Nitty Gritty Dirt Band

Nitty Gritty Dirt Band was founded in 1966 by duo Jeff Hanna and Bruce Kunkel. The pair was still attending high school in California when they began to attend informal jam sessions at local shops. They would go on to meet their bandmates Ralph Barr, Les Thompson, Jimmie Fadden, and Jackson Browne. They gained local popularity and had a contract and self-titled album with Liberty Records by 1967. The band’s breakthrough was years later when a new lineup of the band released Uncle Charlie & His Dog Teddy (1970). Their cover of Jerry Jeff Walker’s “Mr. Bojangles” yielded the band their most successful single at the time. The result of collaborations in Nashville was a triple album, Will the Circle Be Unbroken (1973), after which Nitty Gritty Dirt Band was now considered truly influential in the country music community. Over the years they kept recording, receiving a Grammy for Best Country Vocal Performance (1989) and the Country Music Association’s Album of the Year Award (1989).