'Will The Circle Be Unbroken'

At this point in my life and the evolution of my musical taste, this is the most ideal album for me.

It’s “gritty” and unadulterated old-time country Americana, country and bluegrass. From a relative group of nobodies outside of the special guests like Maybelle Carter, Roy Acuff, Earl Scruggs and Doc Watson. 

However, the band itself is not a group of players you’d know. The group itself has been around since the late 1960s and has evolved thusly including stints from Jackson Browne and The Eagles’ Bernie Leadon. 

Worth mentioning, the Will the Circle Be Unbroken was released in 1972 just as modern country and western music began to get more and more of a commodity and would eventually deviate from its bluegrass and Americana roots. Also, the emphasis would be taken away from harmony and the group dynamic and gravitate toward a singular lead singer, a star. 

Will the Circle Be Unbroken is a total anomaly for the time. Akin to what happened when O Brother, Where Art Thou? released its soundtrack of similar blues and Americana and it catching a mainstream audience as if it were a new genre altogether. The guests on this album were members of a bygone era (Acuff, Scruggs, Carter, Watson) as the matriarch herself, Carter, would die six years later. From my perspective, this album wasn't a salute to the roots of American music or a means of pushing the voices of latter-day artists to a new audience. It's more of a swan song of a dying age, a dying breed of people.

Most notably, The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band performed on Saturday Night Live as The Toot Uncommons and the backing band for Steve Martin performing his quintessential song, “King Tut.” So there’s that.

A really perfectly good album.