Let the Dirt Band Be Unbroken

I read in the newspaper the other day that the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band had recently released its third Will the Circle Be Unbroken album. The article caught my eye because it isn’t often you see these guys mentioned in the media. Aside from a performance on Letterman earlier this year, I can’t recall the last time I saw something about the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band. Nonetheless, with their unique blend of folk, bluegrass, western, country and gospel sounds, the band carved a niche for itself and earned a loyal following. Count me in that crowd. Their Greatest Hits album features some of their most popular tunes and shows their versatility. A great album to pull out on a rainy day and sing along to.

Mr. Bojangles: A big hit for them. When I was little, my family used to go through a lot of Kool-Aid, and we always collected the points in a little container, then once in a while we would take them out and count them and measure them up against the latest Kool Points catalog. One time, one of the prizes was a Kool-Aid tape player which came with a tape featuring a mix of 5 songs, selected from a choice of a hundred or so. I got the tape player and the tape, and the first song on the cassette was Mr. Bojangles. I still have it floating around somewhere. At any rate, this is a great song about a lonely old man who spent his life traveling and dancing and still brings joy to those around him with his talents, though his own life is rather depressing. Sort of a Piano Man, but in this case the performer is as old and ragged and full of as many stories as the young piano player’s regular listeners are. Great guitar and banjo work, and an interesting mix of joy and melancholy. “I knew a man, Bojangles, and he’d dance for you in worn out shoes… I heard someone ask him please, please, Mr. Bojangles, Mr. Bojangles, Mr. Bojangles, dance.”

An American Dream: This one has a very tropical feel to it and is probably my favorite song on the album, along with track 4. Very laid back, with an introduction featuring tinkly chimes setting the dreamy quality of the song. The harmonica is also used to nice effect here. The speaker is daydreaming of a nice sunny vacation spot, and he encourages his wife to daydream along with him. The result is a stellar duet with Linda Ronstadt. Reminds me of the Beach Boys’ Kokomo. This is a great take-a-long-nap-in-the-sun song. Pass the lemonade! (Wait a minute, I don’t like lemonade… oh, well, it’s the thought that counts!) “I think Jamaicain in the moonlight, sandy beaches drinking rum every night. We got no money, mama, but we can go. We’ll split the difference, go to Coconut Grove.”

Will the Circle Be Unbroken: This is the band’s signature song. Awesome banjo on this track, and really nice harmony on the choruses. I prefer the vocals on the version in the second Will the Circle Be Unbroken album, which we also own, but this version is nice as well. Whenever I hear this song I am reminded of a time many years ago when the family was watching Quantum Leap, a favorite show at the time. In this particular episode, Sam had leaped into the body of Elvis Presley, and he was up next to go onstage. First, though, a nervous young woman was giving her rendition of Will the Circle Be Unbroken, but the song was too emotionally affecting for her to get through it. In a scene similar to Captain Von Trapp’s concert performance of Eidelweiss in The Sound of Music, Sam/Elvis came out and sang with her, giving her time to recover her composure and saving her much embarrassment. “Well,” my dad remarked, “that was magnanimous of him.” That was the first time I had ever heard that word, and I soon incorporated it into my lexicon. To this day, I enjoy using it. My, that was quite a deviation. Ah, well. This is a mournful but ultimately optimistic song in which the speaker laments the loss of his or her mother (depending on the singer) but expresses the hope and expectation that they will be reunited one day. A great gospel song. “Will the circle be unbroken, by and by, Lord, by and by. There’s a better home awaitin’ in the sky, Lord, in the sky.”

House at Pooh Corner: If I recall correctly, this is actually the reason my dad got this album. We’d already had the other for quite some time, and Dad picked this one up just because he thought I’d get a kick out of this tune about my favorite bear. And the other tracks didn’t hurt, either. This is a great song, and its electric guitars make for a dramatic change from the original lullabye-like Kenny Loggins version, which I first heard many years later. They lend some urgency to the song’s lyrics: “Help me if you can, I’ve got to get back to the House at Pooh Corner by one. You’d be surprised, there’s so much to be done.” The lyrics are extremely true to the Hundred Acre Wood and its inhabitants, and I can definitely relate to Loggins’ mindset while writing this: standing on the brink of adulthood, wanting to lose himself again in the forests of childhood. The same mindset that birthed the Peter Paul and Mary classic Puff the Magic Dragon. One of these days I’ll pen the next song in this tradition! This is a rollicking version that doesn’t leave too much time for wistfulness. It seems that getting back to the Wood is entirely within the realm of possibility, if we only try hard enough. As one of Winnie-the-Pooh’s most dedicated fans, I can’t get enough of this track!

