Will the Circle Be Unbroken [Bonus Tracks]

Disc 1
1	Grand Ole Opry Song 3:10
2	Keep on the Sunny Side 4:27
3	Nashville Blues 3:15
4	You Are My Flower 3:39
5	The Precious Jewel 4:09
6	Dark as a Dungeon 2:47
7	Tennessee Stud 4:50
8	Black Mountain Rag 2:40
9	Wreck on the Highway 3:25
10	The End of the World 3:54
11	I Saw the Light 4:21
12	Sunny Side of the Mountain 2:50
13	Nine Pound Hammer 2:53
14	Losin' You (Might Be the Best Thing Yet) 2:49
15	Honky Tonkin' 2:32
16	You Don't Know My Mind 2:47
17	My Walkin' Shoes 2:53
Disc 2
1	Lonesome Fiddle Blues 2:43
2	Cannonball Rag 1:16
3	Avalanchie 2:52
4	Flint Hill Special 2:13
5	Togary Mountian 2:28
6	Earl's Breakdown 2:37
7	Orange Blossom Special 2:12
8	Wabash Cannonball 2:03
9	Lost Highway 3:48
10	Doc Watson and Merle Travis: First Meeting 1:52
11	Way Downtown 3:35
12	Down Yonder 3:45
13	Pins and Needles (In My Heart) 2:54
14	Honky Tonk Blues 2:23
15	Sailin' on to Hawaii 2:09
16	I'm Thinking Tonight of My Blue Eyes 4:26
17	I Am a Pilgrim 3:54
18	Wildwood Flower 3:33
19	Soldier's Joy 3:33
20	Will the Circle Be Unbroken 4:48
21	Both Sides Now 2:25
22	Foggy Mountain Breakdown previously unreleased 2:39
23	Warming Up for "The Opry" previously unreleased / Talk 2:43
24	Sunny Side previously unreleased / Talk 4:06
25	Remember Me previously unreleased 1:32

Barnes & Noble

Not to take anything away from the deserved success of O Brother, Where Art Thou?, but the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band were there first -- in 1972 -- accompanying a staggering assembly of bluegrass and traditional country giants on Will the Circle Be Unbroken, which featured songs associated with the Carter Family, Roy Acuff, Merle Travis, and Jimmy Martin. Earl Scruggs sat in on banjo and took the lead on two of his own originals, "Flint Hill Special" and "Earl's Breakdown," plus the traditional instrumental "Soldier's Joy." Also on hand were Mother Maybelle Carter, fiddler Vassar Clements, guitarists Norman Blake and Randy Scruggs (Earl's son), Dobro player Pete "Oswald" Kirby, bassist Junior Huskey, and Doc Watson, who sang and picked. This Hall of Fame cast produced a powerful, exciting, and durable album. Highlights include Mother Maybelle's plain, potent voice packing an emotional punch on "I'm Thinking Tonight of My Blue Eyes," Acuff's soul-piercing cry on "I Saw the Light," Travis's slick pickin' and genial vocal on his "Nine Pound Hammer," Clements's searing fiddle work on "Lonesome Fiddle Blues," and Watson being his irrepressible self, vocally and instrumentally, on the rollicking "Way Downtown." The studio banter -- particularly Acuff's -- is priceless. Will the Circle Be Unbroken is even more of a landmark than O Brother, and its long-overdue release on CD is not merely a welcome arrival but a spiritual blessing. David McGee

All Music Guide

With all due respect to the Byrds and the Flying Burrito Brothers, it took the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band with this album to come up with a merger of rock and country music that worked for both sides and everyone involved. The opening number, "The Grand Ole Opry Song," set the tone for the album, showing that this band -- for all of their origins in rock and popular music -- was willing to meet country music on its terms, rather than as a vehicle for embellishment as rock music. The result, without a false or strained note anywhere among its 37 songs, was an all-star country project that worked (and transcended its country and rock origins), with the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band serving as catalyst and intersecting point for all of the talent involved, all of who gave superbly of themselves. Not only did this album result in new exposure to a new and wider audience for the likes of Mother Maybelle Carter, Roy Acuff, Earl Scruggs, Merle Travis, and others, but this was the first real country album that a lot of rock listeners under the age of 30 ever heard. Thus, it opened up pathways and dialogue in all directions, across several generations and cultural barriers; the dialogue between Doc Watson and Merle Travis alone was almost worth the price of admission. This was also one of rock's very few multi-disc sets to be fully justified in its length and content; at a time when unnecessary double-LPs were all the rage, the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band and company gave a triple album that, if anything, left audiences asking for more. [The 2002 reissue adds four bonus tracks, though only "Foggy Mountain Breakdown" is a proper song; two of the others consist of warm-ups and studio chat, while "Remember Me" (featuring Doc Watson) is just a fragment.] Bruce Eder