Fishing in the dark nitty gritty band5/29/2023 The band secured 16 Top 10 country hits between 19, including three No. Nitty Gritty Dirt Band earned a pop resurgence in 1980 with “An American Dream” and “Make a Little Magic.” Those singles also found traction on the country chart, setting the stage for a major run at country radio. Heroes like Roy Acuff, Mother Maybelle Carter, Jimmy Martin, Merle Travis, and Doc Watson joined the scruffy, young band to record country music standards such as “I Saw the Light” and “Keep on the Sunnyside.” The acclaimed project is considered a landmark recording in American music. That three-disc album brought Nitty Gritty Dirt Band together with a number of country, folk, and bluegrass legends. That introduction led to a friendship and some of the connections the band needed to record Will the Circle Be Unbroken. During a tour stop in Nashville around that time, Earl Scruggs and his family came backstage to say hello. Bojangles,” a folksy Top 10 pop hit that remains a staple of their live show. Their career breakthrough came in 1970 with the release of the record Uncle Charlie & His Dog Teddy and the single “Mr. The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band played their first gig in 1966 in Southern California as a jug band and by 1969 had become a cornerstone of the burgeoning country-rock community. That’s important for a band that’s been out there for over 53 years.” It’s opened a lot of doors for us, musically, and the morale is really great. And they’re encouraging us in the same way to take more chances. The basic vibe is so up and positive, and the music– we’re hearing surprises from Jaime and Ross all night. All of a sudden, the old dogs start playing, you know? That’s kind of what’s happened with us. Jeff Hanna says, “It’s like when you throw a couple of puppies into a pen with a bunch of old dogs. And with the father-son pairing of Jeff and Jaime Hanna, the band carries on a country music tradition of blood harmony. All six members also sing, and when their voices merge, the harmonies add a powerful new component for the legendary band. The group now includes Jeff Hanna (acoustic guitar, electric guitar), Jimmie Fadden (drums, harmonica), Bob Carpenter (keyboards), Jim Photoglo (bass, acoustic guitar), Ross Holmes (fiddle, mandolin), and Jaime Hanna (electric and acoustic guitar). So it's been an enormous blessing.With a refreshed lineup and newfound energy, The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band remains one of the most accomplished bands in American roots music.įollowing an extended 50th anniversary tour, the ensemble grew to a six-piece in 2018 for the first time since their early jug band days. She listed all of these different country songs that reference "Fishing in the Dark" in the lyrics. There was just an article that came out in Billboard Magazine, about how 27 years later, this song is still getting so much radio play, that if it was considered a current single, it would be No. He used to play it in the clubs, and his live act after he became famous. It's influenced all of these up and coming country acts or even people like Kenny Chesney. People talk about the song, but that record that the Dirt Band made, it so impressed so many people, including Garth Brooks, who has recorded and released it three times. he went, "Man, the Dirt Band, this is perfect for them." I was standing in the right place when they captured lightning in a bottle. Actually Josh and Wendy and I all lived in the same place over on 10th Avenue. Back in the early days, we'd all get together, and Wendy and I would cook. But Josh Leo came from Los Angeles to Nashville at the same time Wendy and I did, and he had just gotten the job to produce the Dirt Band. They had actually cut a song of mine that Norbert Putnam produced on them, previously. We weren't trying to be like any other song.ĭid you know the Dirt Band in L.A.? How did they get the song? Who would have thunk it?Īnd the first thing I thought was, "I want to run away screaming, because I love my song." But she said, "No, fishing in the dark." We started messing around with it, and it just happened, you know? We did it for fun. It was a song called "You Can't Run Away From Your Heart." Then we got back together again, and she had just finished listening to "A Prairie Home Companion." She said, "Let's write a song about fishing."Īnd again, you two, writing a fishing song. I took both of them to Wendy, and we wrote the minor, bluesy one first, and it got cut by Terri Gibbs, Kathy Mattea, Patty Loveless and Lacy J. Both of them had that same chordal thing, but one of them had the minor mode and one had the major mode. One morning I woke up and I turned on my tape recorder, sat up and played these two pieces of music. I was experimenting with this one particular chording on the guitar that only played the first and fifth tones of the chord, so you could sing either a major or a minor over it. On this one particular visit, I was staying at Shoney's (Inn) over on Demonbreun.
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