Reviews (page 6 of 7)
ну это ехало банджо через банджо точно не для меня))
so looooong :(((
Country can be nice in small doses. Not in an album of a 2 hours and 9 minutes lenght.
Interessant konsept. Spille inn historisk viktige coutry/bluegrass låter. Problemet e bare at de fleste av låtene har mye kulere originalinspillinger.
Æ like musikken, men 38 sanga e 26 for mange. Tenk kor bra den kunne vært hvis dem sikta sæ inn på 35-40 min!
Kommer meg ikke forbi låt 5.
I'm sure this double album is pure gold for the true Nitty Gritty Dirt Band fans out there.
I wasn't liking the first couple of track, but I must admit "Nashville Blues" was quite enjoyable. The vocals, guitar and other instruments are good, but, at risk of sounding pretentious, sitting through 2 hours and 9 minutes for 42 70's country songs is not my thing, unless it's for a few specific artists that don't include the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band. Probably not an objectively bad album, but I don't care for it and I didn't like it enough to sit on the fence with a 3. 2/5
Just not for me
1.5 I’m giving it what I’m giving because I want to acknowledge that I at least recognize the musical ability involved here. Obviously these are extremely technically adept musicians of their craft. But when I got this album yesterday, I jumped to Wiki to read the history and context of it. I read it, and thought “I bet I know exactly what this sounds like,” and goddamit, I was right. Just two hours of the same goddam thing. I get it! Make it 30 minutes long! So fucking endless! I’d get to a song I kinda perk up at, look to see where I was in the track list, and realize I still have 20 songs to go. It got so cloying. The banter before the songs, the jamming, the twangling and fiddling. 2 hours of that. One side was almost all instrumentals and that was the best part for sure.
A nice collection of music.
If you're in the mood for nearly two hours of straight, unfiltered hillbilly music, Will the Circle Be Unbroken delivers exactly that, and not much else. This 1972 triple album (or its various reissues) brings together the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band with a who's-who of country and bluegrass legends like Roy Acuff, Maybelle Carter, Jimmy Martin, Earl Scruggs, Doc Watson, and Merle Travis. The intent was noble: bridge the generational gap between young long-haired rock/country fans and the old guard of traditional American roots music. In theory, it's a beautiful tribute to the circle of tradition. In practice? It's mostly just okay. The performances are competent and respectful, but the energy feels polite and a bit flat for such a stacked lineup. Too many tracks drag on with that same mid-tempo, earnest delivery, pleasant enough in small doses, but exhausting over the full runtime. The mediocre hillbilly music vibe is real charming for a few songs, then it starts blending together into one long, twangy blur. Standouts exist (the title track with its emotional weight, some of the instrumental showcases), but they're outnumbered by filler that never quite catches fire. 4/10
how do they tell the songs apart
A collaboration album with many bluegrass and country/western artists might be someone’s dream album, but it certainly isn’t mine.
Not really my jam, but I didn't mind it at all. Until I discovered there was another hour and a half to go. Ridiculously, self-indulgently long. Tight 45 to an hour would have been at least a 3.
country met banjo's en samenzang... er bestaat een markt voor... er mag gerust een gat in de markt komen om dit genre in zijn geheel te verzwelgen
*deep breaths* I made it through! What a saga. I don't listen to classic hoedown country music, and this album will not change that. While I tried to appreciate the artistry and the soundscapes, I just couldn't get into this one. Too many vocal breaks and choral crooning for my liking. The Joni Mitchell instrumental cover was a treat though! I'm the end I'm glad I listened, as this whole project, to me, is about expanding my listening habits and music knowledge. This just taught me more about what I don't like than about what I do. 3/10
I respect the talent here, and I do like some bluegrass, but this is waaaayyyy too much folksy, twangy, chattin' and chewin' bluegrass for me.
