Downtown Springfield Association
Musician and Author John McEuen, the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band

Musician and Author John McEuen, the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band

October, 13 2022 | 6:00 pm

1150 E Walnut Springfield, Missouri 65806
https://www.facebook.com/events/461833305912806/?acontext=%7B%22event_action_history%22%3A[%7B%22mechanism%22%3A%22discovery_local_tab%22%2C%22surface%22%3A%22bookmark%22%7D]%2C%22ref_notif_type%22%3Anull%7D


Join Pagination Bookshop Thursday, October 13, at 6 p.m. with musician and author John McEuen of the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band! This event will take place the evening before the band’s concert on October 14 to celebrate the 50th anniversary of NGDB’s iconic album, Will the Circle Be Unbroken! Link to purchase the book: https://shop.paginationbookshop.com/book/9781493062331
““I see the album as sort of a consolidation of the ties that already existed between the counterculture world and bluegrass and folk music,” says musician and historian Pete Finney, author of the Library of Congress essay on Circle. “This album was sort of a manifesto or like a grand statement, not that it was meant to be, but it had the effect of bringing to the surface what already existed.””
Circle remains a thrilling, moving listen, with dozens of performances that set the gold standard for country music mastery. Like Harry Smith’s Anthology of American Folk Music in 1953 and the multi-platinum O Brother, Where Art Thou? soundtrack in 2001, it opened up a hidden world to countless fans, many of whom became amateur pickers themselves, which is the spirit of this music.
“The anniversary will be marked later this year with a coffee table book by Dirt Band alum John McEuen featuring photographs taken by his brother William, who produced the recording sessions and much more. The Dirt Band will perform this September at the inaugural Earl Scruggs Music Festival, celebrating the founding father of bluegrass banjo who enabled the collaboration by being the first Nashville elder to sign on. Also, the Country Music Hall of Fame is planning a Circle-focused performance in its CMA Theater as part of an upcoming exhibit about the California country-rock movement of the 60s and 70s.” ~ Craig Havighurst