Nitty Gritty Dirt Band Founder John McEuen Cheats Death Twice in One Day

John McEuen founded the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band more than half a century ago. Earl Scruggs was the first old school bluegrass artist that The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band approached to record with them on their 1972 three-record set Will The Circle Be Unbroken. That multi-million selling album also featured several other older generation bluegrass stalwarts like Doc Watson, Merle Travis, and Mother Maybelle Carter, the matriarch of the Carter family that invented country music in 1927 and included June Carter, Johnny Cash’s wife.

The album brought bluegrass into the mainstream for the first time since the folk scare. John left the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band seven years ago because he wanted change. The repertoire he brings on tour now (He’s at the Caffe Lena in Saratoga Springs Friday night, August 9th) includes many of the same songs, but he’s no longer in a straitjacket as to how close he has to be to the recorded originals.

He last played Albany, New York on March 29th. Six days later he had two heart attacks in one day.

Two in one day?

Well, there was a special at the hospital.

You got a twofer.

Yeah, two for one. Anyway, I ended up having two, and in between my heart stopped for 30 seconds, and they had to revive me. They did, and after two and a half weeks in the hospital I just finished rehab. I’m doing really well, and I’m looking forward to playing again.

Did that change your outlook at all?

Huh! I should have been dead, but no.

You’re playing the iconic Caffe Lena this time.

Yeah. I’ve always wanted to play here. Yeah! Take it! Do it! Get paid? I don’t care! It matches up with the next date really well, and it’s on my bucket list.

You’re a Renaissance man.

What does that mean? What does this really mean, Renaissance man? Does it mean I’m wearing a Robin Hood outfit?

You’re pulling my leg now.

No, I’m not.

You really don’t know what it means to be a Renaissance man? Ok, here is what it means to me. In a matter of 60 years, you’ve played in an iconic band that changed the way bluegrass related to rock and roll music and the way hippies related to people who came from Appalachia. You have written books. You have written individual songs. It’s in the arts; it’s creative. You’re there.

Oh, (pause) well, thank you. I’ve never known what that means, Renaissance man. It’s a good thing, right?

Yeah. You are as eclectic as hell.

You mean I put the tic in eclectic? I put the fun in funeral.

(Laugh) You should do a song about that.

Well, it’s a touchy subject.

You’re bringing guitarist Les Thompson with you.

Yes, Les Thompson was the guy who called me in 1966 and asked me if I wanted to join this group he was putting together. What’s it called? He goes, “Nitty Gritty Dirt Band.” And they were in the first months of assembling that group and a few years later I got out. (Chuckle) That lasted 50 years, Les was there for about 10, but I’ve been having Les play with me for the last eight or nine years, and it’s really been wonderful. It’s really fun. We do “Mr. Bojangles” and some of the old Dirt Band songs and our favorite bluegrass tunes.

You are familiar with the reputation of the Caffe Lena.

Upper New York is a great spot. We’re looking forward to coming to Caffe Lena. I’ve been close to getting booked there, but this worked out. We’re going to be in Goshen, Connecticut the next day. That’s a neat thing. Caffe Lena, I get to play it at the end of the run here.

How important is a venue to you? Does that impact the performance in important ways to you?

It really has no impact on what I do on stage, although sometimes if the lights are bad and the sound is bad and the staging is weird — but Caffe Lena is an important venue to me because it’s an historic venue.

Yeah, I saw Dave Van Ronk there 50 years ago. So, you’ve got important work to do there. You better have your formal shoes on that night.

I’ve done some good ones. Well, I’m bringing my banjo, fiddle and mandolin. We’ll be doing favorite Nitty Gritty Dirt Band songs. Les and I are both founding members, and it’s just a neat thing to be able to play from that songbook, my own songbook of things I’ve recorded, and a couple of cuts from the new album The Newsman that have been going over great.

The Newsman album I just put out in the April-May period, and it is a compilation of things I put out together over a 12-year period. It took me 12 years to feel like this album was done. In that process I made two good records. I wasn’t sure that a talking record was going to work, and I didn’t want to put out a failure. At least I got it to the point where, “no, this is good.” I sent out a cut to somebody. What do you think of this? What do you think of that? The feedback was so positive.

John McEuen