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Some CDs we listen to dutifully when they arrive in the mail as free promos. Far more rarely, we run down to the record shop and actually purchase an album the day it comes out. That's the case with this heralded two-CD album, which is actually celebrating its 30th anniversary. Reissued country classics shine
By Burl Burlingame
bburlingame@starbulletin.comComing off the success of the band's "Uncle Charlie" album back in 1972, the long-haired, California-country hippies that made up the Dirt Band talked their record label into ponying up enough money to record a kind of all-star country jam in Nashville with the people they consider the real stuff, like Roy Acuff, Mother Maybelle Carter, Earl Scruggs, Doc Watson, Merle Travis, Jimmy Martin, Vassar Clements, Norman Blake and dozens of others.
The traditional musicians were somewhat suspicious of these overenthusiastic "kids" until they actually sat down and played. The recording sessions became legendary, a kind of summit meeting of two schools of music, and modern country music arguably was born. Although the album is credited to the band, they functioned primarily as the glue of these sessions.
What emerged then was a three-record set of American classics in which the setting is so informal and friendly -- you hear snatches of conversation and studio noise -- and the musicianship is of such a high standard that, as the recording wears on, the experience becomes more and more dreamlike and immersive. The music was honestly approached, without smirking or superiority, and some of these covers are likely the definitive versions. The album was an extraordinary achievement on every level, and Nashville learned as much as the Dirt Band did.
"Will the Circle Be Unbroken"
The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band (Capitol/EMI)Those who were wowed by the "O Brother, Where Art Thou?" soundtrack will go nuts for this. The new edition has been digitally remastered, and the sound simply pops right out of the speakers. It makes the previous CD reissue sound muddy. (Make sure you get the current edition -- it's in a slim two-CD package with a 2002 copyright.)
Some tunes cut out of the original have been restored. There are nearly 40 tunes total, and we're talking American classics here -- "Keep on the Sunny Side," "Dark as a Dungeon," "You Are My Flower," "I Saw the Light," "Honky Tonkin'," "Orange Blossom Special," "Wabash Cannonball," "Lost Highway," "I Am a Pilgrim," "Wildwood Flower" and the title song are just a few.
Virtually each song clocks in at under three minutes, all of them miniature masterpieces of concise arrangement and sparkling musicianship, unlike the bloated, padded stuff coming out of the Music City these days.
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