never mind SANDANISTA, this is the most revolutionary three-record set ever

First off, Jimmy Martin is as serious as cancer here. A master.

To bluegrass-minded guys of my generation, the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band's 1972 Will The Circle Be Unbroken was as important a record as any could be. Along with Old And In The Way, John Hartford's Aereo Plain, and the Columbia David Bromberg album of your choice (mine being Demon In Disguise), it was at the foundation of our tradition.

But where the other records were flags planted by the post-Kentucky Colonels generation, Circle brought generations together. The Dirt Band had scored a couple of big pop hits in 1972, "Mr Bojangles" and the Nesmith-penned "Some Of Shelley's Blues". They could have gone the way of Brewer & Shipley or several other folkie acts, but they did the unthinkable.

Up to that point, the only triple album set that held for in the marketplace were George harrison's masterpiece All Things Must Pass, and maybe its follow-up (of sorts), The Concert For Bangla Desh, both produced by the great Phil Spector. They had Spector, ex-Beatles, Dylan linkage, and then some going for them.

The time is never right for a live-in-the-studio triple album of pre-World War II country vets, bluegrass stalwarts, and hippie folkies who play bluegrass, all bunched in, complete with studio dialogue. Or is it? Wikipedia offers the following:

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.
Its 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..

It was a defiant, loving, revolutionary musical move. This was the era of "Tie A Yellow Ribbon 'Round the Old Oak Tree".

Circle was an inexplicably huge success. On the Billboard charts, it hit #4 country and #28 pop. Now, #28 doesn't sound like a lot, but this was an all accoustic three record set fairly devoid of contemporary personnel. This was Mother Maybelle, Roy Acuff, Merle Travis. This was an uncompromised Jimmy Martin hitting the high hard one.

(For all the hoopla about Gram Parsons and Sweethearts of the Rodeo, this was the rock generation finally digging deep enough to reach the real country roots and deliver the real stuff and not just an imitation in a Nudie suit. Complete with commercial success and critical accolade.)

There are a great many rumors and stories about this record, not the least of which being that Bill Monroe refused to be involved with it because he was still pissed at Earl Scruggs, whose departure (with Lester Flatt) from the Bluegrass Boys was unforgivable to Monroe. Even more unforgivable, they eclipsed him commercially, even beating Monroe to Carnegie hall.

(Monroe's attitudes towards former sidemen could be damning at best. His relationship with one-time protege Jimmy Martin would make a fantastic psychology textbook.)

As it was, Scruggs had to take a certain amount of shit from Roy Acuff. Scruggs had by the time of these sessions dissolved his partnership with Flatt and had formed a more modern group with his sons. Acuff -- who may or may not have been a Klansman -- had a few cutting remarks to make, and Earl took it like more of a gentleman than I will ever be.

Circle -- largely because of its organic mix of players from different eras -- helped my generation bond with country music in its root form. My friends didn't have Carter Family albums or any of that stuff. There were a ton of blues reissues, but country music didn't hadn't earned the same archival consideration (and really still hasn't yet, either). A great many of us learned "Wildwood Flower", "Sunny Side of The Mountain", and a whole lot of other traditional material from this album. This was our introduction to Maybelle Carter, Jimmy Martin, Roy Acuff, Merle Travis, and a whole world more.

The Dirt Band have since done two sequels, and they each have their moments.

But this first one was the one. For so many of us, it was the Rosetta Stone.