California Split Trivia Quiz

Answer: Figure out how not to have to work for a living

Jeff Hanna and Bruce Kunkel got together in Long Beach, California in 1966 and used a couple of different set-ups, such as the New Coast Two and the Illegitimate Jug Band, to get some small time gigs. Along the way they met up with and played alongside of a number of artists before teaming up to form the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band.

They were drawn to folk music, which was making its presence felt through southern California and, to differentiate themselves, they wore pinstripe suits and cowboy boots. Eventually this band would be looked upon as one of the vital cogs in ensuring that country and roots music were pushed forward to a more mainstream audience.

Not a bad effort for a group of blokes who were just looking to get out of working.

Answer: True

Before he turned eighteen, Jackson Browne was one of the original six in the band when they formed and performed at the Golden Bear in Huntington Beach, California. He stayed with the band for only a few months before moving to Greenwich Village, where he became a staff writer for Nina Music, the publishing arm of Elektra Records.

Despite his short stay he left behind a legacy of several songs that would eventually appear on the first three NGDB albums. These included "Melissa" and "Holding" on the band's self-titled debut in early 1967, "Shadow Dream Song" and "It's Raining Here in Long Beach" on their follow-up record "Ricochet", and, later that same year, the quiet classic "These Days" which surfaced on 1968's "Rare Junk" LP.

The latter song was written by Browne when he was a precocious sixteen year old and was first recorded in 1967 by German model turned singer Nico, with whom Browne was romantically linked to for a brief period.

Answer: The band went electric

On July 25, 1965, Bob Dylan stepped onto the stage of the Newport Folk Festival and "plugged" in his guitar and got booed for his efforts. Essentially, he was telling his stream of followers "this is where my future lies, get used to it".

The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band's (NGDB) self-titled debut, released in 1967, sold well and was met with positive reviews. Their next album, "Ricochet", was described by one reviewer as a masterpiece, but, released in the tailspin of the Beatles' "Sgt Pepper" album it failed to capture the public's imagination and they stayed well away from it. The band's founding member, Bruce Kunkel, urged them to follow Dylan's example and go electric. While the rest of the team debated, Kunkel left and formed the band WordSalad. Despite this, NGDB went electric. However, "Rare Junk", which was described as a step forward (musically) was a step backward (financially). Bluntly, it was a commercial failure. To make matters worse, their next album "Alive" (1969) did not do much better.

Answer: Paint Your Wagon

"Paint Your Wagon", which also stars Clint Eastwood and Jean Seberg, is set during a goldrush in a place called "No Name City". The band feature during a wild party singing "Hand Me Down That Can o' Beans". This was not the first time they'd appeared on the silver screen, showing up as themselves in the John Saxon driven feature "For Singles Only" (1968). To add to the bands quirkiness they were the support act for a Bill Cosby comedy show at Carnegie Hall and performed in a much publicized "jam" session with jazz trumpeter, Dizzy Gillespie.

Answer: Mr Bojangles

"Mr Bojangles", a song about an alcoholic, tap-dancing drifter who winds up in a New Orleans jail, was written and recorded by Walker in 1968. It remains his signature song.

The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band (NGDB) recorded their version in 1970 but it didn't become a hit until 1971. Despite this song being covered by a myriad of artists, NGDB's version remained the biggest selling cover of it for more than forty years. It provided the band with their first hit, peaking at the mighty height of number nine on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart. Even more remarkable is that it spent a total of 36 weeks on those charts and opened a massive pop audience to the band.

The album from which it arose, "Uncle Charlie & His Dog Teddy" was a risky venture for them. They drifted back toward their bluegrass and country roots and fused them with elements of pop and rock and roll in an effort to broaden their market. But they were clever in they way they chose their songs. They relied heavily on cover songs and, apart from Walker's "Mr Bojangles", they also selected numbers from Mike Nesmith, Randy Newman, and Kenny Loggins. The latter providing four of his early songs for the album.

(Note) The other song options provided above were all written and recorded by Tom Waits.

Answer: True

NGDB have always been mindful of their roots. Despite being a "long-haired West Coast" band with popular music savvy, they were, at heart a country music band. A lot of artists from the 1940s and 1950s, who were masters of the rough and ready style of honky-tonk country music were being forgotten by the new generation. The majority of these had turned toward the new "Nashville Sound", a "smooth" style of country, laced with smooth tempos, smooth strings, smooth background vocals... The "Nashville Sound" came about as country music's initial response to the emergence of rock and roll, whose popularity had made a savage (negative) impact on the sales of country music.

