Nitty Gritty Dirt Band - Let’s Go/Acoustic
BGO Records BGOCD1186
Nitty Gritty Dirt Band - Hold On/Workin’ Band
BGO Records BGOCD1213
I’m not too sure what it is about the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band that I find so appealing, but going right back to the mid-1960s when they were a jug band and through their flirtations with other musical forms like bluegrass, Cajun and country-rock, I’ve always found their albums so uplifting. The California-based band has out-lasted virtually every other country-based rock group of their era by continually reinventing themselves, yet still retaining the same musical integrity that got them started back in the mid 1960s. Beginning life as an acoustic-styled jug band, they have covered a sort of all-American eclecticism with strands of a whole musical range: blues, hillbilly, bluegrass, Cajun, folk, boogie, traditional and modern country. It was the historic recordings they undertook at Nashville's Woodland Sound Studios in 1971, which really put the NGDB on the musical map. A three-record set entitled WILL THE CIRCLE BE UNBROKEN, conceived by the band, but in no way dominated by them, it was an ambitious project. It was the first of its kind to bring together long-haired contemporary rock musicians and old traditional country artists, as the NGDB shared the studio with Doc Watson, Mother Maybelle Carter, Roy Acuff, Merle Travis, Jimmy Martin and the Scruggs Family. Even more astounding, the whole thing was mixed live on a two-track tape machine. It is probably the highest-energy acoustic music ever recorded (not a single electric instrument on the whole thing), and a testimonial to both the musicians involved and the music they played. When finally released in 1973 in a lavish booklet sleeve, it became one of the most discussed albums of the time and gave old-time country music a big boost. Even so, for many years, the NGDB were totally ignored by the country mainstream.
Following seventeen years of releasing critically-acclaimed, but commercially-neglected albums, they finally gained country acceptance in the early 1980s with country chart-toppers Long Hard Road (The Sharecropper’s Dream), Modern Day Romance, Baby’s Got A Hold On Me and Fishin’ In The Dark. This pair of 2on1 reissues from the good folks at BGO Records kind of book-ends those successful years on the country charts. LET’S GO, originally released on Liberty Records in 1983, featured Dance Little Jean, their first top ten country hit. They also scored a top 20 country hit with Bob McDill’s punchy Shot Full Of Love. From the frenetic energy of Andrew Gold’s Heartaches In Heartaches to the melodic introspection of Goodbye Eyes via the pop melody of Maryann, musically, the album was the most diverse the band had recorded to date. But it was to be their last one for Liberty, as the following year they joined Warner Bros. Records.
Having tasted mainstream country success, they embarked on a concerted effort to make it as a country act. They immediately hit with 1984’s PLAIN DIRT FASHION, establishing a fine modern country sound that resulted in several top ten country hits. For the next five years they rarely put a foot wrong on the country charts and also released the superb albums PARTNERS, BROTHERS AND FRIENDS, HOLD ON and WORKIN’ BAND. The latter two, released in 1985 and 1987, respectively, were of a uniformly high standard and the epitome of the sound of a band whose incisive lyrics, innate musicality and passion had continued to improve rather than diminish in almost 20 years of writing, recording and performing.
Whenever music fans talk about the NGDB they always go back to the Circle album of 1973. Generally, they overlook the years that the band was on Warner Brothers. All too often commercial success leads so-called music aficionados to mistakenly dismiss an act’s recordings and this happened to the NGDB at a period in their career when I felt they’d reached an artistic peak and at the same time achieved a breakthrough to a previously vastly untapped audience. These Warner Bros albums featured some great songs penned by the band members, but as they’ve done throughout their career, they drew on some quality material from outside writers like Bruce Springsteen (Angelyne), Jim Photoglo (Fishin’ In the Dark), and Wayland Holyfield (Dancing To The Beat Of A Broken Heart).