Aquela cabra que só fala cantando do filme da chapeuzinho vermelho
542/1001
The opening tricked me. I thought it was all going to be 'jeebuz lurves me' country music when that woman started. It was actually quite fun for a bit, but nobody needs two hours of banjo-wielding hillbillies. It went awn fur so lawng that ah furgawt ahm even English. Gyuck! The jeebuz woman comes back too for some cyclical cringe. Like hippies but with added inbreeding. What a horribly tacky American way to end a record. Bleh! Oh god! I thought that circle being unbroken was the end. It has another 5 tracks after! The early middle part gets a 3. The length and woman gets a 1. Balanced out at 2 - not listening to that again.
Too long man
2/5 Há poucas músicas que realmente contém melodias ou instrumentação interessantes. A maioria é formulaica e passa desapercebida. O álbum, além disso, funciona mais como uma grande compilação do que uma unidade.
No sé cómo se llama este estilo, creo que bluegrass, pero me parece algo muy incómodo de escuchar. No sé si es bueno o malo, simplemente no estoy preparado para entenderlo.
Mislim da sam imala jednu vrlo dugu disocijativnu epizodu da ovo preživim.
Not actually terrible but I wish I could listen on 2x
I do like some bluegrass music. For example, the album Train a' Comin' by Steve Earle is a perfect album that I love - which is heavily indebted to this type of music. And I do like some old timey country acts like Hank Williams, The Carter Family, Johnny Cash and stuff like that. And I like some more "modern" alternative country like Uncle Tupelo and Son Volt. And I also like some even more modern artists like Jason Isbell, Sturgill Simpson and Tyler Childers who mix in this style to their songs. So, when I saw this come up, I was very curious to hear it since it's supposed to be a lot of the artists that started/popularized the bluegrass style brought together by the Nitty Gritty Dirt band as a labor of love in the early '70s. It's basically Bluegrass All-Stars playing Bluegrass Classics. 1st reaction: This is WAY too long. After about the first hour of it I was waiting for it to be done. The version on Spotify has 42 songs but I read on the Wikipedia article that the original release had 38 songs and ended at the "Both Sides Now" instrumental. So I decided early on I would only listen to the first 38. 2nd reaction: I kinda like the instrumentals because they just sound cool and don't have the silly, nasally, twangy voices. But, after like the third or fourth instrumental I started thinking that even all the instrumentals sounded pretty much the same so started losing interest in them too. 3rd reaction: For the songs that I already knew - such as the ones by Hank Williams - I like the originals better. I also like the Byrd's version of "I am a Pilgrim" better than this version too. I also like Willie Nelson's version of "Down Yonder" (from Red Headed Stranger album, 2 years later in 1975) better. 4th reaction: I wonder if Springsteen was aware of the song called "Wreck on the Highway" - since he has a song of the same name. The only similarity between this song and Bruce's song is that the premise of each song is about coming upon a car crash where someone died. 5th reaction: I generally like the songs that Maybelle Carter sings the most. Her voice isn't as annoying as some of the guys. And it's cool to see she was still active in the 1970s. Her original recordings from the 20s and 30s sound like they were beamed in to earth from an ancient time and place - so I was excited to see she was still sounding great after all those years. Doing the math, she was actually only 62 years old when she recorded this - which is only slightly older than I am now. Wow. 6th reaction: The "Sailin' to Hawaii" song was cool - if only because it was a break from the wall of banjo and fiddle sounds. The instrumental guitar version of Joni Mitchell's "Both Sides Now" (which was the last song) was cool - and was also a nice break from the sound of the rest of the album. 