{"id":21176,"date":"2024-04-12T01:09:51","date_gmt":"2024-04-12T08:09:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/?p=21176"},"modified":"2024-04-12T01:09:51","modified_gmt":"2024-04-12T08:09:51","slug":"string-wizard-john-mceuen-premieres-ill-be-glad-when-they-run-out-of-gas-track-video","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/2024\/04\/string-wizard-john-mceuen-premieres-ill-be-glad-when-they-run-out-of-gas-track-video\/","title":{"rendered":"String Wizard JOHN McEUEN Premieres &#8220;I&#8217;ll Be Glad (When They Run Out of Gas)&#8221; Track Video"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><strong>JOHN McEUEN \u201cI\u2019LL BE GLAD (WHEN THEY RUN OUT OF GAS)\u201d Track Video<br \/>\n<\/strong><\/h2>\n<h3><strong><br \/>\n<\/strong><strong>Musician:\u00a0 JOHN McEUEN<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h3><strong>Track Video Feature:\u00a0 \u201cI\u2019LL BE GLAD (WHEN THEY RUN OUT OF GAS)\u201d<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p><strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/3GpoK7__2OE?si=8D95RhA39VMNZ4n2\" width=\"660\" height=\"440\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2><strong>JOHN McEUEN\u2019S TRANSFORMATION FROM \u201cSTRING WIZARD\u201d TO MAN OF RECORD WITH SPOKEN WORD ALBUM <em>THE NEWSMAN<\/em><\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>by Rodeo Marie Hanson<\/p>\n<p>Inside the sanctuary of anonymity, offered by a luxury hotel, a figure shrouded in mystique rhapsody is perched comfortably at a piano. Sojourners of the caravansary shuffle by the enigmatic presence amidst the grandiose surroundings, casting fleeting glances at the carousel of notes radiating from the clavier\u2014oblivious to \u201cthe String Wizard\u201d residing in the shadows\u2014melding into the marble stonework and high-end aesthetics, his distinguished aura perfuses the opulent foyer.<\/p>\n<p>On this eventide, John McEuen is in Reading, Pennsylvania at the DoubleTree by Hilton hotel to teach a workshop\/jam session and put on a concert, all free of charge to \u201cThe Pretzel City\u2019s\u201d residents. Promoted as Guitar-A-Rama, the festivities are presented by the Reading Musical Foundation, an organization which advocates for and supports music education. Also appearing with McEuen is talent local to the area Dave Kline &amp; the Mountain Folk Band, along with Big Valley Bluegrass and guitarist Bryan Betts.<\/p>\n<p>Commenting on\u00a0Guitar-A-Rama and how he became involved, McEuen says,\u00a0\u201cIt is a couple of people in a community that\u2019s very dedicated to putting on a show that shows somebody that has influence or somebody that\u2019s played, and they picked me this year. They called my agent and booked it. I\u2019d been doing shows that are kind of instructional. The\u00a0<em>Circle<\/em>\u00a0show that I do onstage with the video footage\u2014it\u2019s like a history lesson with music, and I use my brother\u2019s photographs and play in front of them. I guess they thought that I had some value to telling people some of what happened.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/John-McEuen-02-The-Life-Ive-Picked.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-21178\" src=\"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/John-McEuen-02-The-Life-Ive-Picked.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"660\" height=\"990\" srcset=\"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/John-McEuen-02-The-Life-Ive-Picked.jpg 660w, https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/John-McEuen-02-The-Life-Ive-Picked-200x300.jpg 200w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 660px) 100vw, 660px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Buried beneath this unassuming fa\u00e7ade is a titan of the music industry. Bedecking musical altars from Moscow to Nashville and penning scores for Hollywood feature films, founding member of the renowned Nitty Gritty Dirt Band\u2014musician, singer and producer John McEuen has left an inextricable cultural tattoo on Americana\u2019s corpuscles.<\/p>\n<p>McEuen\u2019s carnal vessel is a reflection of his venerable m\u00e9tier\u2014calloused fingers which have left latent prints spanning continents and crossing oceans of time, the protoplasm roadmap to a whirlpool of stories dance effortlessly across the ebony and ivory keys and galvanized steel wire. Cascading over his shoulders, an alabaster shock of hair reminiscent of an ancient sage from a bygone era; whiskers and bristles frame the beckoning ghost of his past.<\/p>\n<p>Unpretentious simple 21st-century contemporary raiment, an ensemble of a gray t-shirt and casual pants belies the weight of his musical pilgrimage\u2014a pair of comfortable shoes rhythmically tapping against the terrazzo, grounding McEuen to the modern world, temporarily. LAX baggage claim tickets dangle precariously like fragments of gossamer from McEuen\u2019s guitar cases, his only retinue\u2014an earthly reminder that this man is a visitant.