The songwriting ability of the various members of the NGDB is often overshadowed by their vocal and musical skills and the guest musicians they often attract to appear on their recordings. Over the years they have penned some quite amazing songs, and these Warner Bros album include some of their finest including I’ve Been Lookin’, Workin’ Man (Nowhere To Go) and Down That Road Tonight, which were all top ten hits. But one of my favourites from this pair of albums is Jimmie Fadden’s Oleanna, a captivating songs of pure escapism that is quite irresistible.
By the early 1990s the NGDB were no longer a fixture on the country charts. They returned to Liberty Records and one of their albums from this period was 1994's ACOUSTIC. A vastly underrated gem, recorded mainly in the rustic surroundings of Woody Creek, Colorado, it was typical NGDB, maybe a little more acoustic than their mainstream country hits of the 1980s, but still highly accessible. Most of the songs were written or co-written by the band members and throughout their watchwords are catchy and memorable melodies, simple, but highly effective lyrics, great picking on mainly traditional instruments—acoustic and slide guitars, mandolin, fiddle, banjo, accordion, harmonica—and great rootsy harmonies with several different vocal leads, but maintaining what I’ve come to recognise over the years as the NGDB sound.
Bob Carpenter takes the lead vocal on The Broken Road, a song penned by Jeff Hanna and Marcus Hummon. Just over a decade later Rascal Flatts’ version, under the title Bless The Broken Road achieved platinum sales and for five weeks held the number one spot on the sountry chart and subsequently won the 2005 Grammy for Best Country Song.
The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band seems to go on forever and ever. Since their formation almost 50 years ago, they have maintained a pretty stable line-up with long-time members Jeff Hanna, Jimmy Ibbotson, Jimmie Fadden and John McEuen still there along with relative newcomer Bob Carpenter, who only joined in the late 1970s. I’ve always felt that the title the band gave their underrated 1985 album for Warner Bros—PARTNERS, BROTHERS & FRIENDS—sums up best the relationship between these five talented singers and musicians. These four original albums, re-released on value-for-money two albums on one CD packages, with extensive and informative liner notes, explain better than any words I have to write just why this band has remained at the top of its game for so long.
www.nittygritty.com/
I’m not too sure what it is about the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band that I find so appealing, but going right back to the mid-1960s when they were a jug band and through their flirtations with other musical forms like bluegrass, Cajun and country-rock, I’ve always found their albums so uplifting. The California-based band has out-lasted virtually every other country-based rock group of their era by continually reinventing themselves, yet still retaining the same musical integrity that got them started back in the mid 1960s. Beginning life as an acoustic-styled jug band, they have covered a sort of all-American eclecticism with strands of a whole musical range: blues, hillbilly, bluegrass, Cajun, folk, boogie, traditional and modern country. It was the historic recordings they undertook at Nashville's Woodland Sound Studios in 1971, which really put the NGDB on the musical map. A three-record set entitled WILL THE CIRCLE BE UNBROKEN, conceived by the band, but in no way dominated by them, it was an ambitious project. It was the first of its kind to bring together long-haired contemporary rock musicians and old traditional country artists, as the NGDB shared the studio with Doc Watson, Mother Maybelle Carter, Roy Acuff, Merle Travis, Jimmy Martin and the Scruggs Family. Even more astounding, the whole thing was mixed live on a two-track tape machine. It is probably the highest-energy acoustic music ever recorded (not a single electric instrument on the whole thing), and a testimonial to both the musicians involved and the music they played. When finally released in 1973 in a lavish booklet sleeve, it became one of the most discussed albums of the time and gave old-time country music a big boost. Even so, for many years, the NGDB were totally ignored by the country mainstream.
