Editor's Note: This story has been changed to correct the time of the performance, which is 8:30 p.m., and was reported incorrectly in both the original online and print versions of this story.
They last performed here 11 years ago.
On July 4, 2003, the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band played after the Independence Day fireworks display.
This year, they play at 8:30 p.m. tonight - the day before the holiday - on the Salute to America main stage, located on the Capitol's south steps.
The group is known for country, country-rock and "jug band" styles and probably is best-known for their 1970 version of Jerry Jeff Walker's "Mr. Bojangles."
But the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band first hit the national music scene in 1966 with "Buy For Me the Rain" and current members Jeff Hanna and Jimmie Fadden as part of the group, along with Jackson Browne, who later had a successful solo career.
The band also is known for "House at Pooh Corner," "An American Dream," "Dance Little Jean," "Long Hard Road (The Sharecropper's Dream)," "Make a Little Magic" and "Fire in the Sky," among others.
They also are known for their "Will the Circle Be Unbroken" albums that feature the band with legendary country musicians such as Roy Acuff, Earl Scruggs and Jimmy Martin, country pioneer Mother Maybelle Carter and folk-blues guitarist Doc Watson.
Nitty Gritty's current members - Hanna, guitars and vocals; Fadden, drums, harmonica and vocals; Bob Carpenter, keyboards, accordion, bass and vocals; and John McEuen, banjo, fiddle, guitar and mandolin - also were part of the group that performed in Jefferson City in 2003.
Their website, www.nittygritty.com, calls the group "iconic and profoundly influential," adding the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band is "often cited as a catalyst for an entire movement in Country Rock and American Roots Music."
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