<\/p>\n<p><strong>\u201cLong Hard Road\u201d: Young \u2018String Wizard\u2019 in Oakland, CA<\/p>\n<p><\/strong>McEuen reveals the genesis of his moniker and how he became interested in music, \u201cI\u00a0didn\u2019t become \u2018the String Wizard.\u2019 It was in a few reviews, so I used it because I needed to use something\u2014\u2018the man in black\u2019 was already taken. I only lived in Oakland for a few years\u2014I was born there. The first thing I wanted to say was get me out of here but I didn\u2019t start with music until I was 17. My brother played guitar and I listened when I was 16. At 17, I got a guitar and he showed me what he was playing. Then I saw The Dillards at a club in Orange County. The Dillards were The Darling Family from\u00a0<em>The Andy Griffith Show\u00a0<\/em>and they were the best combination of comedy and music\u2014they were like the Smothers Brothers and Flatt and Scruggs [Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs].\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>\u201cAmerican Dream\u201d: College, The Byrds, and the Beach<\/p>\n<p><\/strong>In art, artists draw from a well of inspiration and hopefully they then contribute to that well for someone else. Chris Hillman of The Byrds is one of the figures McEuen credits for having a band in the first place. He sets the scene for a life-changing event,<strong>\u00a0<\/strong>\u201cThe first time I heard The Byrds they weren\u2019t a big group yet, they were just getting on the radio. I was driving to college, my second year of\u00a0college, and I heard \u2018Turn! Turn! Turn!\u2019 on the radio. What is that? Oh my God! I didn\u2019t go to school that day, I went to the beach and waited for it to come on again because it was the best thing that I ever heard. It was just a lot of inspiration. I\u2019ve played with Chris and his buddy Herb Pedersen\u2014who is responsible for a lot of good things happening in L.A. music. I knew that Chris Hillman was the bass player and he was a mandolin player for The Scottsville Squirrel Barkers from San Diego, and they were a new group. I hoped that if I could get a group going then maybe the same thing would happen. If he can get on the radio, then maybe I can\u2014but I better get a group. I didn\u2019t have a group. I was a college student. Chris Hillman was a couple years ahead of me. At the time my bass player was 18, it was just very strange. I was 20, that\u2019s not that much older than 17, and the other guys were 18 and 19.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>\u201cPropinquity\u201d: Linda Ronstadt, Chewing Gum, and West Point<\/p>\n<p><\/strong>Pulling back the curtain on the music business in the late 1960s,\u00a0McEuen shares,\u00a0\u201cThe record company situation changed to where the original songs created by these younger people had so much power and commercial success, that they started taking over the production of records and making of things. Before that, it was like we got a song for you, this guy sent this in, and here\u2019s another one. Songs were fed to the artist. Sometimes the artist would control it a little bit and would choose to not do one, but when they were writing all their own songs this is what they were doing.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Providing context\u00a0McEuen observes,\u00a0\u201cLinda Ronstadt did not write. Linda did other people\u2019s songs, but she chose really well. Linda was a big influence in that she was successful and she was great. At the same time Linda Ronstadt was starting to get noticed, she had to record. When one of our friends was recording in L.A. sometimes you\u2019d go by the studio: \u2018Hey, I\u2019m recording next week at Village Recorders.\u2019<\/p>\n<p>A friend of ours was having a session, so I went by the studio one night\u00a0because there was free food. I was lying on the floor of the studio one time and\u00a0listening to her\u2014this was in the late 1960s early 1970s. I was sitting in the vocal booth listening to what they were recording, and Linda comes out and says \u2018Hey John, I\u2019ve got to do a vocal\u2019 so I gave her the headphones and said I\u2019ll leave. She said \u2018No, stay here\u2014I\u2019ll sing to you\u2019 and she sang \u2018Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow\u2019\u2014she sure killed it. I knew then. I listened to it with all the music behind it\u2014she should be heard, she should get out there. Months later, her music was on the radio\u2014she became the biggest selling female vocalist in the 1970s.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Painting a portrait of Ronstadt,\u00a0McEuen reflects, \u201cLinda was always Linda. She was always just really nice.