Les Thompson
Musician
Les Thompson was a founding member of the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, the California group whose Will the Circle Be Unbroken put a young rock audience in a Nashville studio with Mother Maybelle Carter, Earl Scruggs, and Roy Acuff. He played mandolin, bass, and guitar and sang harmony across the band’s first decade.
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- Helped form the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band in Southern California in the mid-1960s, and is credited with giving the band its name.
- Called John McEuen in 1966 to invite him into the group he was assembling; the early lineup also included Bruce Kunkel, Ralph Barr, and briefly Jackson Browne.
- Played bass, guitar, mandolin, banjo, percussion, and sang, from the band’s 1967 debut through the early 1970s.
- Appeared on Will the Circle Be Unbroken (1972), including “Dark as a Dungeon” and “My Walkin’ Shoes.”
- Returned for Will the Circle Be Unbroken, Vol. 3 (2002) on “Love Please Come Home.”
- Left the band in the early 1970s and later worked as a jingle writer and a goldsmith.
