The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band Album: “Stars & Stripes Forever”

In 1970, the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band released their breakout album UNCLE CHARLIE which contained the band's first Top 10 single "Mr. Bojangles." Two years later they released the critically acclaimed WILL THE CIRCLE BE UNBROKEN. So it was only natural that there would be a great deal of excitement when STARS & STRIPES FOREVER was released in 1974.

At first glance, it's a curious album comprised of live cuts from a March 1972 concert and two June 1973 concerts, along with a couple of interviews and eight studio recordings (tracks 8-12, 18-19 and 23) from a single January 14, 1974 session in Nashville. Of the studio recordings, the only band-penned song is "Glocoat Blues," a blues spoof written by Jimmie Fadden.

What this album did was to help solidify the band's reputation as a legitimate country band. They perform two Hank Williams classics ("Jambalaya" and "Honky Tonkin'"), as well as Jimmie Driftwood's "Battle of New Orleans" and Doug Kershaw's hit "Diggy Liggy Lo." They also take on traditional bluegrass with "Teardrops in My Eyes" and "Cripple Creek." To add further credibility to their country credentials, fiddle virtuoso Vassar Clements performs on all of the studio recordings except "My True Story.

The live tracks include electrifying versions of NGDB classics like "Mr. Bojangles," "Cosmic Cowboy," "House at Pooh Corner," "Buy for Me the Rain," and one of my all-time favorites, "Fish Song." Not everything, however, fits neatly into the country genre. There's John McEuen's solo reading of Stephen Vincent Benet's poem "The Mountain Whippoorwill," accompanying himself on banjo. They also do a foot-stomping version of Buddy Holly's "Oh Boy." Then there's Jeff Hanna's nearly 7-minute monologue, "It Came from the 50's." Their cover of the Jive Five's "My True Story" marks the last studio recording featuring founding member Les Thompson. [Thompson also appears on the 1972 live tracks (1, 3, 5, 6, 14, 16, 21 and 24).]

I saw the NGDB while I was in college a year before this album was released, but they performed many of the songs here. Listening to this album again (now that I've replaced my LP version with CD) brings back the memories of that concert from more than 30 years ago. Taken all together, this is one of the NGDB's most enjoyable and satisfying albums of their 40-year career. [Running Time - 73:14] VERY HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

I'm not sure what I expected when I ordered this. I think the interviews kind of take away from the music, but they do provide some interesting insight. Also, the sound quality was a bit spotty to my ears.

All in all, I liked the songs and it was worth the $5.98 I spent for it. I guess that's all you can really ask for.

I first bought this on vinyl many, many years ago. The songs, at least some of them, are the kinds that find their way into your head no matter how long it's been since you last heard them..Having said that, I decided I needed to buy this disc so I could finally hear what I'd been humming to for years (off and on). Once I received my disc it brought back all the enjoyable memories from way, way back.

This band knows how to work an audience. Funny monologues are combined with what was their limited repertoire of the early 1970s. Hits would come later but at this point the band played the music of other artists with smatterings of their own material. But there was in place the connections with each other that would lead to those future hit songs.

This is not a typical "live" album as it breaks up and drifts between two diffeent live venues and a "live" studio session. But the end result is worth putting up with the disjointedness of the album. This is a must have for any fan of the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band.

When I was a young 'un, I'd go to the cut-out bins at the local discount and record stores and blow most of what spending money I had trying out interesting looking albums. In this way, I was introduced to a lot of great music that I otherwise might have missed.

This was one of those albums. I was not a big country fan in 1976 when I ran across this LP in the bargain bin. I had "Mr. Bojangles" on 45. I'd heard "House On Pooh Corner" For a buck or so, I took a flyer on "Stars and Stripes Forever." If bang for the buck was my only criteria for defining the success of a purchase, this is like buying Microsoft as a startup. Through this album, I was introduced to bluegrass and a whole musical spectrum of country artists that I'd never heard and that give me so much pleasure today.

This is not "country" as you'd define it today. The Dirt Band, along with The Outlaws and the Ozark Mountain Daredevils were just the bridge a young rocker like me needed to expand my horizons. These guys were long haired, hippie types like me! And the music was beyond cool...

"Stars and Stripes Forever" is not the perfect NGDB album, but it is my personal favorite. I'll always be grateful I found this album in that bargain bin at Zayre's department store 30-odd years ago. I still have the LP with the clipped corner; it is one of the few pieces of vinyl I haven't disposed of over the years as I've replaced them with digital recordings.

By all means, buy "Uncle Charlie;" that IS the perfect NGDB album. For $6 bucks, you shouldn't miss this.

Great stuff if you're a big fan like me. Early '70s, interviews with band members, all live with some of the banter they're so good at.