\u201d He recounts a story Ronstadt told him several years later. Ronstadt was in New York doing a bunch of interviews and all she wanted was a stick of gum. She had to call the front desk to have them send up a stick of gum\u2014it cost her $5, and she didn\u2019t care. She figured she must be a star if she\u2019s buying a stick of gum for $5. That was 1974-75, which would be almost $30 in 2024 money. She was in The Waldorf or some fancy hotel.<\/p>\n<p>Reminiscing about a concert The Dirt Band did with Ronstadt, McEuen\u00a0affectionately recalls,\u00a0\u201cWe were doing a show with her at West Point. She was going to open for The Dirt Band. I said Linda, would you mind going on second instead of opening for us because there are 2000 guys out there and they\u2019ve been trapped in this school for months. You\u2019re the first female\u2014we won\u2019t have a chance if we have to follow you. She said \u2018Yeah, I will,\u2019 and she killed it. We did a fine set, but then she went on and it was great.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>\u201cFace on the Cutting Room Floor\u201d: 1969 Musical-Western\u00a0<em>Paint Your Wagon<\/p>\n<p><\/em><\/strong>Before achieving success in the music industry, The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band gained recognition in the film industry by appearing in the 1969 musical-western\u00a0<em>Paint Your Wagon.<\/em>\u00a0McEuen elucidates with a Hollywood director\u2019s skill how he earned a role in a film where Clint Eastwood and Lee Marvin sing,<strong>\u00a0<\/strong>\u201cWhen we got the job on\u00a0<em>Paint Your Wagon<\/em>, we weren\u2019t really very good. We had only been playing a few years. We auditioned for Alan Lerner and Joshua Logan at the Paramount Studio in L.A., which had big gates\u2014the ones I would sit across the street from in my car looking at in the years before the\u00a0<em>Paint Your Wagon<\/em>\u00a0audition. I\u2019d go\u2014how do I get through those gates.<\/p>\n<p>My brother [William E. McEuen] was reading\u00a0<em>Variety<\/em>\u00a0one time, and he goes\u2014this is it, this is perfect. He was the manager of The Dirt Band and he set up an audition for this movie that was looking for a bunch of young musicians to play the part of miners during a song. We went in and auditioned on a giant sound stage. It was just the two of them [Lerner and Logan) sitting there watching, asking us to do another song. We would do another song, and they said \u2018This could be a big break for you boys.\u2019 It was a lot of fun. We did four months on the set. We weren\u2019t in the movie business, other than standing in front of the cameras, and getting makeup every day at 6 AM\u2014sitting around on the set, waiting for our time.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>\u201cTravelin\u2019 Mood\/Chicken Reel\u201d: Earl Scruggs and the Grand Ole Opry<\/p>\n<p><\/strong>When McEuen was younger, he couldn\u2019t attend Earl Scruggs\u2019 sold-out performance at the Grand Ole Opry. But later, he got to play alongside Scruggs\u2014someone who had been a musical inspiration and hero since his childhood. McEuen takes a trip down memory lane, \u201cMy brother and I had gone to the Opry just to see what it was. We were from California. There was no internet, there was no news of what was happening\u2014I didn\u2019t know if the Opry was still running. We got there on a Saturday, a sold-out night, it was a hot August night. Somebody said the back windows are up because it\u2019s so hot. I looked in and Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs were onstage, and Lester said \u2018Let\u2019s bring out Maybelle Carter to do \u2018Wildwood Flower,\u2019 and the place exploded. I said to my brother, I\u2019m going to record with those people someday. There wasn\u2019t a Dirt Band then.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/John-McEuen-04-Circle.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-21180\" src=\"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/John-McEuen-04-Circle.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"660\" height=\"660\" srcset=\"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/John-McEuen-04-Circle.jpg 660w, https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/John-McEuen-04-Circle-300x300.jpg 300w, https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/John-McEuen-04-Circle-150x150.jpg 150w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 660px) 100vw, 660px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Music Forms a New Circle:<\/p>\n<p><\/strong>Six years later McEuen was in the studio with Earl Scruggs. The Dirt Band started, and they had some hits. Framing\u00a0<em>Will the Circle Be Unbroken<\/em>, McEuen calls to mind, \u201cWe got to the studio, and I asked Earl and Doc Watson if they would record in June of 1971, and they said yes. My brother got Merle Travis, and then the other people came along. Eight weeks later, the band started recording in Nashville\u2014and five days later, we were finished with 38 songs. It was a good run.