Make a Little Magic: This is kind of a pretty track, very heavy on the harmonica. It’s a duet featuring a couple trying to put some spark back into an icy relationship. Not a song I listen to a whole lot, but still very nice. “A little sleep is all we’re losing. It’s up to us to do the choosing. Let’s make a little magic before the night is through.”

All I Have to Do is Dream: This is a very countrified version of the exquisitely mellow Everly Brothers oldies standard. An extremely different take on the song. I think I prefer the Everlys, but this one is nice too. It’s yet another variation on the old I-love-you-but-I-can’t-have-you-so-I’ll-spend-my-life-daydreaming-about-you theme, and one I’ve always liked. “I can make you mine, taste your lips of wine, any time, night or day. Only trouble is, gee whiz, I’m dreaming my life away.”

Grand Ole Opry Song: A nice fiddle and banjo-filled tribute to some of the biggest names of the Grand Ole Opry. Another song I don’t listen to much, but it’s still good and provides a nice bit of history along with it. “There’ll be guitars and fiddles, Earl Scruggs and his banjo too, Bill Monroe singin’ ’em the ‘Honky Tonky Blues,’
Ernest Tubb’s number, ‘Two Wrongs Don’t Make a Right,’ at the Grand Ole Opry ev’ry Saturday night.”

Jambalaya: A Cajun tune sung in a definite dialect. It’s a fun song, sounds like the boys are cooking up quite a party. I heard a Christmas-themed parody of this song once that was pretty funny. This one just sounds like they’re having a good time, and like they want as many people to join in the fun as possible. “Pick guitar, fill fruit jar and be gay-oh. Son of a gun, we’ll have big fun on the bayou.”

Battle of New Orleans: This war song gets kinda rowdy. The guys sound rather overzealous, and there’s an awful lot of whooping and hollering going on. I’m with my dad; I prefer the parody featured on my recently reviewed Dr. Demento 20th Anniversary Collection. But it’s nice to hear the original song every once in a while, and it sounds like the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band had an awful lot of fun recording their version. “We fired our guns and the British kept a-comin’. There wasn’t ‘bout as many as there was a while ago. We fired once more and they began to runnin’ on down the Mississippi to the Lake of Mexico.”

I Saw the Light: An inspirational tune with some great banjo licks. This song attests to the power of Jesus to change people’s lives as several folks step forward to say how they came to “see the light.” “I saw the light, no more darkness, no more night. Now I’m so happy, no sorrow in sight. Praise the Lord, I saw the light.”

Buy for the Rain: An interesting song, with lyrics following a simple pattern and a neat backing of guitars, violins, and deep-voiced harmonies. Basically a song in which a husband urges his wife to help him make the most of his life and he’ll return the favor as long as he can. Concludes on a rather morbid note, but a nice track. “Buy for me the rain, my darling, buy for me the rain. Buy for me the crystal pools that fall upon the plain. And I’ll buy for you a rainbow and a million pots of gold. Buy it for me now, babe, before I am too old.”

Some of Shelley’s Blues: An upbeat tune in which a young man tries to convince his ladylove to stick with him in spite of her proclaimed misery with him. I presume that Shelley is the girl to whom he is singing; I wonder if there is any significance to the name. Pretty fast-paced and with a definite country feel. “All this talk about leaving is strictly bad news so you settle down and stay with the boy that loves you.”

Fire in the Sky: This one opens with a nice sax solo (which reappears later) before switching over to electric guitars and harmonica. The song has a very pop feel to it with a woebegone fella wishing that his girl would return to him and forgive him for his mistake in dumping her. It’s okay, but it seems a little out of place on the album and doesn’t do a whole lot for me. “Turn back the clock awhile. Things will all work out. That’s what the dream is all about.”

All in all, a great album. The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band has a great sound that’s carried them through more than 30 years in the music industry, and they’re still going strong.