John McEuen of Nitty Gritty Dirt Band

John McEuen, born in Oakland, CA in 1945, moved to southern California's Orange County with his family for high school years. He and lifelong high-school friend Steve Martin both got a job in 1963 (in the magic shop) at 16! When, a couple years later, he saw Missouri bluegrass group The Dillards in an Orange County club, John's life then headed towards his new dream: "be a traveling music man". Leaving his Garden Grove spawning ground, his dream became more of a reality than imagined it could be! Multi-instrumentalist McEuen (banjo, guitar, mandolin, fiddle) has been recognized as a founding member and award-winning outstanding performer of the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band. He departed at the end of the 50th year anniversary tour Oct. 22, 2017 due to demands for his solo work and the desire to do things new. In addition to John's numerous solo accolades, NGDB was inducted in to Colorado Music Hall of Fame 2015. It is all covered in his book The Life I've Picked on Chicago Review Press, published April, 2018. In 1971 John initiated the now landmark Will the Circle be Unbroken* album, hooking Nitty Gritty Dirt Band up with his musical mentors Earl Scruggs and Doc Watson simply by asking them in Colorado (brother Bill then asked Merle Travis, and it started growing) to record; it grew to inviting Mother Maybelle Carter, Jimmy Martin, Roy Acuff, 'Bashful' Brother Oswald, Merle Travis, Vassar Clements, and Junior Huskey, for 5 magic hot August days of recording.