The Most Influential Americana Album: Will the Circle Be Unbroken – The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band

Will-The-Circle-Be-Unbroken

When asked what album best symbolizes the dawn of the Americana genre folks with a long memory, or a deep knowledge of music history, might choose The Band’s “Music from Big Pink.” Bob Dylan’s once touring band released their debut in 1968 to critical-acclaim but poor sales but later historical acclaim.

Others might select the more recent roots music foray into popular consciousness, the soundtrack to “O Brother, Where Art Thou?” The Coen Brother’s Depression-era, satirical ode to Homer’s Odyssey provided the perfect format for singer/songwriter/producer T Bone Burnett to weld his sepia alchemy. Burnett gathered bygone era bluegrass, country, gospel, blues, and folk music and shaped a platinum-selling, Grammy-winning soundtrack that payed more than a backdrop, but played more of a sonic companion to the film/

And then someone might choose any one of Gram Parson’s solo works as well as his work with The Byrds, the Flying Burrito Brothers and International Submarine Band.

All the above are exemplary works of cross-genre efforts that laid the groundwork for this mutt genre we call Americana.

My choice would be Nitty Gritty Dirt Band’s “Will the Circle be Unbroken.”

The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band was founded just south of Los Angeles, in Long Beach, California, by singer-guitarist Jeff Hanna and singer-songwriter guitarist Bruce Kunke. The two performed together in local bands and neighborhood jam sessions brought guitarist/washtub bassist Ralph Barr, guitarist-clarinetist Les Thompson, harmonicist and jug player Jimmie Fadden and guitarist-vocalist Jackson Browne. After a few months Jackson left for a solo career and was replaced by John McEuen.

After some moderate early career success the band their fourth album, “Uncle Charlie & His Dog Teddy,”in 1970. The album leaned more on a traditional country and bluegrass sound, and yelled the band’s best-sellng and best-known single, a cover version of Jerry Jeff Walker’s “Mr. Bojangles.”

During a Boulder Colorado jam session, involving none other than Earle Scruggs and his band, the idea was hatched to head to Nashville to record with some of the living legends of country music. Soon after, the scruffy long-haired California band arrived in conservative to Nashville to collaborate on the album later known as “Will the Circle be Unbroken.” With Scruggs help the the band recruited Roy Acuff, Jimmy Martin, Pete “Oswald” Kirby, Norman Blake and Mother Maybelle Carter.

The performances have a feeling of ease and informality , much like the jam sessions that led to their creation. Some of the greatest songs to music history by Hank Williams (“I Saw the Light,” Honky Tonkin’,” “Honky Tonk Blues”) Jimmie Skinner (“You Don’t Know My Mind,”) as well as compositions by the performers themselves and well-known traditionals.

All the tracks on the album was recorded on the first or second take straight to two-track masters.As great as the music is another tape that ran during the sessions captured the colorful, enlightening, and after hilarious, dialog between the performers.

Before breaking into his “The Precious Jewel,” Roy Acuff confides to his accompanying musicians his “Secret of his policy in the studio.” “Whenever you once decide you’re going to record a number put everything you’ve got into it, because..Don’t say “Oh we’ll take it over and do it again.” because every time you go through it you lose a little something….let’s do it the first time and to hell with the rest of them”

The band then goes on to take his advice and nails the rollicking weeper in one take

The band egg each other on. kid around and discuss song arrangements and origins. Then there’s one-of-a-kind moments like the first meeting of folk legend Doc Watson and the equally legendary Merle Travis, after whom Doc Watson’s son, Merle, was named.

The album was nominated for two 1973 Grammy awards including Best Country & Western Vocal Performance – Duo Or Group for the A.P. Carter title song. More importantly it bridged generations across geography, culture and politics and laid the groundwork for the music that reminds us of our shared heritage and nourishes our souls

I’ll Never Get Out of This World Alive. – ragid Deaths in Americana & Country Music

Neo-soul chanteuse Amy Winehouse’s death at 27 was a tragedy everyone had predicted for years. Some say that the self-imposed drama and lack of self-control fed the creative muse that led to great art. Mostly it saps the performer’s soul and robs them, and their fans, of their future greatness. Country music has no shortage of self destruction and many, Waylon, Haggard, Cash, Jones  to name the most famous names gave it their best shot but lived a while longer to tell their tale.  Here are a few that pushed it so far to led them to the last round-up.

  • Keith Whitley’s drinking habits rivaled his influence on Music City. Whitley was a longtime alcoholic beginning before he was of of legal age and continuing through his early career as a bluegrass performer. Many times he had tried to overcome his alcoholism, but failed. While married to country singer Lorrie Morgan she would try and hide alcohol from him, even going as far tying their legs together before bed to ensure Whitley would not wake up in the middle of the night to drink. She would discover later that he was drinking perfume and nail polish to get get loaded. At the time of his death his blood alcohol level was .477 (the equivalent of 20 1-ounce shots of 100-proof whiskey and almost five times over the then Tennessee level of 0.1 legal intoxication limit (wikipedia)
  • Gram Parsons not only brought country music to the 60’s culture that had largely shunned it, he also was was one of the first to die from a a occupational hazard of living the high-life of the era including being a jamming, and heroin using, buddy of Keith Richards. Parsons was a founding member of the Americana movement and his solo work, work with the Byrds, The Flying Burrito Brothers and his collaborations with protege Emmylou Harris is legendary. Parson’s career was plagued by drugs and alcohol use and before a tour was scheduled to commence in October 1973, Parsons decided to go to Joshua Tree National Monument in southeastern California. Less than two days after arriving at the park, Parsons died on September 19, 1973 at the age of 26 from an overdose of morphine and alcohol
  • Hank Williams did more that just lay down the template for all country music to follow, but also the hard living that has become it’s legacy. An undiagnosed case of spina bifida occulta is beloved to have caused of his life-long abuse of alcohol and drugs. Dispute warnings from his boss and co-writer Roy Acuff, William’s demons worsened and led to his firing from the Grand Ole Opry for habitual drunkenness and, ultimately leading to his death at the age 29 on on January 1, 1953  in the back of his ’52 Cadillac on his way to a show in Charleston, West Virginia.

