Will the Circle Be Unbroken

I wanted to hate 2+ hours of samey bluegrass tunes, but honestly it wasn't bad. It droned along and I never really had an "I want this to end" moment. More of a novelty than anything, but makes sense it's on this list as an anthology. 3/5

This is going to be a tough one. We buried my grandmother to the title track of this album. This is music that makes me feel like home and remember those I loved who are now gone.

Hearing this, I am transported to my childhood. Listening to my grandfather and his brother and friends picking and singing music like this, or attending bluegrass festivals with that same crowd, being a shirtless kid in the hot Tennessee sun, completely lost in the music and dancing without embarrassment. Beautiful memories and unbelievably good music. Right now, my soul is more "home" than it has been in quite some time.

I think another thing I love about this album in particular is the intimate setting of the studio and the conversations of the musicians. Just regular people chatting, and then launching into some of the best guitar, banjo picking, and storytelling there is.

Easy ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

I love this. It's like a Primer for old timey music with a loveable curveball in the instrumental Joni cover.

Yes, it's long but relax with it. Listen toba third or half. Hit the Did Not Listen Button as required to take it all in.

Nothing against this record which off itself is a solid and tasteful compilation of bluegrass. While it presents the work of many contemporary legends in bluegrass and country music, I cannot help but to wonder if some more succinct representation of the genre would make for a more meaningful "must".

7/10 [SWAP]

Ik had dit ZO VET gevonden als het gewoon een fatsoenlijk 40-minuten durend album was. Maar lord, 42 nummers???? Huur een editor in ofzo.

Verder dus echt gezellig, lekker creatieve bluegrass en country. De wereld zou een betere plek zijn met wat minder fascisten en wat meer banjo's.

I saw a couple reviews about how this record introduced a new generation of people to country and bluegrass, but is that really true? I can’t imagine this was the kind of radio crossover sensation that reached out to “meet people where they are” like that. And who’s spending their 1972 money on a double album they don’t know anything about?

Anyways, this is an impenetrable amount of bluegrass. It's basically a full playlist and feels like the second longest record I've had to listen to for this record, just behind that six hour Ella Fitzgerald sings the Gershwin Songbook epic. In the non-vinyl world, this works as background music for a day when you want this kind of background music. If I had this on vinyl, every record flip would feel like an opportunity to choose something better to play.

Finally catching up after not listening to any albums for a few days only to then be immediately given an album with 42 tracks feels like punishment. Definitely gonna fall behind again because of this. Sigh.

Great music though. Acts as a pretty cool time capsule of country music at the time.

I'm so curious to learn more about the album cover. I can find from looking online that the person on the cover was a union admiral, but I can't find anything about why that photo and the civil war theme was chosen. I admit that because it's a country album, I initially assumed it was a confederate soldier so I was kind of surprised to find out it's the opposite. Though there's also confederate flags on the cover, so still not a great look.

Seriously, why did they pick this album cover? Why is Google failing me in trying to find more information?! Because I can't find anything, the confederate flags are gonna make it lose a point in my rating.

I didn’t dislike any of these songs but my god is this long, just release like 3 albums instead of

I also managed to listen to the bonus track version (I think this is the only one on Qobuz)

Also interesting to here some Folsom prison tracks on here, not sure which came first though

3

I don’t like the genre and the fact that I have to sit through 100+ minutes is a genuine punishment to me. 3/10

This is less of an album and more of a hostage situation. You’re telling me I must listen to over 2 hours of traditional country music? I’m up for almost anything but that is a tough ask. Committing to listening was sort of like driving home after eating really spicy food … the closer I got to the end of the ride, the more I could feel the need for significant relief building up inside of me but I knew I had to wait until the the very end to experience it. I tried to be as tactful as I could without saying that this Nitty Gritty was pretty shitty.

For me, it’s a 10.

I mean, I get it. It’s 109 minutes of country music that never really changes tact all too often; lots of banjo, lots of guitar, lots of bass, and a lot of overlap in topics & vocal twang. If you don’t already have an affinity for bluegrass music or old American folk standards, this album will feel like a slog; a homework assignment for the past in the middle of your jam sessions with Led Zeppelin & the Rolling Stones that might feel like an unnecessary footnote among what’s currently 1086 albums on the site. It doesn’t surprise me that this album has a 2.98 on the site.

