The rise of country-rock in the late 1960s introduced a down-home sound to a younger and hipper audience, and few if any groups hewed closer to country traditions -- and enjoyed a longer career -- than the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band. They first emerged as part of the jug band revival that spawned acts like the Lovin' Spoonful and the Jim Kweskin Jug Band, adding a dash of vaudeville humor (as evidence by their 1967 album Ricochet), but they matured into a sound informed by classic string bands and bluegrass when they scored their breakthrough hit with 1970's "Mr. Bojangles" (from ...