Notes & Personnel Info |  | Nitty Gritty Dirt Band: Les Thompson (vocals, mandolin); Jimmie Fadden (vocals, harp); Jim Ibbotson (vocals, drums); Jeff Hanna (vocals, washboard); John McEuen (banjo, mandolin). | | | | Additional personnel includes: Maybelle Carter (vocals, guitar, autoharp); Jimmy Martin, Doc Watson, Merle Travis (vocals, guitar); Earl Scruggs (guitar, banjo); Vassar Clememts (guitar, fiddle); Randy Scruggs (guitar, autoharp); Pete "Oswald" Kirby, Norman Blake (dobro); Roy "Junior" Huskey, Ellis Padgett (bass). | | Recorded At Woodland Studios, Nashville, Tennessee. | | Nitty Gritty Dirt Band: Jim Ibbotson (vocals, guitar, mandolin); Jeff Hanna (vocals, guitar); Bob Carpenter (vocals, accordion, piano); Roy Huskey, Jr. (upright bass); Jimmie Fadden (drums). | | Additional personnel includes: Johnny Cash, John Prine, Ricky Scaggs, Emmylou Harris, Jimmy Martin, Michael Martin Murphey, John Hiatt (vocals, guitar); Roger McGuinn (vocals, 12-string guitar); Levon Helm, Sam Bush (vocals, mandolin); Bruce Hornsby (vocals, piano); Rosanne Cash, The Carter Family, Roy Acuff, John Denver, Paulette Carlson (vocals); Chet Atkins, Randy Scruggs (guitar); Bela Fleck (banjo); Jerry Douglas (dobro); Mark O'Connor (mandolin, mandola, fiddle); Vassar Clements (fiddle). | | Producers: Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, Randy Scruggs. | | With all due respect to the Byrds and the Flying Burrito Brothers, it took the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band with this album to come up with a merger of rock and country music that worked for both sides and everyone involved. The opening number, "The Grand Ole Opry Song," set the tone for the album, showing that this band -- for all of their origins in rock and popular music -- was willing to meet country music on its terms, rather than as a vehicle for embellishment as rock music. The result, without a false or strained note anywhere among its 37 songs, was an all-star country project that worked (and transcended its country and rock origins), with the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band serving as catalyst and intersecting point for all of the talent involved, all of who gave superbly of themselves. Not only did this album result in new exposure to a new and wider audience for the likes of Mother Maybelle Carter, Roy Acuff, Earl Scruggs, Merle Travis, and others, but this was the first real country album that a lot of rock listeners under the age of 30 ever heard. Thus, it opened up pathways and dialogue in all directions, across several generations and cultural barriers; the dialogue between Doc Watson and Merle Travis alone was almost worth the price of admission. This was also one of rock's very few multi-disc sets to be fully justified in its length and content; at a time when unnecessary double-LPs were all the rage, the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band and company gave a triple album that, if anything, left audiences asking for more. The 2002 CD adds four bonus tracks, though only "Foggy Mountain Breakdown" is a proper song; two of the others consist of warmups and studio chat, while "Remember Me" (featuring Doc Watson) is just a fragment.~ Bruce Eder | | This easily won the Country Music Association's Album of the Year Award, thanks to a stellar cast that includes John Denver, Johnny Cash, the Carter Family, Bruce Hornsby, Ricky Skaggs, Chris Hillman, Roger McGuinn, Rosanne Cash, Steve Wariner, Roy Acuff, Chet Atkins...you get the message. Tracks were all recorded in one "take," with no overdubs, making the outstanding musicianship particularly noteworthy. Atheists beware: there's a lot of gospel. ~ Tom Roland | | It's ironic that the 30-year anniversary of this classic album coincides with the runaway success of the O BROTHER WHERE ART THOU soundtrack, one of the best-selling movie soundtracks in history. Both albums find contemporary folk-rock musicians reaching back to the sounds of bluegrass, country, and folk (often lumped together under the heading "old-timey music"). The difference is that when the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band did it in 1972 it was a new (even risky) idea. | | Harry Smith's 1952 ANTHOLOGY OF FOLK MUSIC had inspired rock-generation kids like those who would form the Dirt Band to seek out traditional American music. The NGDB went a step further with this triple album by getting the old-timey artists themselves to collaborate on a tribute to the traditional American musical tapestry. Thus, we have Doc Watson singing "Tennessee Stud," Roy Acuff taking on the Hank Williams spiritual "I Saw the Light," and Earl Scruggs picking the "Nashville Blues," with the Dirt Band and various country/bluegrass luminaries backing them up. The most amazing thing about WILL THE CIRCLE BE UNBROKEN is that it all works so well and fits together so seamlessly. An undertaking like this could easily have been a train wreck; instead it's a triumph. |
Musical Guests | | Doc Watson | | Emmylou Harris | | Roy Huskey, Jr. | | Bela Fleck | | Maybelle Carter | | Michael Martin Murphey | | Jimmy Martin | | John Hiatt | | Roger McGuinn | | Merle Travis | | Norman Blake | | Bruce Hornsby | | Earl Scruggs | | Johnny Cash | | Vassar Clements |
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