Legendary Country Tapes Discovered

  • Tapes of George Jones, Dolly Parton, Hank Williams Jr., Loretta Lynn, Johnny Cash, Roy Acuff, Tammy Wynette, Buck Owens, Charley Pride, and other country greats were among some of the hundreds of tapes that were discovered in a barn in southern Pennsylvania. This long-rumored treasure of lost recordings were made at high schools, dances, fairs, festivals, and auditoriums in Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Maryland, and elsewhere were made in the late 1960s and early 1970s, with a few in the 1940s. (Tristram Lozaw  at The Boston Globe)
  • Austin American-Statesman’s Austin360 writer Brian T. Atkinson  posts an interview with Langhorne Slim just before his final SXSW appearance at Purevolume.com.

Willie Nelson – The Fillmore, San Francisco, CA. – 1/17/09

If you’ve attended a solo Willie Nelson show you know what’s coming. Just as sure as a Texas Summer is hot and that your enchiladas at El Fenix will begin with chips and salsa, the Redheaded Stranger will deliver a canon of some of the best and most loved American songs spanning his 40 year career. The Johnny Bush and Paul Stroud penned Whiskey River, Good Hearted Woman – written by Willie and his partner in outlaw brotherhood Waylon Jennings, Crazy – the Willie penned 1962 #2 country hit for Patsy Cline that was originally written for, and turned down by,  Billy Walker, Funny How Time Slips Away – a song Walker did record and had a hit, the Kris Kristofferson penned Help Me Make It Through The Night and Me And Bobby McGee (made famous by fellow Texan Janis Joplin), Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain – the Fred Rose penned song that was originally performed in 1945 by Roy Acuff , later by Hank Williams but made into a hit by Willie on his thematic masterpiece Red Headed Stranger. The list goes on but you get the idea.

Even after a reprieve in 2004 due to a bout with carpal tunnel syndrome (well not much of a reprieve, Willie wrote two current song list staples, Superman and You Don’t Think I’m Funny Anymore – during the 4 months he was supposed to take it easy) Willie still plays the weathered Martin N-20 with now defunct Baldwin pickups (aka Trigger) in his signature syncopated style that made him too jazzy for 60’s era Nashville but endeared him to an audience that weren’t typical country music fans back in Austin. Trigger bares a ragged hole in it’s body right where decades of downstrokes have landed blows – surrounded by signatures of Johnny Cash, Roger Miller, Kris Kristofferson and others this singular instrument has transcended it’s original intent. It now stands as a talisman as well as, as it’s name suggests, a trusted and loyal friend.

Very few artists have achieved the status of American icon. It’s a short and select group that have one thing in common, they transcend the level of working musician and become a representation of the music itself. 40’s pop, Frank Sinatra, Jazz, Louie Armstrong – Country Music in the minds of many Americans born in the last 40 years is Willie Nelson.

After all this time the humility is still there, thanking the audience after songs or an especially dexterous turn on Trigger. The 1000 watt smile, the twinkle in his eye, the humor, the worn bandanas tossed into an adoring crowd. Except for his well-known predilection for ganja (of which some of the Bay Area’s finest found its way on stage tossed up by a fan that abides) the man could have easily had a place in politics.

Seeing Willie is like visiting the Grand Canyon or the giant Sequoias – he’s less a musician and more like a force of nature, you’re awed to be in the presence of a national treasure and, after repeated visits, subtleties arise that are only discernible after a level of familiarity is achieved. The classics begin to expose nuances, phrasing, odd time signatures – once past the initial awe there’s a lasting beauty that emerges. The audience is enthralled and vocal – “yeehaws” and “ahh-haaas” ring out between each song. Not surprising, this is as far west we you can get without getting your boots wet.

Willie’s son Lukas and his band, the Promise of the Real, opened the show with their brand of jamband psychedelic fusion. Playing in this venue where the Grateful Dead performed so many times must have been a dream come true for these guys. I’m not particularly a fan of this style of music but one thing did stand out for me; whether fronting his own band or supporting his dad Lukas Nelson is becoming a master guitar player in his own right.

The night was topped off for me meeting Linda, a fellow blogger with #1 Willie Nelson fan site Still is Still Moving. Linda’s site is the go-to place for all thngs Willie.

And then there was the Oakland chapter of the Hells Angels in VIP seating within the security barrier right in front of us. The outlaw mojo was in full force on this cool, San Francisco night.

Willie Nelson : Stardust – The Fillmore – 1/17/09

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7EOqKMlq05I[/youtube]