Will the Circle Be Unbroken

For songs, see Will the Circle Be Unbroken? and Can the Circle Be Unbroken (By and By).

Will the Circle Be Unbroken
Studio album by Nitty Gritty Dirt Band
Released	1972
Recorded	August 1971
Genre	Country
Length	105:55
Label	EMI America
Producer	William McEuen
Nitty Gritty Dirt Band chronology
All the Good Times (1971) Will the Circle Be Unbroken (1972) Stars & Stripes Forever (1974)

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Will the Circle Be Unbroken is a 1972 album officially by the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, but with collaboration from many famous Bluegrass and country-western players, including Roy Acuff, Mother Maybelle Carter, Doc Watson, Earl Scruggs, Merle Travis, Bashful Brother Oswald, Norman Blake, Jimmy Martin, and others. It also introduced fiddler Vassar Clements to a wider audience.

History

The album's title comes from a song by Ada R. Habershon (famously re-arranged by A. P. Carter) and reflects how the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band was trying to tie together two generations of musicians. The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band was a young country-rock band with a hippie look. Roy Acuff described them as "a bunch of long-haired West Coast boys." The other players were much older and more famous from the forties, fifties and sixties, primarily as old-time country and bluegrass players. Many had become known to their generation through the Grand Ole Opry. However, with the rise of rock-and-roll, the emergence of the commercial country's slick 'Nashville Sound,' and changing tastes in music, their popularity had waned somewhat from their glory years.

Every track on the album was recorded on the first or second take straight to two-track masters, so the takes are raw and unprocessed^{[citation needed]}. Additionally, another tape ran continuously throughout the entire week-long recording session, and captured the dialog between the players. On the final album many of the tracks begin with the musicians discussing how to do the song or who should come in where, and provides a rare insight into the workmanship and approach that these highly-regarded musicians used to make their music, and how they decided to work together.

Originally appearing in 1972 as a three LP album, Will the Circle Be Unbroken was remastered and re-released in 2002 as a two compact disc set.

The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band made two subsequent albums, Will the Circle Be Unbroken: Volume Two and Will the Circle Be Unbroken, Volume III, in an attempt to repeat the process with other historically significant musicians. Vol. 2 won the Country Music Association's 1989 Album of the Year as well as three Grammy's. In 1990, the album was celebrated on the PBS music television program Austin City Limits, which featured a performance by the full ensemble of guests on the Carter Family song, Will The Circle Be Unbroken, from the original 1972 album.

Track listing

Disc one

1. "Grand Ole Opry Song" (Hylo Brown) – 2:59 with Jimmy Martin
2. "Keep on the Sunny Side" (A.P. Carter, Gary Garett) – 3:35 with Maybelle Carter
3. "Nashville Blues" (Earl Scruggs) – 3:10
4. "You Are My Flower" (A.P. Carter) – 3:35
5. "The Precious Jewel" (Roy Acuff) – 3:30 with Roy Acuff
6. "Dark as a Dungeon" (Merle Travis) – 2:45 with Merle Travis
7. "Tennessee Stud" (Jimmie Driftwood) – 4:22 with Doc Watson
8. "Black Mountain Rag" (traditional) – 2:10
9. "Wreck on the Highway" (Dorsey Dixon) – 3:24 with Roy Acuff
10. "The End of the World" (Fred Rose) – 3:53
11. "I Saw the Light" (Hank Williams) – 3:45 with Roy Acuff
12. "Sunny Side of the Mountain" (Byron Gregory, Harry McAuliffe) – 2:14
13. "Nine Pound Hammer" (Merle Travis) – 2:14
14. "Losin' You (Might Be the Best Thing Yet)" (Edria A. Humphrey, Jimmy Martin) – 2:44 with Jimmy Martin
15. "Honky Tonkin'" (Hank Williams) – 2:19
16. "You Don't Know My Mind" (Jimmie Skinner) – 2:45 with Jimmy Martin
17. "My Walkin' Shoes" (Jimmy Martin, Paul Williams) – 2:02 with Jimmy Martin

Disc two

1. "Lonesome Fiddle Blues" (Vassar Clements) – 2:41
2. "Cannonball Rag" (Merle Travis) – 1:15 with Merle Travis
3. "Avalanche" (Millie Clements) – 2:50
4. "Flint Hill Special" (Earl Scruggs) – 2:12
5. "Togary Mountain" (Walter McEuen) – 2:25
6. "Earl's Breakdown" (Earl Scruggs) – 2:34
7. "Orange Blossom Special" (Ervin T. Rouse) – 2:14 with Vassar Clements
8. "Wabash Cannonball" (A.P. Carter) – 2:00
9. "Lost Highway" (Leon Payne) – 3:37
10. Doc Watson & Merle Travis First Meeting (Dialogue) – 1:52
11. "Way Downtown" (traditional, Doc Watson) – 3:30 with Doc Watson
12. "Down Yonder" (Doc Watson) – 1:48 with Doc Watson
13. "Pins and Needles (In My Heart)" (Floyd Jenkins) – 2:53 with Roy Acuff
14. "Honky Tonk Blues" (Hank Williams) – 2:22
15. "Sailin' on to Hawaii" (Beecher Kirby) – 2:00 with Bashful Brother Oswald
16. "I'm Thinking Tonight of My Blue Eyes" (A.P. Carter) – 4:25
17. "I am a Pilgrim" (traditional) – 2:55
18. "Wildwood Flower" (A.P. Carter) – 3:34 with Maybelle Carter
19. "Soldier's Joy" (John McEuen, Earl Scruggs) – 2:05
20. "Will the Circle Be Unbroken" (A.P. Carter) – 4:50
21. "Both Sides Now" (Joni Mitchell) – 2:19 with Randy Scruggs
    • 2002 Reissue bonus tracks
22. "Foggy Mountain Breakdown" (Earl Scruggs) – 2:39
23. Warming Up for "The Opry" – 2:43
24. Sunny Side – 4:06
25. "Remember Me" (Scotty Wiseman) – 1:32