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Offering insight into the recording process McEuen delineates, \u201cIt was recorded in stereo two-track. When you recorded in those days, you were usually recording to a multi-track, which is a two-inch tape that had 16 or 24 tracks on it. You would maybe use 12 of them, or 16 or 18 of them, and then use a couple to overdub on. But if you record two-track, you can\u2019t fix anything\u2014that\u2019s it. You\u2019re recording like the old days, like they did up to the late 1950s. We were recording two-track, so\u00a0it would go directly to the tape, and that would be the master. This was the master you would make the mother disc from\u2014which would make the stampers, which would go for 25,000 units a piece. If you had a multi-track, that had to be mixed down to the two-track. You had to go from 16 to 24 tracks down to 2, and then make that. With this (two-track), you didn\u2019t lose anything between these two\u2014that\u2019s one reason it went fast.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>\u201cMr. Bojangles\u201d: New York\u2019s WABC Rick Sklar and Catholic Junior High<\/p>\n<p><\/strong>Harking back to the success of \u201cMr. Bojangles,\u201d\u00a0McEuen connects the dots between Rick Sklar at New York\u2019s WABC radio station and how the floodgates opened after The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band wound up playing at Sklar\u2019s daughter\u2019s junior high school: \u201cThe charts were made up by how much airplay you got, how many stations, how many phone calls they got, and how many records it sold. Radio stations would make their decisions on what to play based upon what other people were playing. A lot of major stations like WBCN in Boston, KWKC in Atlanta, and WLS in Chicago\u2014they would follow ABC in New York, you know, WABC in New York. If they were playing it, then Boston BCN would play it. If they weren&#8217;t playing it, then these other stations wouldn\u2019t play it.<\/p>\n<p>If ABC didn\u2019t play the record, it most likely would not go to the Top Ten. And Rick, the guy that programmed ABC\u2014his daughter went to this school in lower Manhattan, and we were told when \u201cMr. Bojangles\u201d was number 17 or 15\u2014well, the record company said it\u2019s not going to the Top Ten because ABC has said they aren\u2019t going to play it. Well, isn&#8217;t there anything we can do about that? You could play this Catholic junior high school in Manhattan. Yeah, why\u2019s that? You see, Rick Sklar, the man that programmed ABC, his daughter goes to that school and that sometimes makes him pay attention more.<\/p>\n<p>As we were setting up at nine in the morning to do the 11:30 lunchtime show for the junior high girls, I mean, I got nothing against Catholic female students, or even junior high. I have a lot of kids. But, as we were setting up there, the sister in charge walks in and said, \u2018Do you boys need anything?\u2019 I said, yeah, no, we\u2019re fine\u2014who else has played your lunchtime program for the girls here? \u2018Oh, we&#8217;ve been very lucky. We\u2019ve had Aretha Franklin, The Jackson 5, Paul Simon. Early in the year, we had that young British boy John Lennon.\u2019 I thought, well, okay, thanks\u2014we\u2019ve got an important show to get ready for. And those people and many, many others did a concert for this Catholic junior high school, and I think it affected their careers. That show was on Friday morning and on Monday morning, \u2018Here\u2019s a new song by The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band\u2014ABC wants to bring you \u2018Mr Bojangles\u2019 by The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band.\u2019 They played the record and it ended up staying on the air. At that point, it was in its 17th week, and on its way down, and it turned into being back on the way up\u2014made it to the Top 10. It was on the charts for a total of 38 weeks. If ABC hadn\u2019t played it, it would have just been heard in secondary stations, secondary markets. But as it was, they gave it that extra push, and a bunch of other stations jumped on the record and it became an amazing record.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>\u201cWhite Russia\u201d: Nitty Gritty Dirt Band\u2019s 1977 Trip to The Motherland<\/p>\n<p><\/strong>A man named David Hess, who worked in the Cultural Affairs Department, was in Russia, and they were committed to bringing over an American group that made its own music decisions. Not a star with a band, but a group. Hess was a big Dirt Band fan, and he pitched the band to the Russians, who came to see them four times. The last time was in Aspen, Colorado. McEuen points out, \u201cThey quit looking at the other groups. They looked at Chicago and the Grateful Dead\u2014no too much drugs\u2014and the Eagles. The Eagles were not in the mix of what they wanted. It sounded too much alike or something. They decided on The Dirt Band.