.jpg)
July 9, 2009
HARTINGTON — Doing the same thing for four decades could become tiresome to some folks, but not for the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band.
The award-winning band will be in Hartington Saturday, as the main attraction for the Cedar County Fair.
Even though the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band has been playing music together since 1966, they keep things fresh by continually making changes.
They have evolved from the jug band they first formed 43 years ago to a bluegrass group, to folk and to country and country rock.
Three of the original members — Jeff Hanna, Jimmie Fadden, and John McEuen are still with the group. The band’s fourth member, Bob Carpenter, is the kid of the group — first working with the band in 1975 and joining up full time in the late 1970s.
In an effort to keep things fresh, the band even changed their name at one point in their storied career, simply calling themselves the Dirt Band.
While they had plenty of commercial success with the shortened name, producing three top selling albums and two hit songs, the group changed their name back to the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band after just a few short years.
”We felt it was time to modernize, but it caused complete confusion,” keyboardist and vocalist Carpenter said in a Cedar County News interview last week. “When we had that hit in 1980 “Make a Little Magic,” we made the Billboard list of the best new bands. After seeing that, we decided to change our name back.”
Their unique sound has kept music critics guessing over the years, trying to classify their music.
The group makes fun of this confusion in their 1985 song, “Partners, Brothers and Friends,” a song in which they sing, “the critics all love our records just fine, but they seem a bit confused. Is it folk or rock or country? Seems like everybody cares, but us.”
July 9, 2009
HARTINGTON — Moving day is almost here for the county offices at the Cedar County Courthouse.
The finishing touches are being put on the new addition and the county offices, which are located in the Courthouse, will be moving to the new location next week. The Cedar County offices will be closed and the phone service will be shut down from Tuesday, July 14 through July 17 in order to make the move.