With the idea to re-invigorate some of these older tunes, using the artists from the age, NGDB's John McEuen sought out Earl Scruggs who jumped at the idea. Encouraged, he called on folk-blues guitarist Doc Watson who was also enthusiastic. Soon they acquired a stable of veteran musicians, including country pioneer Mother Maybelle Carter, Merle Travis, Norman Blake and Roy Acuff amongst others. They recorded 37 songs that would form the triple album "Will the Circle Be Unbroken". NGDB, to their credit, did not try to embellish these songs so that would fit or be more appealing to the rock music world, they met country music head on, on its own terms and, in doing so, opened the doors to so many listeners under the age of thirty who had never heard of some of these artists.

The album, which achieved platinum sales in the US, would receive a Grammy nomination the next year which it didn't win. However, the interest generated was sufficient to encourage NGDB to try similar projects in 1989 (which did win the Grammy) and, again, in 2002.

Answer: Soviet Union

In a State Department sponsored event the band would perform twenty eight concerts through parts of the Soviet Union that included Russia, Armenia, Georgia and Latvia. Whilst the NGDB were selected because of their popularity in the country ("these kids know their music" on official said) the confirmation of the tour signaled the Soviet Union's reluctant acceptance of rock music from the West. In Armenia's capital, Yerevan, the crowd worked themselves into a frenzy ("the louder they are, the friendlier they are" said one policeman), culminating in a long-haired youth jumping on stage and dancing with an oblivious joy. When he failed to hear the band's request to leave the stage NGDB's tour manager, Gary Mullen, gently picked him up and placed him in the lap of a punter in the front row. The crowd cheered. The police then stepped in and evicted the young man. The crowd jeered.

Whilst the twenty eight gigs were all sold out, the bonus for the band is that the appearances were also televised and, it is estimated, reached an audience believed to be in the vicinity of 145 million people.

My thanks to an article published May 24, 1977 on page two of The New York Times for some of the above information.

Answer: The Dirt Band

"Dirt, Silver and Gold" was the name of a "greatest hits" compilation that the band released in 1976. A short while later they shortened their name to "The Dirt Band" because that was how they were generally referred to by their legion of fans. However, this caused some confusion and when Billboard Magazine decided to present them with an award in 1981 for "Best New Group" they figured that "someone wasn't getting the joke" and reverted back to their full name.

During this period, under their new name, they released four new studio albums; "The Dirt Band" (1978), "An American Dream" (1979), "Make a Little Magic" (1980) and "Jealousy" (1981). The title track to their 1979 disc, "An American Dream", featured Linda Ronstadt on backing vocals and, despite only reaching number 58 on the Billboard Hot Country Singles & Tracks chart, it rocketed to number 13 on Billboard's Hot 100.

Answer: It was their first #1 single on the US Billboard Hot Country Songs chart

Despite having been around for almost twenty years and having singles do extraordinarily well on the (tougher) Billboard Hot 100 charts, the band had still not cracked the top spot on the Country charts. For the band, on Billboards' Hot 100, "Mr Bojangles" (1970) reached number nine, "An American Dream" (1980), number thirteen and "Make a Little Magic" (1980 and featuring Nicolette Larson) peaked at number twenty five. On Billboard's Hot Country charts, "Dance Little Jean" (1983) was the first to crack the top ten, peaking at number nine. Their next single, the first from their 1984 album "Plain Dirt Fashion", was "Long Hard Road (The Sharecropper's Dream)". Being seventeen years since the release of their first single, it certainly had been a long hard road to get to number one.

(Notes) The song's sub-title was removed from the question so that it didn't lead you toward down the path of the Farm Aid option. The band, however, were a part of the first Farm Aid concert (1985) which was held in Champaign, Illinois. They would return some twenty years later for an anniversary event in Camden, New Jersey.

The band also performed during the ceremonies for the 1984 Summer Olympic Games, however, these games were held in Los Angeles, whereas the answer option was for the 1996 games held in Atlanta.

The band did not receive the first Grammy until 1989 for their work on the record "Will the Circle Be Unbroken: Volume Two".

Answer: Their fiftieth (50th) year together as a band

The full title of the album (which was left out for obvious reasons) is "Circlin' Back: Celebrating 50 Years". The anniversary concert was held at Nashville's Ryman Auditorium on September 14, 2015, a year earlier than their actual anniversary, but the design was to have the album ready for release the following year.

After inviting a wide range of musicians to work alongside them on their "Will the Circle Be Unbroken" projects, the band had a large contingent of friends and former band members to call upon to lend a hand. To this end they were joined on the stage by the likes of John Prine, Vince Gill, Sam Bush, Jackson Browne, Jerry Jeff Walker, Rodney Crowell and Alison Krauss.

The entire album sounds like a massive celebration, and that's exactly what it was meant to be.