The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band-curated “Will The Circle Be Unbroken” album released in 1972 is often cited as one of the foundation stones of americana. At the time, the record’s bringing together of the founders of country and bluegrass with the Southern California rock band was seen as quite revolutionary and helped open the borders between different types of music – especially the borders that bound the respective audiences.
The Dirt Band reprised the concept in 1989 with “Will The Circle Be Unbroken Volume 2”. Many of those involved in the first album were gone by this time, but their places were taken by newer artists demonstrating the durability of that circle.
Roll forward to 2002, the thirtieth anniversary of the original record, and the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band and their collaborators put out the third Circle album. The circle had turned again, and several newer acts became part of the project including Alison Krauss, Iris Dement and Matraca Berg. Berg, who had been married to the Dirt Band’s Jeff Hanna since 1993, is a rare bird being a Nashville based musician and songwriter who was actually born there.
Berg is known primarily as a songwriter having written and co-written songs for a lot of artists and has been the recipient of many awards. She has also released a number of albums in her own right – the first tranche in the 1990s were towards the pop country end of the spectrum although still containing many excellent songs; the second tranche emerged around a decade ago : “The Dreaming Fields” and “Love’s Truck Stop”. With Berg firmly in artistic control both are fine examples of songwriting and performance which any lover of good music should seek out.
Berg’s contribution to Circle 3 was ‘Oh Cumberland’ a song of longing by a displaced Tennessean for the home country as represented by the river that runs through the state and bisects Nashville. On the record, Berg is joined by Emmylou Harris.
At the same time, the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band celebrated the thirtieth anniversary of the original Circle album with a concert “Will The Circle Be Unbroken – Farther Along” which was aired on PBS and released as a DVD in 2003. The concert features Jerry Douglas, Randy Scruggs, Jimmy Martin, John Hiatt, Roseanne Cash, a trio of McCourys, Iris Dement, Vince Gill, Vassar Clements and Taj Mahal
One of the highlights of the recorded concert sees Berg step on to the stage with the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, introduced by Hanna, to perform ‘Oh Cumberland’. Her voice is a standout and the accompaniment on harmonica and accordion provides a comforting wrap to the homesickness of the singer.