7th Reaction: the song "Lonesome Fiddle Blues" - an instrumental - definitely reminded me of the Charlie Daniels song "The Devil Went Down to Georgia". Seems like Charlie was certainly inspired by this number. I checked it out online and it turns out that is true. 8th Reaction: I find that some of the more contemporary artists that do "bluegrassy" kind of stuff (like the ones I mentioned in the beginning) are more interesting - I think because the arrangements are better and also the lyrics tend to be better and less corny. At the end of all of this and after 2 listens front to back, I did end up clicking "like" on 16 of these songs - meaning I wouldn't mind them showing up on my automated playlists. On any other record that would basically be a perfect album. This record would have been better as 3 different albums - it's just too long. I read that when it was originally released it was a 3 album set - so I guess they couldn't decide what to cut. And then they later went and did 2 more albums like this with another 20 songs on the 2nd one, and another 28 on the 3rd one. These guys didn't scrimp. Glad I got to hear this - despite it's length. I still added 16 "new" songs to my collection. My dad grew up in a small town in Kentucky. His mom was a holy roller type who wouldn't really let them listen to the radio because it was the "devil's music" - but I like to think some of my ancestors probably got into this kinda stuff back in the day :) Liked songs on Spotify: 16/38 Rating: 2/5
the kind of shit i usually like, ruined beyond recovery by a horrible singer and an absolutely unjustifiable running time
if you cut out all the bull shit it's only 32 minutes long
dnf, not for me
I could do without the Confederate flags. Given the huge cast of musicians and songwriters they drew from, and the repertoire they're playing, it's actually shocking there's not a single black musician represented. It may be top tier bluegrass and string band music, but it also kinda seems like a low-key white identity album.
I guess I'm just not that into country.
As an historic document this is quite interesting. It’s a style of music I generally enjoy, especially the more bluegrass and folk elements. But there’s just too much of it to make an album. And it’s just not a coherent album on any real sense. Which makes it a less good album than the music deserves.
Lowkey reverant.
Musicanship is on point, but good lord, this did NOT need to be 2 hours long
2 valandos 😭 iš esmės nieko blogo, tikrai geros atrinktos country dainos, bet klaisytis tiesiog jų nieko neveikiant labai sunku.
Too country For me
Someone get these guys a producer with the balls to say 'no'
Nice at first but I tuned out pretty quick
Doesn't need to be 2 hours long
Good but getting docked a point for being too long
this album went on forever but it was an okay listen
5/10 fun but won’t really listen to
This is the kind of classic country that I love, I just wish that it was not also done by the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band.
Thank you, next
Me cago en el que se le ocurrió hacer un album de 42 canciones y me cago también en el que permitió hacerlo. Las canciones me recuerdan a los capítulos de los Simpson en los que aparece Cletus. El banjo está guay, da buen rollete. Pero enserio, ¿42 temas? 🥲🔫
2 stars but only because I have heard of them but, this album isn't really that good.
I always like the band's name. Too bad it's country. It's not bad music, it just so rarely is appealing to me.
Nah. I do not like this. Way too long. Way too twangy. I mean I'll always say this. This type of country is still way better than modern country. But I still do not like this stuff. The instrumentals were a little more bearable, but still. I do not like country at all.
I’m not listening to this for 2 hours
I guess keep on the sunny side was nice. I really didnt want to listen to more than 5 songs- maybe I would like it idk.
This isn't an album, it's a chore. I like bluegrass. I also like water. I don't want to be waterboarded.
Oh my god, this is so long, no album needs to be over two hours, especially one which sounds the same completely throughout
40 minutes of bluegrass is fine, but 2 hours is ridiculous. This album begins with 5 or so horrible tracks, before slowly improving. It felt like I was stuck in the Deep South. I kinda liked the 2nd disc of "Will the Circle be Unbroken?". Let this be the last long album I'll review in a long time. 2 stars for "Will the Circle be Unbroken?".
If I were keeping track of band’s albums from this list that featured the Confederate flag in the cover, Nitty Gritty Dirt Band would be up by one. Guess we’ll see if any Lynyrd Skynyrd albums make the list to give them some competition (I’m just assuming it’s featured in most of theirs).
Way too long
Their seventh album. Country / Folk. One of the tougher albums to get through of the two hundred and twenty odd albums I've had so far. Track three was a noodly, doodly, diddley doo instrumental, and at that point I knew I was in for a long two hours. Still, I did it. I've heard the album and it's filtered through my brain along with thousands of other albums I've heard in my life. This particular one will get filed away deep out in the back of my conciousness and gather some dust. Anyway, I've this strange urge to watch The Dukes of Hazzard so I am signing off...
