The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band
Will The Circle Be Unbroken: 30th Anniversary Edition – Nitty Gritty Dirt Band

The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, the ultimate musical square peg defying all round holes, will be among the fourth class of inductees Sunday (April 20) in the Music City Walk of Fame in Nashville, Tenn.

Also joining the 2008 class will be Steven Curtis Chapman, Merle Kilgore, Steve Wariner, Kirk Whalum and Hank Williams.

Gibson Guitar, founding sponsor of the Walk of Fame, and Great American Country, sponsor of the induction ceremony, will be hosts for the free event, which is open to the public. The ceremony, climaxing with the unveiling of commemorative sidewalk markers for the new inductees, starts at 3 p.m. in downtown Nashville’s Hall of Fame Park.

The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band will perform on the Grand Ole Opry on Saturday night preceding the ceremony.

It’s the umpteenth honor bestowed on the band, which celebrated the 40th year of its long and varied musical journey in 2007.

On the Dirt Band’s Web site, the group’s birth is actually listed from May-August 1966 with the original members hanging out at the famed McCabe’s Guitar Shop in Long Beach, Calif., “trying to figure out how not to have to work for a living.”

Members of the original group were Jeff Hanna, Jimmy Fadden, Ralph Barr, Les Thompson, Bruce Kunkel and Jackson Browne, who would go on to an illustrious solo/songwriting career with a spot in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

After recording a few albums and finding commercial success with the Jerry Jeff Walker classic, “Mr. Bojangles,” the group made music history in 1971 when its trek to Nashville yielded the three-album landmark release, “Will the Circle Be Unbroken.” It featured true pioneers of bluegrass and country music, including Mother Maybelle Carter, Roy Acuff, Earl Scruggs, Merle Travis and Jimmy Martin. It also exposed famous artists like fiddler Vassar Clements and national folk and old-timey music treasure Doc Watson to much larger audiences.

Roy Acuff’s version of “I Saw the Light” from the Cirle project landed on the country charts, and the album received two Grammy nominations.

Nitty Gritty went on to record versions Circle II and Circle III, but none held the pure creative magic of the initial project. Circle II, however, attained great commercial success, going gold in the United States and Canada, and winning three Grammys and the Country Music Association’s Album of the Year award in 1989. A video documentary, “The Making of Will the Circle be Unbroken II,” was also released on Cabin Fever Entertainment.

Around the Circle II era, the band become a consistent hitter in the Top 40 country market, a fact not warmly embraced by some fans who had hung around from the beginning. It also caused some dissension in the band’s ranks. John McEuen, who had joined the group shortly after its founding, departed in 1986 and stayed out of the lineup for 14 years.

The band has survived several other personnel comings and goings through its 40-year career, but has managed to hang on to key players.

According to www.nittygritty.com, the current lineup includes Jeff Hanna, McEuen, Jimmy Fadden and Bob Carpenter.