<\/p>\n<p>We got the call from the State Department. The Russians are going to be there again tonight watching your show. When you were told that was going to happen and that you might end up going to Russia, it was like, okay. No American group had been there before. There was no knowledge of a lot of bands in America. We did songs when we went over there. We did 28 shows. It all sold out\u20142,000 to 4,000 seats. One place was 5,000 seats. We did four shows there, but we did these shows that people just went nuts. We were told that the audience would be very respectful. Well, they were respectful, and they stood up when it was illegal to stand up at a public event. These people were on their feet by the middle of the show.<\/p>\n<p>My favorite memory is one of the shows in Leningrad\u2014a woman that was one of the tour managers, \u2018When we get to Leningrad, they will be respectful but not like in Riga or Georgia or Armenia. They would like you but you maybe get one encore.\u2019 We were walking off stage after our third encore and the people were up by the front of the stage, hands in the air\u2014you know, clapping and stuff\u2014\u2018more more\u2019. I\u2019ll never forget Arina saying, \u2018I never thought in Leningrad, this audience.\u2019 We went out and did our fourth encore after a guy ran up on stage and played air guitar with Jeff [Hanna], and a woman had run up on stage on the second encore to catch one of the other guitar players and it was really exciting. I said, \u2018Well Arina, it\u2019s American music.\u2019 We were doing songs from Chuck Berry, and we did a variety of songs along with our own music. We wanted to cover a bunch of different people, and we took a female with us\u2014a woman who sang a couple songs, and then sang along on other songs of ours.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>\u201cBuy for Me the Rain\u201d: Bob Dylan and $2,500<\/p>\n<p><\/strong>McEuen hired Bob Dylan for a high school concert right about the time The Dirt Band was starting. He tells the tale, \u201cI had this opportunity to put up money. This guy was doing a show at a high school and he needed $2,500. I had $2,500 and Bob Dylan only cost $5,000\u2014and that\u2019s pretty cheap. We sold out the auditorium. It got me a front row seat\u2014that\u2019s all I got. But even then, Bob was mysterious. I can remember sitting in that front row seat, looking at the stage door\u2014I saw it open up and this guy gets out of the limousine with a harmonica rack and a guitar, and he walks out on stage and sings for an hour and a half. Then he walks back out, gets into the limousine and drives away. That\u2019s a pretty good way to make a living! That drove me to continue to get a band, try to get on the radio, and all that.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>\u201cMake a Little Magic\u201d: Baez, Dylan Sound Check<\/p>\n<p><\/strong>Eight years later, The Dirt Band was doing a show in Florida, and McEuen\u00a0booked a day off so he could see The Rolling Thunder Revue in Lakeland Florida. Comparing and contrasting Dylan\u2019s 1975-76 concert tour to security measures in the 21st century, he vocalizes, \u201cI went to the sound check\u2014it\u2019s easy to get into a sound check\u2014you just go in. It might be harder now. Back then, if you were there at 4, you must be working. Most people didn\u2019t know that everybody does a sound check because you have to check the mics. That was fun. Joan Baez was on that show, and trying to get her guitar to work. I\u2019m one of three people in this 10,000 seat room, and I\u2019m at the front of the stage watching them trying to figure out the guitar. She had the same kind of boxes that they were playing into that I had, and I didn\u2019t want to say anything. I said plug that into the hole that\u2019s in the back, not the one you\u2019re doing, and then run that to the PA\u2014that\u2019s the way that box works. Bob was down there looking at this box with Joan, and looks at me and said, \u2018Do what he says\u2014that was the first recognition from Bob Dylan, but that was fun and it worked\u2014her guitar worked fine. I was just a fan, but he went out and he killed it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/John-McEuen-01-with-Banjo.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-21177\" src=\"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/John-McEuen-01-with-Banjo.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"660\" height=\"576\" srcset=\"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/John-McEuen-01-with-Banjo.jpg 660w, https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/John-McEuen-01-with-Banjo-300x262.