Nitty Gritty Dirt Band Pay A Royal Tribute With New Album Dirt Does Dylan

Fri May 27, 2022

It’s been a few years since Nitty Gritty Dirt Band’s Jeff Hanna paid $4 to see Bob Dylan play at his high school auditorium in Long Beach, California, but the fire lit inside of Hanna that night still burns as strong as ever. Hanna and his Dirt Band bandmates have had quite a career of their own since then, introducing folk, bluegrass, and country music—what would later be termed “Americana”—to a whole new generation of fans. Their latest effort, however, is a full-circle return with Dirt Does Dylan, a ten-track album highlighting some of the gems from Dylan’s vast catalog with the help of three new band members: fiddle specialist Ross Holmes; singer-songwriter and bass player Jim Photoglo (who wrote one of the Dirt Band’s biggest hits, “Fishin’ in the Dark”); and Dirt Band founder Jeff Hanna’s son, the absurdly talented singer and guitarist Jaime Hanna.