Nitty Gritty Dirt Band frontman Jeff Hanna goes way, way back with the music of Bob Dylan — to the very first time he ever saw him more than half a century ago. It was December 5, 1964, at Wilson High School in Long Beach, California.
âYeah, $3.50 advance, $4.50 at the door, just Bob with an acoustic guitar and harmonica rack,â says Jeff. âIt was after âAnother Side of Bob Dylan,â so the tail end of all-acoustic Bob, right before the electric stuff. He was on the cusp of making a change in musical intent and boy, was it great. Quite a thing for a 17-year-old kid.â
A bit more than two decades later, Jeffâs son Jaime had his mind similarly blown with his first Dylan experience at the ripe old age of 14.
âRed Rocks in Colorado, 1986 with Tom Petty,â says Jaime. âMy little brother and I went with dad, sat at the soundboard where there was this lunch-bag full of joints. It was pretty cool and iconic to be there at that moment. And you could say it was my dadâs fault! He knew seeing him would be important for me.â
Dylan remains a multi-generational touchstone six decades after he broke onto the scene, and the Hanna menâs viewpoints through time help animate Dirt Does Dylan. A 10-song tribute to the Dylan songbook, itâs the Dirt Bandâs first studio album since 2009âs Speed of Life. Itâs also the groupâs first album to feature its new lineup, in which Jaime has joined the family business as singer/guitarist and occasional drummer. Also new to the lineup are bassist Jim Photoglo and fiddler/mandolinist Ross Holmes, joining longtime drummer/harmonica wizard Jimmie Fadden and keyboardist Bob Carpenter alongside Jeff Hanna on vocals and guitar.
This isnât the first time the Dirt Band has covered Dylan. 1989âs second volume of the long-running Will the Circle Be Unbroken series featured Dylanâs âYou Ainât Goinâ Nowhere,â with Roger McGuinn and Chris Hillman reprising their roles from the iconic version on the Byrdsâ 1968 classic, âSweetheart of the Rodeo.â But Dirt Does Dylan is a deep dive into all things Bob, with versions of some of the great bardâs definitive songs — âI Shall Be Released,â âShe Belongs to Meâ and âThe Times They Are A-Changinââ among them. The latter song features an all-star cameo guest list of Rosanne Cash, Steve Earle, Jason Isbell and The War and Treaty all taking a verse.
âThat oneâs generational, back to that 1964 Wilson High School gig for me,â says Jeff. âAs you know, Bob has never wanted to be labeled as a âpoliticalâ or âprotestâ writer. But as an observer of history and society and culture, heâs always so brilliant. He wrote that one at the apex of the Civil Rights movement, which it fit right into, and yet itâs still timeless with a consistent message across the ebb and flow of the world and society and humanity. Jason and Rosanne and everybody else all brought something unique to the tune, yet it hangs together in a beautiful way.â
Other highlights include the rousing sing-along version of âQuinn the Eskimo (Mighty Quinn),â a Dirt Band soundcheck standard since Manfred Mann had a hit with it in 1968; âGirl From the North Country,â based on the 1969 Nashville Skyline version; and âI Shall Be Released,â best-known for the classic version sung by The Band keyboardist Richard Manuel on âThe Basement Tapes.â Then thereâs âDonât Think Twice, Itâs Alright,â 1963 B-side to âBlowinâ in the Windâ and even more of a back-pages trip for Jeff Hanna than most of these songs.
âMe and Jimmie (Fadden) and Bruce (Kunkel) were like folk puppies, and our hangout spot was McCabeâs Guitar Shop in Long Beach,â says Jeff. âWeâd go there after school, grab a guitar off the wall and play. That fingerpicking pattern to âDonât Think Twiceâ was tricky and real cool, and learning it was like a rite of passage. It was all part of the folk process to learn that tune.â
Father-son dynamics played into âForever Young,â with Jeff taking the first verse and Jaime the second (and Carpenter the closing third verse). That seemed fitting, given that âForever Youngâ was a song Dylan reputedly wrote for his son Jakob, a future pop star as leader of The Wallflowers. The Hannas singing to each other makes it a touching intergenerational moment.
âSince it started as a song Bob sang to his son, us doing it as a father-son thing, too, came out really cool,â says Jaime. âDad singing to me, âMay your wishes all come trueâ and then me singing, âMay you have a strong foundationâ to him. Yeah, Dylan, heâs a pretty good writer, that guy.â
As was the case for so many projects, the coronavirus pandemic upended the planned timeline for Dirt Does Dylan. After whittling a list of around 80 possible songs down to several-score tunes to attempt in the studio, they did most of the recording in the spring of 2020. First up was the Nashville Skyline song âTonight Iâll Be Staying Here With You,â which also wound up in the pole position on Dirt Does Dylan — eventually. The virus shutdown suspended work for about a year, and then it took another year after that to get all the iâs dotted and tâs crossed. Ray Kennedy, whose best-known credits include Lucinda Williams and Steve Earle, co-produced at his Room & Board Studio in Nashville.
âRayâs like the mad-scientist dude from Back to the Future in a lab coat and chefâs hat,â says Jeff. âHis whole sonic scene is a throwback to all this amazing analogue stuff. Heâs got an incredible collection of instruments and microphones in his studio, and we used âem all. Heâd say things like, âBeatles records sounded pretty good, didnât they? This is the mike they used.ââ
Now that Dirt Does Dylan is out in the world, maybe it will somehow lead to another in-person encounter with the man himself. Jeff has had a couple of experiences over the years, most memorably in early 1990. It was right after the Dirt Bandâs second Circle album won three Grammy Awards, and Al Kooper guided Hanna backstage to usher him into Dylanâs presence.
âWe walked through this maze of tents, velvet ropes, bodyguards,â Jeff recalls. âThe last rope lifted and thereâs Bob in this big chair in a room tricked out with lamps and scarves. Al and Bob go way back and he introduced me, set it up nice: âThis is Jeff Hanna who just won a Grammy, heâs a good friend and would love to meet ya.â And I told him his music has meant so much to me — the wrong thing to say because it never lands. Then I said weâd just won a Grammy for an album with âYou Ainât Goinâ Nowhere,â he looked at me for a second and said, âYeah, you sure did, didnât you?â He had a smile on his face, butâŚwhat did that mean? Like everybody else when it comes to Dylan, Iâm still analyzing. Anyway, that was it, somebody took me by the elbow and we were out. âWhat just happened?â I asked Kooper. And he said, âYou just met Bob Dylan, and thatâs how it goes.ââ
Photo Credit: Jeff Fasano