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 660px) 100vw, 660px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>\u201cPartners, Brothers and Friends\u201d: Steve Martin and \u201cKing Tut\u201d<\/p>\n<p><\/strong>The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band backed McEuen\u2019s good friend Steve Martin on his 1978 novelty hit \u201cKing Tut,\u201d which made it to #17 in the U.S.A. Tracing his friendship with Martin, McEuen explains, \u201cSteve Martin and I got into banjo at the same time\u2014we were 16 years-old, and trying to get jobs at Disneyland\u2019s Magic Shop. We succeeded. We got the job, and celebrated by having lunch at Tomorrowland. I had a tuna sandwich\u2014it was really good. I didn\u2019t do any drugs. I don\u2019t drink. I never could understand drugs and why people do them. So I didn\u2019t have a lot of friends at the time. A few years later, when The Dirt Band was happening, then in the 1970s and 1980s, marijuana, cocaine, uppers, and downers, and all that stuff\u2014it was kind of sad.<\/p>\n<p>David Crosby was doing an interview in 2011. I really liked David Crosby from that point on\u2014when he said \u2018Drugs didn\u2019t do anything good, it shortened my life, I\u2019ve got liver problems and I can tell you a long list of people that are dead.\u2019 It might have created some flashes of genuine\u00a0genius or something musically but often it couldn\u2019t be counted on.<\/p>\n<p>Steve was not into drugs. I wasn\u2019t into drugs. Some of the band guys were. Steve wasn\u2019t into being a band member. Steve Martin is on his own\u2014he didn\u2019t team up with anybody really until Dan Aykroyd on\u00a0<em>SNL<\/em>, and now lately Martin Short\u2014that\u2019s because they\u2019re working together. Steve was being managed by my brother and he had this song \u201cKing Tut,\u201d and we had done it with him. He came to see us at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in L.A., which is a real classy room\u2014about 2,400 seats. He came into the dressing room and said he had this idea for a song, and we worked it out. We went out and did it that\u00a0night, and the room just exploded. It was our audience and Steve wasn\u2019t a big star. He hadn\u2019t been on\u00a0<em>Saturday Night Live\u00a0<\/em>more than once, and\u00a0<em>The Tonight Show\u00a0<\/em>a few times. But the next week, we were in Aspen and recorded \u201cKing Tut\u201d in seven hours\u2014from start to finish, including mixing. It came together really fast, and was a good example of a hit record. Steve\u2019s a fine banjo player.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>\u201cWorkin\u2019 Man\u201d: Music Education in School<\/p>\n<p><\/strong>As part of Guitar-A-Rama,\u00a0McEuen\u00a0was invited to lead a workshop\/master class on playing the 5-string banjo, among other Appalachian acoustic instruments. Sadly, music education is often one of the first programs to be eliminated from public school funding.\u00a0McEuen gives his perspective on the subject,<strong>\u00a0<\/strong>\u201cI think music education is extremely important. Music gives you a basis. When you understand how to read music and play it, the orchestra, backing up something that\u2019s on the stage\u2014it gives you a more balanced life than if you\u2019re just a math major, and only know math. Music is very mathematical. If you have an interest in science, it\u2019s scientific too\u2014soundwaves. I just think it\u2019s important\u2014it gives people a basis to have a broader life.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>With 50 years of experience in the music industry, McEuen proposes that young people who want to pursue music as a full-time career\u2014get a job, go to school\u2014find something to supplant their\u00a0income. He states explicitly, \u201cIt\u2019s very hard to make an income in the music business\u2014to feed yourself. Usually when I do a lecture for a music class or music school, there\u2019s this story of a guy who writes a letter to his father. \u2018Dear father, I\u2019m not asking for money. I want you to know that everything\u2019s going well now. I\u2019ve got a new piece of music written, and I\u2019ve got a concert at the hall in town. I\u2019m getting the tickets printed, hiring musicians for rehearsal and people seem to like the music. I\u2019m really looking forward to it. I got to get the posters made\u2014and that\u2019s Amadeus Mozart. He\u2019s writing about, I did the music, now I have this other stuff to do and wanted to get word of that music out to people and it hasn\u2019t changed.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/John-McEuen-03-The-Newsman.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-21179\" src=\"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/John-McEuen-03-The-Newsman.