Following seventeen years of releasing critically-acclaimed, but commercially-neglected albums, they finally gained country acceptance in the early 1980s with country chart-toppers Long Hard Road (The Sharecropper’s Dream), Modern Day Romance, Baby’s Got A Hold On Me and Fishin’ In The Dark. This pair of 2on1 reissues from the good folks at BGO Records kind of book-ends those successful years on the country charts. LET’S GO, originally released on Liberty Records in 1983, featured Dance Little Jean, their first top ten country hit. They also scored a top 20 country hit with Bob McDill’s punchy Shot Full Of Love. From the frenetic energy of Andrew Gold’s Heartaches In Heartaches to the melodic introspection of Goodbye Eyes via the pop melody of Maryann, musically, the album was the most diverse the band had recorded to date. But it was to be their last one for Liberty, as the following year they joined Warner Bros. Records.
Having tasted mainstream country success, they embarked on a concerted effort to make it as a country act. They immediately hit with 1984’s PLAIN DIRT FASHION, establishing a fine modern country sound that resulted in several top ten country hits. For the next five years they rarely put a foot wrong on the country charts and also released the superb albums PARTNERS, BROTHERS AND FRIENDS, HOLD ON and WORKIN’ BAND. The latter two, released in 1985 and 1987, respectively, were of a uniformly high standard and the epitome of the sound of a band whose incisive lyrics, innate musicality and passion had continued to improve rather than diminish in almost 20 years of writing, recording and performing.
Whenever music fans talk about the NGDB they always go back to the Circle album of 1973. Generally, they overlook the years that the band was on Warner Brothers. All too often commercial success leads so-called music aficionados to mistakenly dismiss an act’s recordings and this happened to the NGDB at a period in their career when I felt they’d reached an artistic peak and at the same time achieved a breakthrough to a previously vastly untapped audience. These Warner Bros albums featured some great songs penned by the band members, but as they’ve done throughout their career, they drew on some quality material from outside writers like Bruce Springsteen (Angelyne), Jim Photoglo (Fishin’ In the Dark), and Wayland Holyfield (Dancing To The Beat Of A Broken Heart).
The songwriting ability of the various members of the NGDB is often overshadowed by their vocal and musical skills and the guest musicians they often attract to appear on their recordings. Over the years they have penned some quite amazing songs, and these Warner Bros album include some of their finest including I’ve Been Lookin’, Workin’ Man (Nowhere To Go) and Down That Road Tonight, which were all top ten hits. But one of my favourites from this pair of albums is Jimmie Fadden’s Oleanna, a captivating songs of pure escapism that is quite irresistible.
By the early 1990s the NGDB were no longer a fixture on the country charts. They returned to Liberty Records and one of their albums from this period was 1994's ACOUSTIC. A vastly underrated gem, recorded mainly in the rustic surroundings of Woody Creek, Colorado, it was typical NGDB, maybe a little more acoustic than their mainstream country hits of the 1980s, but still highly accessible. Most of the songs were written or co-written by the band members and throughout their watchwords are catchy and memorable melodies, simple, but highly effective lyrics, great picking on mainly traditional instruments—acoustic and slide guitars, mandolin, fiddle, banjo, accordion, harmonica—and great rootsy harmonies with several different vocal leads, but maintaining what I’ve come to recognise over the years as the NGDB sound.
Bob Carpenter takes the lead vocal on The Broken Road, a song penned by Jeff Hanna and Marcus Hummon. Just over a decade later Rascal Flatts’ version, under the title Bless The Broken Road achieved platinum sales and for five weeks held the number one spot on the sountry chart and subsequently won the 2005 Grammy for Best Country Song.
The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band seems to go on forever and ever. Since their formation almost 50 years ago, they have maintained a pretty stable line-up with long-time members Jeff Hanna, Jimmy Ibbotson, Jimmie Fadden and John McEuen still there along with relative newcomer Bob Carpenter, who only joined in the late 1970s. I’ve always felt that the title the band gave their underrated 1985 album for Warner Bros—PARTNERS, BROTHERS & FRIENDS—sums up best the relationship between these five talented singers and musicians. These four original albums, re-released on value-for-money two albums on one CD packages, with extensive and informative liner notes, explain better than any words I have to write just why this band has remained at the top of its game for so long.
www.nittygritty.com/