It’s just impossible for me to read this as anything but a love letter to an entire genre. When Ella Fitzgerald recorded the entire “Great American Songbook” to tape, it was done out of respect for the past & the necessity of preservation. Without those recordings putting a lot of them back into the public consciousness, I imagine we wouldn’t have the same comprehensive documentation over them as we do now. This album feels like it’s following a similar modus operandi, with one difference: it’s done out of respect for the past, yes, but it’s done with the necessity of preservation of the *people* involved with making them.

The guest features here, written all over the album’s cover & recorded throughout with banter & interstitials make this album feel far more lived in. Ella Fitzgerald’s voice is what drives those recordings of the Great American Songbook, and while you can acknowledge people such as Cole Porter, the Gershwins, & Irving Berlin as a result of her recordings, it’s harder to imagine them as living, breathing people & not just the sums of their work. With the inclusion of everyone involved here, it feels less like stepping into a museum exhibit for documentation & more like being given a seat in the room to observe masters at their craft embody the music they’ve performed all their lives.

It’s why the length doesn’t bother me at all here; yes, it’s a little long & maybe a few of the more ‘plain’ instrumental tracks could’ve been cut, but you’re meant to absorb your time with these people. The music is fantastically done & it fully succeeds at documenting these tracks with technology that can finally capture their essence, but it would not feel the same if it weren’t such a labor of love to ensure the artists at hand get their dues here. I think you have to have a healthy amount of reverence for this era to really appreciate what this album is going for, or at least enough of an interest in the past that you can gain some of that reverence by the end.

I’ve got more than enough reverence, as these are the artists my dad grew up on & the songs he’d play all the time when I was a kid. It’s weird to say that as someone practically born at the start of the millennium, but still. I just think it’s a gorgeous love letter to the genre of country music & frankly, to the artform of music as a whole. It's an album made for the love of the game. I understand that it’s not everyone’s cup of tea, & that’s fine. It’s one of the more personalized 10’s I’ll give on the list, but it just feels essential to me. Thank goodness this is here.

This is a cool ass project and I found it really delightful, though it does overstay its welcome a bit.

A few fun tracks and a few snoozers. I wish modern country music still sounded more like this.

Will the Circle Be Unbroken by Nitty Gritty Dirt Band is one of the toughest listens I've had during this challenge. I know this album is regarded as an important collaboration and a landmark in country and bluegrass music, bringing together generations of musicians, but it simply wasn't for me.

At 42 tracks, it's far too long. There are only so many banjos, fiddles and traditional instrumentals I can take before everything starts to blur into one. By the halfway point I felt like I'd already heard the same song dozens of times, and there just wasn't enough variety to keep me engaged.

The biggest issue is the sheer length. There are far too many instrumentals, many of which felt interchangeable, and I found myself losing interest long before the album finally came to an end. Instead of feeling like a celebration of country music, it became an endurance test.

I'm sure fans of traditional bluegrass and old-time country will absolutely love this record, but it's about as far away from my musical tastes as you can get.

Favourite tracks: I honestly couldn't pick one that really stood out.

Least favourite tracks: There wasn't a single track I felt compelled to revisit. The instrumentals in particular all merged into one very long listen.

Album artwork: A slightly creepy album cover, more memorable than most of the music inside.

Fun listen, some interesting songs

This is a really good album, but it's also way too long. Two hours of country, bluegrass type music for someone who doesn't regularly like listening to country or bluegrass is a long time to be listening to it even if it's really good.

Perfect example of an album I never would have touched if not for this list. Find it odd when people are complaining about something other than generic rock popping up. Why even do this?

Certainly a historically significant and it deserves a place. 3.5/5. Raising to 4.

No way I’m listening to 2 hours of this

De aquí seguramente salga un muy buen disco de bluegrass pero DIOS SANTO QUE COSA MÁS LARGA SE ME HA HECHO ETERNO LO HE TENIDO QUE ESCUCHAR EN CUATRO VECES.

Lo siento, pero no. ¿Más de dos horas de country? No, gracias.