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"660\" height=\"601\" srcset=\"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/John-McEuen-03-The-Newsman.jpg 660w, https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/John-McEuen-03-The-Newsman-300x273.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 660px) 100vw, 660px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong><em>The Newsman<\/em><\/strong><strong>:\u00a0<em>A Man of Record\u2014<\/em>10 Years in the Making<\/p>\n<p><\/strong>McEuen worked over a period of 10 years to bring<em>\u00a0The Newsman: A Man of Record <\/em>[Compass Records] to fruition\u2014slowly cobbling together pieces of songs.\u00a0He saw\u00a0<em>News of the World\u00a0<\/em>with Tom Hanks, which was the impetus that made him finish the album. The premise of the film\u2014a guy that goes around the country telling people things\u2014they didn&#8217;t have any other way to find out. It sounded intriguing to\u00a0McEuen, who has\u00a0done several film scores.\u00a0Drawing from his experience in screen composition, he approached the project like a film score, \u201cI\u2019ve done about 14 film scores. I was doing one for Tommy Lee Jones in the 1990s [<em>The Good Old Boys<\/em>]. On one music cue, he goes \u2018That gets in the way. If somebody says\u2014what a great score or I notice that score, you\u2019re not doing the job, you\u2019re not supporting the picture\u2014you\u2019re not supporting what\u2019s happening. You\u2019re dominating it. You have to be part of it.\u2019 So keeping that in mind, I recut the cue and it worked a lot better because it had to emphasize the emotions of what\u2019s on the screen\u2014what the words are saying, without getting in the way of the dialogue.<\/p>\n<p>Film scores can be really complicated, and there are different versions. One type of film score is source music. They\u2019re in a bar, there\u2019s a jukebox playing a Willie Nelson song, and they\u2019re dancing. During their conversation (<em>sings \u201cOn the Road Again\u201d<\/em>) and that comes in between what\u2019s going on. Then there\u2019s underscore\u2014it\u2019s all got to be supportive. Then there\u2019s opening credit music, which is different than the closing credits. It\u2019s like five different jobs. I took the job that\u2019s in the middle with these stories, and added music that I hoped doesn\u2019t get in the way of the story, but it helps support them.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The opening track \u201cThe Newsman\u201d finds a young John McEuen reflecting on West Hollywood California at Ben Frank\u2019s, a restaurant that attracted the likes of Jim Morrison, Frank Zappa, and the producers of\u00a0<em>The<\/em>\u00a0<em>Monkees<\/em>\u00a0television show when they did their casting.\u00a0<em>News of the World<\/em>\u00a0starring Tom Hanks ties into the thematic element of the opening track \u201cThe Newsman\u201d\u2014someone who neither writes nor makes the news but rather delivers it.<\/p>\n<p>McEuen could\u2019ve been part of the late 1800s\u2019 traveling medicine shows, hawking elixirs and tonics to soothe and heal a nation sundered by \u201cWar of the Rebellion\u201d\u2014the serpentine rhythm of a wagon\u2019s ponderous wheels delivering him like a much-needed mellifluent musical messiah to an unsuspecting little town in Pennsylvania\u2014a place called Gettysburg. In another incarnation, McEuen would\u2019ve found himself plucking strings of a banjo to \u201cJohn Brown\u2019s Body,\u201d with bittersweet tenderness as smoke on the battlefield rose and receded behind spilt-rail fences to reveal a sea of crimson.<\/p>\n<p><em>News of the World <\/em>and \u201cKilled at the Ford\u201d both take place during the Civil War. McEuen articulates what he finds so intriguing about that era,<strong>\u00a0<\/strong>\u201cWell, \u2018Killed at the Ford\u2019 is a good rendition that Henry Wadsworth Longfellow wrote about somebody that got killed\u2014don\u2019t even know what side he\u2019s on. I tied it in with a song that was written at the end of the Civil War, \u2018Vacant Chair.\u2019 The \u2018Vacant Chair\u2019 song was capturing what happened in that war for many people. He\u2019s gone and we\u2019ll miss him, and we\u2019ll leave a chair vacant at the table because he can\u2019t be here, and they just seem to go together naturally. When I heard that poem and recorded the song, it just\u2014it seemed to be timeless\u2014the message that it had. When you put that together with \u2018Nui Ba Den\u2019 which is a letter written to a man\u2019s brother, who was in Massachusetts, and he was in the battle Nui Ba Den\u2014writing about it. It just seemed to go together somehow, and that music was totally different. That was a hard one to read because you\u2019re actually reading the words of the guy that was at the battle\u2014not just making up what he thought his impression was\u2014here\u2019s your gun, you don\u2019t have to win. If you want to stay alive just keep your head low and get through it, and stuff like that. It just seemed to resonate with me.