So once you have played with legends ranging from Mother Maybelle Carter to Earl Scruggs and Aerosmith, won Grammys and a host of other honors and been cited by musicians and fans alike as among the most influential bands in modern history, what’s next?
If you go
Nitty Gritty Dirt Band
Where: The Birchmere, 3701 Mount Vernon Ave., Alexandria
When: 7:30 p.m. Sunday
Info: $45; ticketmaster.com
If you’re the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, you put together a killer album that wins even more accolades and adds a new generation to your fan base. “I’m not blase about it at all,” co-founder Jeff Hanna said of fans’ and critics’ attitudes toward the band’s work, adding he reads album and concert reviews. “I’m always interested in what is said.”
In an age where many legendary bands rest on their musical laurels, the Dirt Band took something of a calculated risk with its latest album “Speed of Life.” The band followed a path carved by co-producers George Massenburg and Jon Randall Stewart that led them to perform the songs “live” for the record and take such steps as keeping the banjo and harmonica prevalent — or at least high — in the mix.
The result is lush Americana — which of course the band pioneered — that feels as fresh as any music coming from debut artists. The difference, of course, is that the Dirt Band knows their stuff and writes and plays with an authority that can only come from masters.
That’s why the band can take the songs — most of which are originals — on the album and reinvent them a bit for audiences.
“One thing that happens is that as you bring the songs to the stage they evolve and morph a bit,” he said. “I truly think this is the best collection of songs we have put together in decades.”
That’s saying something considering the band practically invented Americana with its well-known “Will the Circle Be Unbroken” albums and were radio mainstays with many hits notably its rendition of Jerry Jeff Walker’s “Mr. Bojangles.”
Hanna is exceedingly humble about his role in shaping music, again expressing how he and the other members welcome input and collaborations such as they had with the co-producers.
“They had found something in us that maybe we have forgotten,” he said. “You get into a groove and sometimes that groove becomes a rut. … It’s very exciting to have an external cheerleading squad working with you.”
