John McEuen

An important figure in the history of American acoustic music, multi-instrumentalist John McEuen is best known as one of the key members of the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, the group that helped bridge the gap between bluegrass and pop while also introducing a new audience to some of the most important artists in the history of country music. An accomplished multi-instrumentalist skilled on the banjo, mandolin, guitar, and fiddle, McEuen's gifts have earned him the nickname "the String Wizard," and just short of 60 years into his recording career, he issued his first spoken word album, 2024's The Newsman. John McEuen was born in Garden Grove, California, on December 19, 1945. He developed an interest in music when he was a teenager, and at the age of 18, he learned to play banjo, inspired after seeing a performance by the Dillards. McEuen soon gave a few lessons to a close friend, Steve Martin, who years later would enjoy his own success with the instrument. It wasn't long before McEuen became proficient on several instruments, and in 1966 he teamed up with some like-minded young pickers who had a passion for traditional folk, country, and jug band sounds. The group became known as the the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, and McEuen became an official member after one of the group's early members, Jackson Browne, left to pursue a solo career. With John's brother Bill McEuen as manager, the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band landed a contract with Liberty Records, and their self-titled debut album spawned a minor hit, "Buy Me for the Rain." The group was soon cast as wandering gold prospectors in the 1969 movie Paint Your Wagon (in which they performed "Hand Me Down That Can o' Beans"), but after releasing three albums that scored no hits, they took a break while plotting their next move. The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band returned to duty with a new emphasis on traditional sounds while backing away from on the novelty aspects of their early work. Their 1970 album Uncle Charlie & His Dog Teddy received positive reviews, and their cover of Jerry Jeff Walker's "Mr. Bojangles" became a surprise hit single, earning the group a new audience. But the NGDB's greatest creative triumph came in 1972, when the McEuen brothers struck upon the idea of an album of traditional country standards with a handful of guest artists, among them country music legends Mother Maybelle Carter, Roy Acuff, Merle Travis, and Earl Scruggs. The album, Will the Circle Be Unbroken, was an instant classic that soon earned a gold record despite being a bulky three-LP set. The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band continued to successfully record and tour through the '70s and '80s, and in 1977, they became the first American band to tour the Soviet Union. In 1978, Steve Martin invited his old friend McEuen and his group to help him record a single, and the NGDB backed Martin on his novelty hit "King Tut" (with the group billed as the Toot Uncommons). In 1986, McEuen left the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band and launched a solo career. He released a string of solo albums (including the critically acclaimed Acoustic Traveller in 1996 and three installments in the String Wizards series for Vanguard Records), did session work for artists such as Michael Martin Murphy and Sam Bush, and began composing scores for movies and television, including the popular documentary series The Wild West. During this period, McEuen remained on good terms with his former bandmates, making a guest appearance on the group's 1997 Christmas Album, and in 2001, it was announced that McEuen had rejoined the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band. While McEuen juggled a busy schedule recording and touring with the Dirt Band, he continued to work on other projects on the side, playing sessions with artists ranging from Johnny Cash to Paul Williams to Phish, and serving as producer and accompanist on Steve Martin's 2009 album The Crow: New Songs for the Five-String Banjo, which won a Grammy Award as Best Bluegrass Album. In 2012, he recorded an album with his sons Jonathan McEuen and Nathan McEuen, titled For All the Good and released under the group name the McEuen Sessions. The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band celebrated their 50th Anniversary as a group with a special concert at Nashville's Ryman Auditorium on September 15, 2015, featuring an impressive roster of friends and former members, including Jackson Browne, Sam Bush, Jerry Douglas, and John Prine. The event was recorded, and issued in 2016 by NGBD Records as Circlin' Back: Celebrating 50 Years. By the end of 2016, McEuen once again dropped out of the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, as he grew tired of their touring schedule, and that year he issued a solo effort, Roots Music Made in Brooklyn, a binaurally recorded session with appearances from David Bromberg, Jay Ungar, and Steve Martin. Still staking out new territory at the age of 78, McEuen released his first spoken work album, The Newsman, in 2024. Most of the album's 11 songs were adapted from newspaper stories McEuen had collected for years, some more than a century old, while the track was inspired by a newspaper peddler he encountered in his early years as a professional musician.
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