Greetings from Vail, Colorado, where it is not as warm as it is in the rest of the country and there's enough name brand entertainment to have you believe you're living in a small city. Strasburg had String Cheese in Dillon on Wednesday, Thievery Corporation on Friday and Old Crow Medicine Show on Sunday in Vail and in Beaver Creek, they had the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band on Saturday night. And the experience is much better up here in the mountains, because the venues are so much smaller. As for the economics...if you know anything about performing arts centers there are subsidies and boards and the bottom line is that the Vilar has 150 dates a year, and don't forget that that the spring and fall, especially May and October, are shoulder season, and essentially dead.
Now if you want to see an act in the Spotify Top 50, the mountains are not the place. Acts can only play a limited number of gigs, and they focus on the metropoli, where there are more bodies and more money, then again in the mountains the locals may be struggling, but not the tourists.
So the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band has survived by pivot. Instead of just doing the same thing over and over, they went from "Mr. Bojangles" to country roots with "Will the Circle Be Unbroken" to smooth singer songwriter to country hits to...now. They're still making albums. Is anybody paying attention?
No.
Which is why I was amazed when Jeff introduced the song "Bless the Broken Road," as a Dirt Band original, from the overlooked album "Acoustic" from 1994. It was released by a major label, Liberty, but it wasn't until Rascal Flatts recorded the song in 2005 that it went to number one, earning the Grammy for Best Country Song. You see a hit song is a hit song is a hit song. And that's very different from a record. Some hit records are great songs and some are not. And a lot of today's tracks may be hits, but no one would consider them great songs. A great song is so good that it doesn't matter who sings it. Kind of like the Dirt Band's opener "You Ain't Goin' Nowhere," an unreleased Bob Dylan song that the Byrds used to open the groundbreaking "Sweetheart of the Rodeo" and many others have covered. It might not have appeared on the charts, but it lives strongly in people's hearts.
Another highlight of the show was the band's performance of "An American Dream," the Rodney Crowell-penned opening tune from their 1979 album of the same name. You see I own that record. I went on a three album run, before the band decamped for Nashville and the country sound, when the smooth singer-songwriter sound was a revered staple as opposed to an in-joke, like yacht rock. Denigrate it all you want, this sound is still selling tickets prodigiously, keeping the creators alive.
I would have been thrilled if they'd performed "Harmony," from 1980's "Make a Little Magic," but I guess I'll have to wait for that one. Then again I'm going to give you links to the Hanna/Fadden track sung by long-standing band member Bob Carpenter, as was "Bless the Broken Road."
"Whether I'm right or I'm wrong
Too weak or strong
Sure seems plain to me
Too young or old
Too shy or bold
We all need help
Just to move the stone"
These are the ashes from another generation, when love was still believed to conquer all, when we still believed we were all in it together.
I don't think a cover would make the Spotify Top 50, maybe it could make it in the country market, but one thing for sure is this was a hit back in 1980, even though you couldn't see it on the chart. Check it out:
Spotify: tinyurl.com/3sp3md33
YouTube: tinyurl.com/mwfurfrf
But at this late date we no longer expect to hear deep album cuts live, only the hits. So when you're in the audience and hear a song you know by heart but don't believe anyone else is aware of it's a special thrill, it makes your night.
Not that it was only the songs, the musicianship was notable in its own right.
There was Ross Holmes on fiddle and mandolin, known for his work with Mumford and Songs and Bruce Hornsby, earning a well-deserved standing ovation for his efforts on an extended solo.
And Jeff's son Jaime, who paid his dues with the Mavericks and Gary Allan, performed an extended acoustic guitar solo that thrilled me.
As for the bass...
I figured it was just some road guy, some Nashville cat hanging in the deep background. But it turned out to be soft rock staple Jim Photoglo, who was a staple of L.A.'s soft rock station KNX-FM, 93.1, when that sound was still a dominant force. Jim co-wrote the Dirt Band's huge country hit "Fishin' in the Dark" with Wendy Waldman, a number one for the band back in 1987.
Not to take anything away from drummer Jimmie Fadden. Who pounded the skins and played the harmonica simultaneously, a seemingly impossible feat. Also, Jimmie was really into it. As if it were still the sixties, when music was everything and to be a musician was to affect millions and elude the straits of standard life. We envied these people. They were anything but faceless.
And the band played a few songs from the three "Will the Circle Be Unbroken" sets, including the title cut, which as an encore bled into the Band's "The Weight."
That's another song like "You Ain't Goin' Nowhere" that everybody knows but was never a hit. Made it all the way up number 63, which means AM radio is not where most people were exposed to it.
Nor was so much of what we were addicted to even played on FM, these records are part of our DNA, they enriched our lives, they made us who we are.
So the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band goes on to another town. Playing to believers, those who remember when our music transcended everyday life, when it was life itself.
They're still doing it and we're still here. Much older, a bit battered, but young at heart, because we remember.
The music keeps us alive.
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