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Opera House to present four-time Grammy winner, Nitty Gritty Dirt Band founding member

AP Photo John McEuen, a four-time Grammy Award-winner and founding member of the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band will perform this Friday at 7:30 p.m. at the 1891 Fredonia Opera House.

The 1891 Fredonia Opera House, will present John McEuen, a four-time Grammy Award-winner and founding member of the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, on Fri., Apr. 26, at 7:30 p.m.

McEuen brings with him a unique cast of iconic Americana string wizards to share the music and memories of the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band’s (NGDB) incredible 50-year career and its landmark platinum album, Will the Circle Be Unbroken.  With narrative and early NGDB music, McEuen outlines the band’s incredible journey interwoven with NGDB favorites, hot bluegrass, rarely heard early classics, and Carter Family music, all in a multimedia presentation that features archival footage. 

McEuen helped found the NGDB in 1966.  In October of 2017, following the band’s 50th anniversary tour, McEuen left the group to pursue his own tour dates and projects, which include this special multimedia concert.

In 1971, McEuen initiated what Rolling Stone called “the most important record to come out of Nashville” and what the 2004 ZAGAT survey called “the most important record in country music” – Will the Circle be Unbroken.  The platinum-selling album was inducted into the Library of Congress in 2004 and the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2011 as a historic recording.

In 1977, the NGDB became the first American band to tour the then Soviet Union.  With 28 sold out shows, the tour included a televised broadcast reaching 130 million people.  The band and its tour are featured in 2017’s Free to Rock documentary about how American music helped bring down the Iron Curtain.

McEuen is a four-time Grammy winner: in 2004 for Best Country Instrumental with special guest Earl Scruggs; in 2009 when Mr. Bojangles was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame as a historic recording; in 2010 as producer for Steve Martin’s Best Bluegrass Album The Crow, and 2011’s Hall of Fame induction for Will the Circle be Unbroken.  He was inducted into the American Banjo Museum Hall of Fame; and Deering Banjos made a special “John McEuen” model in his honor.

McEuen has performed continually for more than five decades.  He has performed more than 9,500 concerts, and traveled more than 3 million miles to do it.  He has appeared on more than 300 television shows, both with NGDB and solo; recorded more than 40 albums that have earned four platinum and five gold recognitions; won Grammy, Country Music Association, American Country Music, and International Bluegrass Music Association awards; received an Emmy nomination; and performed as guest artist on 25 other noted artist’s albums.

In all of this, he has influenced some of today’s most acclaimed artists. Garth Brooks famously tells his story of seeing McEuen in concert:  “I went to see the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band in college at Gallagher Arena.  A bunch of guys in the dorm pooled our monies together and threw in an extra buck to pay one of the guys to sleep out for tickets.  We got front row seats!  We were having the time of our lives when during a fiddle solo, John McEuen leaped over the monitors and past the edge of that stage and landed in between John Mathiason and me.  McEuen never missed a lick of that solo!  THAT MOMENT is forever etched in my soul!”

McEuen’s appearance is part of the Opera House Folk in Fredonia Music Series, which is generously sponsored by The Gilman Family. The concert also is presented with support from Tuscany Fresh Meats and Deli, and the United Arts Appeal of Chautauqua County.

Tickets are $30 ($25 for Opera House members, $15 for students) and may be purchased in person at the Opera House Box Office or by phone at 716-679-1891, Tuesday-Friday, 1-5 p.m. Tickets may be purchased online at www.fredopera.org anytime.

The 1891 Fredonia Opera House is a member-supported not-for-profit organization located in Village Hall in downtown Fredonia. A complete schedule of Opera House events is available at www.fredopera.org.

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