Will the Circle Be Unbroken: Volume Two


Will the Circle Be Unbroken: Volume Two is the nineteenth studio album by American country folk group Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, released on May 1, 1989. The album follows the same concept as the band's 1972 album, Will the Circle Be Unbroken, which featured guest performances from many notable country music stars.

Composition

Circle II features largely acoustic, bluegrass music instrumentation with a line-up of contemporary country music artists that includes Johnny Cash, Rosanne Cash, Emmylou Harris, Michael Martin Murphey and Ricky Skaggs. Returnees from the first Circle are bluegrass musician Jimmy Martin, banjoist Earl Scruggs, fiddler Vassar Clements and singer Roy Acuff.
Other artists represent the rock, folk and pop genres, including Levon Helm from the Band, John Denver, John Prine, John Hiatt and Bruce Hornsby.
Among the tracks is the Bob Dylan composition, "You Ain't Goin' Nowhere", sung as a duet by former members of the Byrds, Roger McGuinn and Chris Hillman, their first reunion in many years. The appearance of McGuinn and Hillman on an album dominated by Grand Ole Opry members represented a reconciliation of sorts between them, after the Byrds had received a cold reception at their lone appearance on the Opry in 1968; the song itself was one that Ralph Emery had famously dissed during the Byrds' brief Nashville residency in the same era.
The roster of session musicians for the album featured many notable performers, including fiddler Mark O'Connor, resonator guitarist Jerry Douglas, banjoist Béla Fleck, guitarist Chet Atkins and bassist Roy Huskey, Jr., son of bassist Junior Huskey, who had played on the first Circle.
Like the first Circle, the album features snippets of studio chatter. In the lead-in to John Denver's song, "And So It Goes", someone asks, "Is this practice?" Denver replies: "They're all practice."
In an intro to the song "Riding Alone", Emmylou Harris summed up her thoughts about relaxed atmosphere of the recording sessions, saying: "Years ago I had the experience of sitting around in a living room with a bunch of people and singing and playing, and it was like a spiritual experience, it was wonderful. And I decided then that was what I was going to do with my life was play music, do music. In the making of records, I think over the years we've all gotten a little too technical, a little too hung up on getting things perfect. We've lost the living room. The living room has gone out of the music, but today I feel like we got it back."

Reception

Nick Robinson of British music newspaper Music Week reviewed the album positively. He wrote: "The result is an impressive and uplifting collection of 20 tracks that should even appeal to those punters that are not already familiar with the styles included."
Will the Circle Be Unbroken: Volume Two was certified gold in the United States and Canada. The album peaked at No. 5 on the Billboard Top Country Album chart and at 95 on the Billboard 200. Singles from the album included John Denver's "And So It Goes", "Turn of the Century", "When It's Gone" and "One Step Over the Line".
It won Grammy Awards in 1990 for Best Bluegrass Recording, Best Country Instrumental Performance, and Best Country Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal. It also won Album of the Year at the Country Music Association Awards. A documentary film, The Making of Will the Circle Be Unbroken II, was released by Cabin Fever Entertainment.
Circle II was followed up with a 2002 album, Will the Circle Be Unbroken, Volume III, which coincided with the 30th anniversary re-release of Will the Circle Be Unbroken.

Track listing

  1. "Life's Railway to Heaven" – 4:39
  2. *Lead vocal and guitar by Johnny Cash with June Carter Cash, Anita Carter and Helen Carter
  3. *Randy Scruggs plays "Mother" Maybelle Carter's Gibson L5
  4. "Grandpa Was a Carpenter" – 3:24
  5. *Lead vocal and guitar by John Prine
  6. "When I Get My Rewards" – 4:25
  7. *Lead vocal by Levon Helm
  8. "Don't You Hear Jerusalem Moan" – 3:56
  9. *With New Grass Revival. Mandolin and first verse lead vocals by Sam Bush, second verse vocals by Bob Carpenter and John Cowan; third verse vocals by Jimmy Ibbotson and Pat Flynn
  10. "Little Mountain Church House" – 3:32
  11. *Lead vocal and guitar by Ricky Skaggs
  12. "And So It Goes" – 3:54
  13. *Lead vocal by John Denver
  14. *Released on John Denver's Australian album Stonehaven Sunset
  15. "When It's Gone" – 2:34
  16. *Lead vocal by Jimmy Ibbotson
  17. "Mary Danced With Soldiers" – 3:07
  18. *Lead vocal and guitar by Emmylou Harris
  19. "Riding Alone" – 3:09
  20. *Lead vocals by Bob Carpenter and Emmylou Harris
  21. "I'm Sittin' on Top of the World" – 3:10
  22. *Lead vocal and guitar by Jimmy Martin
  23. "Lovin' on the Side" – 2:57
  24. *Lead vocal by Paulette Carlson
  25. *Mandolin by Levon Helm
  26. "Lost River" – 3:26
  27. *Lead vocal and guitar by Michael Martin Murphey
  28. "Bayou Jubilee" – 3:01
  29. *Lead vocal by Jeff Hanna
  30. *Fiddle by Sam Bush
  31. *Piano by Bruce Hornsby
  32. "Blues Berry Hill" – 3:26
  33. *Instrumental, featuring Randy Scruggs on lead guitar
  34. "Turn of the Century" – 3:39
  35. *Lead vocals by Jimmy Ibbotson, Jeff Hanna and Bob Carpenter
  36. "One Step Over the Line" – 4:30
  37. *Lead vocal and guitar by John Hiatt with Rosanne Cash, vocals
  38. "You Ain't Goin' Nowhere" – 3:53
  39. *Lead vocals and twelve-string guitar by Roger McGuinn with Chris Hillman, lead vocals and guitar
  40. "The Valley Road" – 4:13
  41. *Lead vocals and piano by Bruce Hornsby
  42. "Will the Circle Be Unbroken" – 5:39
  43. *Lead vocals by Johnny Cash, Roy Acuff, Ricky Skaggs, Levon Helm with Emmylou Harris and Jimmy Ibbotson
  44. *Backing choir: Roy Acuff, Cynthia Biederman, Sam Bush, Paulette Carlson, Bob Carpenter, Gretchen Carpenter, June Carter Cash, Johnny Cash, Cindy Cash, Rosanne Cash, John Cowan, Steve Dahl, John Denver, Jimmie Fadden, Béla Fleck, Pat Flynn, Radney Foster, Vince Gill, Jeff Hanna, Melody Hanna, John Hiatt, Chris Hillman, Bruce Hornsby, Jimmy Ibbotson, Helen Carter Jones, David Jones, Bashful Brother Oswald, Bill Lloyd, Jimmy Martin, Michael Martin Murphey, Roger McGuinn, Tracy Nelson, Robert Oermann, Brad Parker, Don Schlitz, Earl Scruggs, Gary Scruggs, Randy Scruggs, Steve Scruggs, Lynn Shults, Marty Stuart, Wendy Waldman, Steve Wariner, Cheryl White, Sharon White, Bobbie White
  45. "Amazing Grace" – 1:48
  46. *Solo guitar, performed by Randy Scruggs

Personnel

Nitty Gritty Dirt Band
Session musicians

Charts

Print sources

*