1 Photo
John McEuen might have run out of stories by now if not for all the friends he has met along the way.
After finding fame in the early 1960s as a multi-instrumentalist for the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, Mr. McEuen has been on a wild ride through four decades working as a singer, songwriter, producer and all-around music enthusiast. And while he has played alongside Nashville royalty and gods of rock-and-roll, he still says that what he loves most is sitting alone on stage, telling stories about people and places and that helped shape his music.
Mr. McEuen will perform on Saturday, December 4, at Guild Hall in East Hampton. The concert comes at the end of an especially remarkable year for the musician, who is fresh off producing his old friend Steve Martin’s 2010 Grammy Award-winning record, “The Crow: New Songs for the Five-String Banjo.” He has also spent half the year touring both as a solo artist and member of the “Dirt Band.” The band’s 34th album, “Speed of Life,” has enjoyed great critical and commercial success following its release last year. And on top of all that, Mr. McEuen hosts a popular Sirius XM radio show called “Acoustic Traveler,” which draws links between different eras of music. And he periodically produces music for documentary films.
The most recent collaboration with Mr. Martin, which Mr. McEuen produced, which won the Grammy Award for Best Bluegrass Album, essentially put the world-famous actor and comedian’s music career back into the spotlight. Mr. Martin, a banjo player who released the hit song “King Tut” in 1978, and Mr. McEuen were high school friends in California. “The Crow” features collaborations with some of Nashville’s most well-known talent.
“When I talked to Steve and he agreed to have me produce his album I knew who I wanted to be on it,” Mr. McEuen said. “I contacted Dolly [Parton] and I got a fax from her that said ‘Send me the album and I’ll see if I can do it justice.’ Some people asked if this was a vanity album, or if this is a well-off movie star just making a recording,” he continued. “No, I wish I had written half of these. The music stands on its own without a name.”
People often ask the well-traveled singer/songwriter how he still finds time to connect with his longtime listeners and a new generation of fans.
“We just played 10 cities in Canada with the Dirt Band, and the first four rows were all girls under the age of 25,” Mr. McEuen said during a recent phone interview. “And I said to them, ‘If you were 10 years older, and I was 10 years younger ... I might be old enough to be your father.’”
The concert at Guild Hall will feature music from the ground-breaking Dirt Band album, “Will the Circle Be Unbroken,” which was released in 1972 and is still considered by many to be one of the most important albums of all time. The album “is part of my life in that I’ve had people tell me it changed their life,” Mr. McEuen said. “Reflecting on a big part of American music is an honor and something I don’t take lightly. It’s an important thing to me.”
“Will the Circle be Unbroken” featured collaborations with some of country music’s most well-known artists at the time, including Roy Acuff, Earl Scruggs, Mother Maybell Carter, Doc Watson, Jimmy Martin and Vassar Clements, among others. Performing and recording with other musicians has long been a tradition for Mr. McEuen, who will be joined next week at Guild Hall by Matt Cartsonis, a singer and mandolin player who spent years playing alongside Warren Zevon. The show is billed as an acoustic evening, where Mr. McEuen will bring his banjo, guitar, mandolin, fiddle and, of course, nearly five decades of music.
The musician takes pride in his own personal history, which is rich with experience from every corner of the music business. And even with all the motion—and humor—in his life, the old stories still resonate loudest. And the smaller, more intimate shows, Mr. McEuen said, like the one at Guild Hall, are where he shines brightest.
“For me, playing solo away from the band, I get to do things I can’t do with the band,” he said. “I get to play more fiddle by myself than I do with the band. I really love shows like Guild Hall. I played down in the village a couple months ago for 20 people sitting in with a jazz trio. I didn’t make a nickel but I got to play with some great players and do something different.”
As for how the Guild Hall show came to be, this past summer Mr. McEuen said he was browsing around Crossroads Music in Amagansett when he met Michael Clark, the store owner, who is known for his support of the local music scene. Mr. Clark contacted Mr. McEuen several weeks later and soon the pair agreed to put on a concert.
“Mike Clark has been doing such a great job with this show,” Mr. McEuen said. “It’s a little more grassroots promotion. This is his only concert so he can put a lot of effort into it. He can do a lot for that area in general.”
Mr. McEuen said that the Guild Hall audience will determine the course of next week’s performance.
“I don’t work off a set list,” he said. “I know what my first 10 minutes are going to be, but then the audience takes me on a ride. And I don’t care what show it is,” Mr. McEuen continued. “It’s the most important show of my life if I’m playing it that night.”
Crossroads Music Showcase will present John McEuen, who will play an acoustic evening at the John Drew Theatre at Guild Hall in East Hampton on Saturday, December 4, at 8 p.m. Tickets are $20, or $10 for students. For tickets, call 324-4050 or visit guildhall.org.
gmenu on Nov 22, 2010