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The album yielded what is the group's best-known single, their cover of Jerry Jeff Walker's "Mr.

Rooted tightly in their jug band sound, the album had a country feel but no trace of the vaudeville and novelty numbers that had appeared on their earlier records. The first result of this new era in the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band's history was Uncle Charlie & His Dog Teddy, issued in 1970. Bill McEuen became the group's producer as well as its manager. They returned to their record company with a demand for control over their recordings and the record company agreed. The members scattered for several months, but six months later the group was back for another try the new lineup included McEuen, Hanna, Fadden, Thompson, and Jim Ibbotson (guitars, accordion, drums, percussion, piano, vocals). The album was another commercial disaster, and the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band closed up shop soon after. The band persevered, however, and released Alive! in May of 1969. The band was barely working, a far cry from their success of a year earlier. Their first electric album, Rare Junk, released in June of 1968, was also a commercial failure. Ironically, by mid-1968 the group had gone electric, and also added drums to their sound. He was replaced by Chris Darrow (guitar, fiddle). During the dispute, Kunkel, who wanted to add an electric guitar to their sound, exited the lineup. The group now found itself at an impasse over the issue of whether to go electric. Their first single, "Buy for Me the Rain," became a modest hit and got the band some television appearances.Ī second album, Ricochet, released seven months later, was a critical success but a commercial failure. With Bill McEuen's guidance, the group landed a recording contract with Liberty Records and released their debut album, The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, in April of 1967. Browne left after a few months to pursue a solo career, and was replaced by John McEuen (banjo, fiddle, mandolin, steel guitar, vocals), the younger brother of the group's new manager, Bill McEuen. At that time, Southern California was undergoing a musical renaissance, courtesy of the folk-rock movement and the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band fit in with these other folkies-turned-rockers. This lineup became the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band in late 1965, and began playing jug band music at local clubs. It was there that they met Ralph Barr (guitar, washtub bass), Les Thompson (vocals, mandolin, bass, guitar, banjo, percussion), Jimmie Fadden (harmonica, vocals, drums, percussion), and Jackson Browne (guitar, vocals). By the time the two were college students, they were having informal jams at a Santa Monica, CA, guitar shop called McCabe's. The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band's beginnings lay with the New Coast Two, a folk duo consisting of Jeff Hanna (guitar, vocals) and Bruce Kunkel (guitar, washtub bass), formed while both were in high school in the early '60s. Younger contemporaries of the Byrds, they played an almost equally important role in the transformation from folk-rock into country-rock, and were an influence on such bands as the Eagles and Alabama. Founded in California during 1965, the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band has lasted longer than virtually any other country-based rock group of their era.