DIRTHEADS ! - NITTY GRITTY DIRT BAND is what it's all about.

Circle III: By and By, Lord, By and By

By Kathy Coleman - September 2002

Will the circle be unbroken? That sweet gospel-tinged question has been asked by folk song and singers for nearly a century. From the first time the Carter Family first voiced it in the foggy Appalachians there have been hundreds of voices raised to the sky in similar query. The hymn speaks of the circle of family, the circle of love; but it seems the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band is talking about the Great Circle of music.

In the last decade, it certainly has seemed as though that circle was broken; too many gaps had opened; there were too few bridges built. There seemed no way to mend those horrid breaks; country music was gone too far and it seems there was no way to get back.

Then, of course, came the soundtrack for "O Brother Where Art Thou." But "O Brother Where Art Thou" wasn't the first reply to that question, not the first time great music returned from the Smoky Mountains and rolling hills and deep hollers. It wasn't the first magnificent recording which reminded people of what country music was, still is, and always should be. Thirty years ago a little country/rock/folk group that was already too country for country but well-loved in rock circles gathered together with some of the greatest names in country music (Merle Travis, Earl Scruggs, Maybelle Carter, Doc Watson, etc.) and they made an historic, groundbreaking country album unlike any other before it.

The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band's "Will The Circle Be Unbroken" was a two LP critical masterpiece, a blue-grassy old-time country album that won few awards (it went platinum in 1997, 25 years after its release) and broke no records, but for 30 years it has been hailed as a brilliant achievement for the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band (Jeff Hanna, John McEuen, Jimmie Fadden, Les Thompson, Jim Ibbotson, Jackie Clark, John Cable).

In 1989, the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band released "Will The Circle Be Unbroken Volume Two." Where the first volume had gathered together great names of old-time country music, Volume Two gathered the pickers and the singers of old-time and modern country, folk, blues, and rock, bringing together such names as Roy Acuff, Johnny Cash, Rosanne Cash, Ricky Skaggs, the Carter Family, Michael Martin Murphy, Emmylou Harris, John Denver, Earl Scruggs, John Hiatt, John Prine, Bruce Hornsby, and many others to prove that the circle was, indeed, still unbroken. Country, rock, and blues, all part of one great and glorious circle, and "this time," the liner notes recall, "they drew the circle bigger."

And now, 30 years since the first great volume, the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band reforms to do it all again. Although for some time the remaining members have been called simply The Dirt Band (having left the Nitty Gritty behind), they've restored their name (as well as a number of original members) and come back to the circle, once again enlarging it and drawing that circle bigger and bigger, as all the music that grows naturally on the old country music tree returns to that great mother root and glories in her beauty.

The circle WILL be unbroken as long as this music is remembered, loved, and cherished by these musicians, artists who so obviously love what they are doing you can hear the emotion, as powerful as a waterfall, as reverent as a prayer, as sweet as a kiss. This two-disc collection is what our kind of music was meant to be.

This time, joining the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band is an amazing collection of talent from across the country/rock/blues spectrum. Names such as The McCourys, Iris DeMent, Johnny Cash, June Carter Cash, Dwight Yoakam, Willie Nelson, Taj Mahal, Earl Scruggs, Alison Krauss, Emmylou Harris, Tom Petty, Vince Gill, and the next generation of the Dirt Band in Jamie Hanna and Jonathan McEuen. They're all here, with many others, glorying in that great Circle of music as they present it in all its timeless glory.

These days everything bluegrass is new again, but it takes a recording such as this to remind us all that "bluegrass" is really not a genre apart from country. Bluegrass and the bluegrass style grew out of country just as country itself grew out of Appalachian folk/mountain music/gospel. It's all a part of that beautiful circle, pure and solid and unbroken here as the McCourys open the first disc with a bright gospel tune, "Take Me In Your Lifeboat." There is fun as well as reverence here as the great Doc Watson, with Richard Watson and Josh Graves, present a fun, pure blues turn on the "Milk Cow Blues," a song that's been done by everyone in the old circle from Elvis Presley to Willie Nelson.

Great picking and fantastic singing characterize every track. Jimmy Martin's twang caresses "Hold Watcha Got." Iris DeMent's distinctive, delicious warble tells the sweet story of "Mama's Opry." Dwight Yoakam's hillbilly twang is right at Home with "Some Dark Holler" and "Wheels." Emmylou Harris's grandeur shines as always on "I'll Be Faithful To You" solo and with Matraca Berg on "Oh Cumberland." The pure, dulcimer voice of Alison Krauss sparkles on the classic "Catfish John." Taj Mahal and Vassar Clements give a delightful rendition of "Fishin' Blues." Willie Nelson teams up with Tom Petty to croon "Goodnight Irene." Vince Gill's heaven-sent tenor presents "All Prayed Up." And in what is, perhaps, the song that's worth every cent you'll spend on this disc, Johnny Cash recites and sings a moving tribute to Mother Maybelle Carter and Sister Sara Carter, "Tears In The Holston River." And that's just a few of the tracks you'll find on these two discs.

As long as these men and women love and revere this music, as long as these great pickers and singers never forget, as long as we listen and glory in the sounds, the Circle will truly never be broken. Three cheers for the Dirt Band, for shaking their series out and giving us another grand chapter. May this circle be unbroken, by and by, Lord, by and by. Amen.