Template:Multiple issuesJohn McEuen (born December 19, 1945), is an American folk musician and entertainer. A founding member of the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band. He played with the band from 1966 to 1986, and returned in 2001 to present.The group prior to that 'dissolved' a few times briefly, but none as long as in 1968, right after spending 4 months working on the Paramount Pictures Paint Your Wagon. Then, Jeff Hanna went on to play with Linda Ronstadt, John did various solo gigs and worked in Vegas with Andy Williams (for a month), and frequented the L.A. music scene, occasionally running in to Jeff. It was in a So. Cal club, the famed Golden Bear, one night in early 1969, where John and Hanna were watching POCO (in one of their first appearances) that they said "we can do this! let's put it back together and find a singing drummer...". The short search led them to Jimmy Ibbotson, fresh in from the Baltimore and Philly area, and whose participation with the group began in 1969. John is known as a multi-instrumentalist, entertainer, composer, and especially recognized as a pioneer stylist on the 5-string banjo and other acoustic colorings he adds to recordings with the other instruments.Besides his career with the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, John McEuen has performed and recorded prolifically as a solo artist and in various group settings, as well as producing music CDs, film scores, and videos. He has his own show on Sirius/AM - The Acoustic Traveller, that runs seven times a month (now in its 7th year). He is CEO of SyndicatedNews.Net, a new web site he is building.McEuen is the only Californian musician to accomplish this combination of performances in Nashville on WSM's Grand Old Opry: perform solo many times, perform with his sons (Jonathan and Nathan), played there several times as a member of 'a band' (NGDB), and be invited as a featured guest for several of the Opry member acts to sit in with them. John has recorded with the Nashville's Country music creators, and had records in the pop and country charts. McEuen instigated what Rolling Stone (in 1972) 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."In June of 1971 he asked Earl Scruggs if he would record with the NGDB. Earl said 'I'd be proud to'(Jeff Hanna was in the back of the car, but John says he could see his eyes light up in the dark at that answer!), and a week later invited Doc Watson to the same session. 8 weeks after those questions were asked, a whole concept had come together and was recorded in 6 days, to come out by April of 1972.As a multi-instrumentalist, he sings, and plays banjo, guitar, mandolin, fiddle, piano, mandolin]]. When performimg as a solo entertainer, McEuen plays to the boomer 'hippie' crowd, the traditional/bluegrass and folk audience, as well as the older country audience, and now the younger crowd is showing up to see 'w
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