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019ll be Glad (When They Run Out Of Gas)\u201d\u2014the subtext of this track is deliverance from a petroleum-based economy and the so-called conveniences of modern technology. A typewriter appears on the cover of\u00a0<em>The Newsman<\/em>\u00a0instead of a laptop suggesting an analog existence rather than a digital one. McEuen elaborates, \u201cIt\u2019s just somebody that is not in tune with what is going on with petroleum. It\u2019s supposed to be a funny song. I\u2019ve got to get my gas-powered turtleneck going here. It\u2019s my gas-powered lawnmower, my gas-powered you know\u2014and it\u2019s just, it\u2019s a silly song with somewhat of a message. It\u2019s written by Hans Olson, a friend of mine in Phoenix.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe Cremation of Sam McGee\u201d based on the poem of Robert W. Service is autobiographical in nature, and is ambiguous at the end\u2014whether or not Cap, our narrator, sees Sam\u2019s ghost or Sam himself.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOld Rivers\u201d and \u201cJule\u2019s Theme\u201d also deal with death. Getting a bit metaphysical, McEuen speaks his philosophy on the afterlife, \u201cI haven\u2019t been there yet. I\u2019m hoping that it\u2019s pleasant, but yeah\u2014I don\u2019t know. I can\u2019t propose that you know\u2014is it heaven or is it hell, or are we living heaven now or are we living it after we live? Houdini was a big influence on me. He put up $10,000 in the 1930s to anyone that can communicate with the afterlife\u2014because mediums were a big thing. He put up the money to try and see if anybody could prove that they could talk to the afterlife\u2014to people after they were dead, and nobody ever collected it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Fans and new fans can get more info and stay updated at:<br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/www.JohnMcEuen.net\">https:\/\/www.JohnMcEuen.net<\/a><br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/JohnMcEuenMusic\/?rf=113914601952535\">https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/JohnMcEuenMusic\/?rf=113914601952535<\/a><br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/johnmceuenofficial\/\">https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/johnmceuenofficial\/<\/a><br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/compassrecords\/\">https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/compassrecords\/<\/a><br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/johnmceuenngdb\">https:\/\/twitter.com\/johnmceuenngdb<\/a><br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/@JohnMcEuenMusic\">https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/@JohnMcEuenMusic<\/a><br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/2911.us\">https:\/\/2911.us<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>JOHN McEUEN \u201cI\u2019LL BE GLAD (WHEN THEY RUN OUT OF GAS)\u201d Track Video Musician:\u00a0 JOHN McEUEN &nbsp; Track Video Feature:\u00a0 \u201cI\u2019LL BE GLAD (WHEN THEY RUN OUT OF GAS)\u201d \u00a0 &nbsp; JOHN McEUEN\u2019S TRANSFORMATION FROM \u201cSTRING WIZARD\u201d TO MAN OF RECORD WITH SPOKEN WORD ALBUM THE NEWSMAN by Rodeo Marie Hanson Inside the sanctuary of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":21182,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[7725],"tags":[13824,14028,11942,14728,14727,14726,14799,5238,14729,14730,14731,13510,14732,3824,14733,14734,3592,14735,14736,7423,14737,5731,13372,8422,14738,14739,14740,14741,4120,14742,14743,14744,14745,8425,14746,14747,1628,8426,14748,14749,14750,3278,6577,794,14751,14752,14399,14753,14754,14756,14755,14757,4103,3593,14758,1271,14759,14760,14761,14762,14763,14764,14765,14766,14767,14768,14769,6069,14770,7566,14771,14772,14773,14774,14775,14776,3010,8013,7978,14778,14777,14779,14780,14781,14782,14783,14784,14785,1857,14786,14787,14788,14789,13243,9798,9797,14790,14791,8084,8109,14792,14793,14794,14795,14796,5395,14797,2935,14798,14800,14801,14802,14803,14804,4937,14805,14806,14807,14808,14809,14810,14811,14812,14813,14814,14815,14816,14817,14818,14819,14820,14821,14822,2005,14824,14823,14825],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21176"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21176"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21176\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21181,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21176\/revisions\/21181"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21182"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21176"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21176"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21176"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}