The Avett Brother, Old Crow Medicine Show are doing a lot of the same things you guys were doing back in the day but modernized. What do you think has brought that music back into style?

I think the saturation of electronic music and non-human music has helped that. Somehow when a banjo is being played or a mandolin or any acoustic instrument somehow magically, subconsciously relate the listener to the person making the music. An actual person. Does that make sense? You feel like you know them. I used to feel that way listening to Doc Watson records before I met him. Just through his playing, you felt like you were hearing and essence of someone and you thought “I’d like to know that person.” Not just mystery. It’s like when kids watch cartoons. They don’t pay attention to who’s making the music. It’s just there.

That’s one reason. Another is the banjo makes a weird sound, you know? It’s a sound that hasn’t been overused, although some people might disagree with that after one song! -laugh- “Ok, that’s enough banjo!”

I’ve spent my life trying to put 5 string banjo into unusual spaces. There have been many times I’ve been doing sessions with people and I’d say “let me try a banjo on this” and they’d say “I don’t hear a banjo on this” and I’d say “that’s because I haven’t played it yet!” What they’re thinking of is not what I’m going to do. And I’d end up playing a banjo part that would become part of it. Because I like the banjo sound, not fancy licks necessarily but just unusual sounds. Sometimes I’ll bow it or play with a flat pick or with weird tuning.

You’ve been, of the members of the Dirt Band, probably the busiest on the solo side and in working with other people. Can you run us through some of your other work?

Well, I’ve done 14 film scores and have an Emmy nomination for music for National Geographic. I’ve made 12 or 13 albums, 6 on my own and the others with other people. One project that’s been getting a lot of attention lately is “Garden of Love” with Martha Redbone who I produced and wrote music for. It’s William Blake’s words, William Blake the English poet. It is the kind of music that we think he would have come up with if he’d immigrated to West Virginia in the 1800’s. I’ve produced a few hundred concerts as a buyer, promoter, producer.

I’m working on a new website called syndicatednews.net. We go to the new page in May so it’s a little funky right now but there’s about 300,000 people on the Twitter list and a few days we’ve gotten over a million hits. That’s unusual, but if you care to look at that it’s a growing news site.

I work on recording things I hope will make it onto an album. I’m working on a spoken word album right now and a few other things that are in development.

I’m in my 7th year of trying to pull together a planetarium program made of Gonzo nosing around the solar system. If anyone has a million and a half dollars to spend on a planetarium program! My son Aaron is one of the better planetarium program designers, he’s got programs working in 10 countries right now. I’ve got clearance on Gonzo the Muppet. You know Gonzo? The one with the big nose? You know he’s from outer space? He crash landed on Earth and when he woke up he tried to be like everyone else so he thinks he’s a chicken!

Anyway, on his way to Earth he’ll pass by the planets and the computer in his spaceship, which is named PAL, will come up with a voice describing each one. And he’ll be like “Hi, this is Saturn” and Riders in the Sky will do Saturn so they can do the rings in 3 part harmony. Kevin Nealon will do one part of it, Eric Idle’s song will be on one of them. Paul Williams’ song “Going Back There Some Day” will be the title song.

There are 600 dome theaters around the world that run these shows that are higher resolution than you see when you go see “Star Wars.” You sit back and see the new projections that are possible from Digistar, and it’s amazing. It looks like you’re in a spaceship. I call it headphones for the eyes!

There’s a lot of things to do out there. The “Circle” album was easier! We did that in 6 days! I wish it was all that easy! -laugh-

That concludes my interview with The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band’s John McEuen. In the coming weeks, Americana Examiner will feature a review of the Martha Redbone album, Over the Rhine and Richard Thompson in concert, and all of the latest news about the Americana music scene. Click subscribe at the top of the page to get it all delivered to your inbox.