Dirt Rises to Top Again : Nitty Gritty Band, Older but Unbroken, Has 2nd ‘Circle’ Hit

Seventeen years ago, the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band put out the record “Will the Circle Be Unbroken.”

Today, the newest LP from the Long Beach folk-rockers is “Will the Circle Be Unbroken, Volume 2.”

The new, double LP entered the Top 10 on the country best-selling charts in July and is climbing the pop charts. Two singles from it, “Turn of the Century” and “And So It Goes,” the latter with John Denver, are on the country chart.

Guitarist and founding band member Jeff Hanna recalled in an interview that it was then-manager Bill McEuen who had the idea for the first “Will the Circle Be Unbroken” album.

“We were hippie musicians from California, considered a rock band, getting together with elder statesmen of country music. I hadn’t yet had my 23rd birthday,” he said.

“There was definitely a generation difference. I think sociologically we were bridging a gap too. The record was viewed as helping break down some barriers.”

Country musician Earl Scruggs and his sons, Randy, Gary and Steve, came to one of the band’s concerts. They struck up a friendship.

“That became the seed that became the first ‘Circle’ album,” Hanna said.

Scruggs helped get other country musicians to play on the album. The only one who declined, Hanna recalled, was Bill Monroe.

“He didn’t think his fans would understand him playing music with a rock ‘n’ roll band,” he said.

“We’ve done concerts with Bill in the last few years. It wasn’t personal animosity, I guess. I’m glad it wasn’t.”

All the guests from the first album who are still living are on the new one, except Doc Watson, who is semiretired. They are Roy Acuff, Jimmy Martin, Vassar Clements and Earl and Randy Scruggs.

The entirely acoustic album was recorded in Randy Scruggs’ studio in Berryhill, Tenn., in December and January.

“There were usually two or three great tracks,” Hanna said. “We let the artist choose. We didn’t splice.”

Johnny Cash sings on the opening, “Life’s Railway to Heaven.”

“We put him first because in Europe a couple of years ago he said if we ever did another ‘Will the Circle Be Unbroken,’ he’d be happy to appear on it,” said Bob Carpenter, who plays keyboards and accordion in the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band.

“We did a couple of shows with them (the Cash family) in Europe,” Hanna said. “June Carter went on about how much Mother Maybelle loved us. She called us ‘them dirty boys.’ We got a kick out of that. They were the guardians of traditional country music. That gave the idea a blessing.”

But they did not rush into it because they wanted to get it right.

“The first time was all traditional tunes, honky-tonk blues, Hank Williams songs,” Carpenter said. “This time, we asked people to bring in songs, traditional or traditional-sounding. We’re looking at where country music stands now.

“Our manager read a story (saying) that Bruce Hornsby said if he was on a desert island, he’d want the ‘Will the Circle Be Unbroken’ album. We called him up for this and he jumped at the chance.”

Hornsby reworked his own “The Valley Road” into bluegrass.

Roger McGuinn and Chris Hillman perform “You Ain’t Goin’ Nowhere,” which they recorded in 1969 on one of the first folk-rock albums, the Byrds’ “Sweetheart of the Radio.”

Levon Helm, whose music in the Band is now considered country, and Denver, who had recorded songs by Dirt Band members but never recorded with them, were invited. There are also appearances by John Prine, Emmlylou Harris, Paulette Carlson of Highway 101, Michael Martin Murphey and Rosanne Cash in a duet with John Hiatt.

“June Carter was in the booth singing backup with her sisters on ‘Life’s Railway to Heaven,’ ” Hanna said, “and she said, ‘I could swear I hear Mama’s guitar.’ Anita or Helen had brought it in. She recognized the sound without seeing it.”

When they made the first “Circle” album, the musicians thought they had to be on best behavior. “I think Roy Acuff was especially reticent about what was going on,” Hanna said. “He came in when we were doing the Merle Travis sessions. We were auditioning for him. He told us making the new record was more fun than the first time around.”

When pop radio stopped playing country rock in the late 1970s, the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band went Nashville. One of its last pop hits was “An American Dream” in 1980. Its first country single, on which Ricky Scaggs played, was “Long Hard Road” in 1982.

“We’ve had 15 consecutive top 10 singles on the country charts,” Hanna said.

The band’s last album for Warner Bros. was “More Great Dirt,” out in January. “Will the Circle Be Unbroken” is its first for Universal.

For the last two years, since McEuen left, the band has been a quartet, with Hanna, Carpenter, drummer Jimmie Fadden and guitarist Jimmy Ibbotson. Hanna has donated the washboard he used for both “Circle” albums to the Country Music Hall of Fame.