POP MUSIC REVIEW : Itty-Bitty Grit in Dirt Band : Group Falls Short of Country Heaven but Demonstrates Fine Form

The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band bears more than a minor similarity to the Desert Rose Band on several fronts. Both outfits have Southern California roots stretching back to the mid-’60s melding of rock and country music, though the Dirt Band started out more on the jug band side of the music. Both have members who have actively worked to tear down the walls between country and rock: Desert Rose Band founder Chris Hillman was with the Byrds in their pioneering appearance on the Grand Ole Opry stage in 1968, and then formed the Flying Burrito Brothers; the Dirt Band joined hands with veteran country and bluegrass performers on their 1973 “Will the Circle Be Unbroken” album.

Furthermore, in recent years both groups have landed in the country charts with rich-harmonied, cleanly arranged country-rock-bluegrass hybrids.

But there remains a considerable gap between the two, which was apparent in the Dirt Band’s performance Monday at the Crazy Horse Steak House. For all the polish, talent and hard work the quartet puts into its shows, it lacks the distinctive personality and immediacy that elevates Hillman’s band to greatness.

While falling short of country heaven, Monday’s 15-song set showed the band to be in particularly fine form. Its new release is “Live Two Five,” a concert recording celebrating the Dirt Band’s 25 years (it made its performance debut, by the way, at the Paradox Club in Orange on May 19, 1966). The album is produced by T-Bone Burnett, and while there’s generally little production to be done on a live album, Burnett’s specialty is pre-production: woodshedding prior to recording with a band to pare each song down to its essence.

Whether Burnett lent his touch to the band’s material or whether the members did it themselves, both the live album and their show sported leaner, more focused versions of their songs than they’ve offered in the past.

The group is only a quartet, but it manages a full, varied sound by having double-duty members. Jimmie Fadden miraculously plays drums and harmonica at the same time; singer Jimmy Ibbotson plays guitar, mandolin and bass; keyboardist Bob Carpenter usually adds bass lines on his keys and straps on an accordion for some numbers; Jeff Hanna (a founding member with Fadden) plays enough guitar for two people. All the members sing, with Ibbotson taking the bulk of the lead work.

The set list honed closely to the live album, including “High Horse,” “I’ve Been Looking,” Dylan’s “You Ain’t Going Nowhere,” “Dance Little Jean” and “El Harpo,” a harmonica and keyboard workout from Fadden and Carpenter. “Partners, Brothers and Friends” was a touching autobiography of the band’s endurance, penned by Hanna and Ibbotson.

Both “Fishin’ in the Dark” and their hit “Baby’s Got a Hold on Me” rippled with a good-natured, Loggins & Messina-like feel. Featuring unison jumping heel-clicks from Hanna and Ibbotson, “Mr. Bojangles” remained lightweight fare in their hands, with little of the feel or depth Jerry Jeff Walker brings to his classic song.

There were a couple of instances when the band actually did inject some personalizing grit into their music. Rodney Crowell’s tale of growing up poor but rich was well-delineated on “Long Hard Road (the Sharecropper’s Dream),” with Ibbotson’s vocal underscored by aching harmonica lines. The Fadden-penned, Ibbotson-sung “Working Man (Nowhere to Go)” was an effective evocation of the frustration of idled hands: “Singing a song by Woody Guthrie / This land is your land /But it ain’t my land / I’m a working man, nowhere to go.” The show closed, as one might expect, with “Will the Circle Be Unbroken.”