The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band Album: “Will the Circle Be Unbroken, Vol. 3”

If you like NGDB's first Circle album, you'll love this one. Yes, the current "in crowd" of country music muscle all makes an appearance from Allison Krause to Vince Gill, as well as the varied talents of Taj Mahal, Tom Petty, Iris DeMent and Dwight Yoakam. Circle I and III are also bridged by repeat performers Randy and Earl Scruggs, Doc Watson, and Vassar Clements. Bluegrass titans Del McCoury, Tony Rice and Sam Bush also lend their talents to this project. But this album is so much more than great singers, pickers, and legends getting together to collaborate on a few songs. It is truly the best of Americana, roots and acoustic music. It is soul music. It is music from the front porch, and from your living room.

This is without a doubt the best album to come out of Nashville this year. This is not the slick, polished, over produced dribble that permeates country radio and that makes one song almost indistinguishable from the next. This is music played and sung from the heart. Thanks to the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band for once again bringing music back to it's roots and heritage, for reminding us to take a look in the rearview mirror to see where we came from, and for single handedly making the musical past relevant to the musical future. This is the "must have" album for 2002...and beyond. (And there's a hidden track!)

About every fifteen years or so, the NGDB gather together a set of guests to record a Circle album. Despite some great rock and country music in between, it is the Circle albums for which they will be best remembered. In keeping with the quality of the guests and the quality of the music of the first two volumes, the opening track (Take me in your lifeboat with Del McCoury) sets the same sandard here, one which is maintained throughout both CD's.

It is many years since Iris DeMent recorded an album of her own, but she makes regular guest appearances and I always love to hear her angelic, twangy, down-to-earth voice - in this case, on Mama's Opry. Among other highlights (for me) are Goodnight Irene and Roll in my sweet baby's arms (both with Willie Nelson), Tears in the Holston river (with Johnny Cash) and Oh Cumberland (with Matraca Berg and Emmylou). I was particularly pleased to see Matraca here - she is a vastly under-rated singer but it seems that, however many hits she writes for others, not enough people are interested in hearing her own versions of her songs.

I'll be faithful to you (with Emmylou) is a song I first heard by Marie Osmond, who cut a unbelievably brilliant traditional country version of it with mandolin as the main backing - it was the most traditional country track she ever recorded. Don Williams also recorded a fine version of it, in his typical style (which I also enjoy).

Dwight Yoakam sings on two songs (Wheels - a Chris Hillman/Gram Parsons song - and the traditional Some dark holler) while there are also brilliant contributions from Alison Krauss, Vince Gill, Taj Mahal and many others. Your favorite might be one of the other tracks - there are so many great tracks here.

I loved both the previous Circle albums, so had no hesitation in buying this. With traditional country music more popular than it has been for a few years, sales should be healthy and those who missed on the first two volumes should be inspired to buy them both after hearing this.

After the disappointment of Circle #2 -- which, Michael Martin Murphey's wonderful song "Lost River" excepted, has always struck me as a luckluster effort -- I nearly passed this one up. I'm glad I didn't.

Yes, yes, Circle #1 was a special moment, a culture event as much as a musical one, and almost certain never to be repeated. That said, so what? Folk music, bluegrass, and old-time country live on, happily for all of us, and Circle #3 is answerable to nothing but its own artistic ambitions and musical ancestors. It acquits itself splendidly. Even those of us who listen to American roots music regularly will be enchanted. Novices will be dazzled and transformed. And somewhere out there, a lot of ghosts must be nodding approvingly.

The project has all the warmth and good feeling of the first, with the added virtue that everybody on it is sounding greater than ever, clearly having a good time, and still dizzily in love with the music. The songs and tunes are perfectly chosen, a nice balance of traditionals and tradition-drenched originals.

It's hard to pick out favorites, but here are a few that forced me to stop whatever I was doing and listen up: Willie Nelson and Tom Petty's "Goodnight, Irene"; Emmylou Harris's "I'll Be Faithful to You" (by ex-husband Paul Kennerly); Taj Mahal's gritty, good-humored take on the African-American folk song "Fishing Blues"; Iris DeMent's deeply felt "Mama's Opry," so beautiful it almost overwhelms the listener; Rodney Dillard and Ricky Skaggs's hymn of wanderlust and life's passage, "There Is a Time," first recorded by the Dillards in the mid-1960s; and Johnny Cash's original, "Tears in the Holston River," a sad and moving anthem recalling the deaths of Sara and Maybelle Carter. You'll find your own favorites.

Circle #3 is a triumph. A hearty thank-you to everybody involved with it.

Now that the members of the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band have reached a point in their lives where a prominent place in music history is assured, they have assembled a stunning group of artists that crosses generations--including two of their own sons. On the second version of this series Emmylou Harris talks about how the days of sitting in the living room and simply playing music had passed. Volume III of WillThe Circle Be Unbroken returns to the comfort and emotion of great musicians playing music simply for the sake of the music. I wan't sure if the original release could be matched. This release proves that it could.

As the members of the NGDB grow older and pause to reflect on their contributions to preserving the roots of our American music, I hope they will accept the fact that they have provided us with a priceless historical documentation of monumental proportion. Volume III must be included in the music library of anyone who treasures the "music of the people".

Volume 3 is great and mighty. Personally, I think this 'old' bluegrass/country/oldtime gospel/folk music puts the new country to shame. Some extraordinary tunes like little I've ever heard before. Some truly hauntingly harmonies and lyrics. Others take you back to a time. A few I could do without, mostly the (few) newer sounding ones. This CD gives you a nostalgic feeling for a time and place most of us were never in, but the music vividly paints.