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Gritty, Dirty Jam Session at Zalk Theater

Sunday, February 25, 2007, Zalk Theater, Happy Valley School, Ojai, CA - Jonathan and Nathan join dad John McEuen for a fundraising night for the HVS Arts Program. Read more for a recap of the evening and some video from the performance...

The show was the 6th in a series of fundraisers for the HVS Arts Program. John McEuen of Nitty Gritty Dirt Band fame started the show solo, with a monologue filled with jokes, the banjo and some good ol' fashioned pickin'. Sons Nathan and Jonathan joined dad for "Grand Design", the title track off Nathan's album, which was written with Crosby Loggins, son of Kenny. John, playing the mandolin, joked that people going to see him in concert were disappointed they weren't seeing Kenny Loggins and David Crosby.

A Jonathan/John duet was followed by "Long Hard Road" written by the Dirt Band's Rodney Crowell, as John picked up the fiddle and continued his versatile display of musicianship. Jonathan then led "Lowlands", an old Dirt Band song first recorded by Jonathan's band for his own album, thirty years later.

The final song of the first set features the three playing "Earl's Breakdown", a tune originally done by the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band with bluegrass legend Earl Scruggs (of Flatt and Scruggs fame). Check out the video above.

John once again opened up the second set solo, doing a tune from the 1800's followed by a song he recorded for the score of a Tommy Lee Jones flick. The trio became a quartet, joined by fiddler Phil Salazar. Jonathan led a tune on piano, and then picked up his electric guitar, plucking out "Crazy" by Gnarls Barkley, while Nathan beatboxed and dad rapped. We'll just call it an experiment.

"Mr. Bojangles", "Don't Belong Here" and "Will The Circle Be Unbroken" closed the second set, followed by a one-song encore highlight - Jonathan on acoustic and John on mandolin as the son sang a song he wrote for his father - "I'm a living legacy / of the leader of the band" that brought tears to dad's eyes. A touching end to a beautiful night of music.

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