Country, 1972 -> 2
Sweet home
Tämä on perinteistä kantria banjoa Cowboy meininkiä
Tried - but too country for me …
Not great.
Wayyyyyy too long.
This list has been going truly bonkers with the albums nobody gives a fuck about lately. I've never heard of this album/artist before, and this is quite possibly the most lost I've been on a genre prediction. Is this gonna be a rock album? It vaguely reminds me of the first pressing cover for Beggar's Banquet, though I already know that I'm far off from the correct answer. Country. I should have known- TWO FUCKING HOURS? That's outrageous. I am forcefully bringing the end segment of my reviews to this point because I need to check why this is in here. Let's see. The book says that there were a lot of collaborators on this album, it sold well and brought country listeners together. Not sold yet - over to Wikipedia I go. Absolutely nothing on there. I guess this has some historical significance and the number of collaborators is pretty impressive, but hmmm. I dunno. I think we can do without a two hour country album. In place of this album, I humbly submit Full Speed Ahead by Pain for inclusion on the list. Anyways, this is fine. Very standard, formulaic country. Not to say that's a bad thing. The vocal performances are solid across the board, and I enjoy the prominent Gaelic influence in some of the instrumentals. Of course, that length is pretty inexcusable and there were more than a few times where I felt the album was just throwing whatever at the wall, especially with the instrumental slump that the album falls into midway through its runtime. Still, there are worse things I could do with two precious hours of my life. Whether it be the daunting tracklist or my ambivalence towards this genre of music, there wasn't much on here which really hooked me. Still, there were some alright cuts. I liked "Grand Ole Opry Song", "Avalanche" and "Both Sides Now". The rest of the songs on here were listenable, but unremarkable.
I despise country so this album was my worst nightmare. 42 songs that, to me, all sound the same. I can’t give it a one star rating because it’s terrible to me, but it’s not completely terrible. I can only take so much banjo, fiddle and nasal singing. A 42 track double album is about 10 times more than I’m able or willing to consume.
Decent for a one time listen, but still this was a slog to get through.
Фігня
Not for me in the slightest, that being said I appreciate the live recording and chatter before some performances begin. If I cared about these people it would be so cool to hear. Still is tbf. “Nashville Blues” was pretty cool
Not my kind of thing. Ok for a few tracks, but it got very samey, and I did not need a double album of it.
Ok but not brilliant
A collection of old-timey songs that somehow manages to make nostalgia feel like a chore. The performances are earnest, sure, but by the third hymn you’re mostly asking yourself why anyone thought this needed revisiting. Comforting? Maybe. Exciting? Not even close.
Album No. 0037 on my list. I'll keep this review rather short. I get that this may have been an important album in country music, but I'm really not that much into bluegrass and this traditional country sound. And to be frank, 2 hours of it was a bit much. 2/5 stars.
2.3/5
Als we dan toch country moeten luisteren, dan wel het liefst bluegrass. In die zin is dit met vlagen nog best een leuk album. Het feit dat het zo'n soort super samenwerking is, is voor de echte fans ook smullen neem ik aan. Het grote nadeel is wel dat het twee uur duurt en een soort van skits bevat. Dan kun je met nog zoveel goede wil beginnen aan zo'n album, maar uiteindelijk gaat het geknauw je wat irriteren en ben je opgelucht dat het er eindelijk op zit. Dat maakt zo'n album niet makkelijk te raten. Als je een beetje zelf een selectie hieruit maakt van een half uurtje dan valt hier makkelijk een 3, misschien zelfs wel een 4 uit te slepen. Moet je hier in één keer helemaal doorheen (als niet-liefhebber) dan is het lastig om op iets anders uit te komen dan een 2. Ik vind het eigenlijk toch wel terecht dat het in deze lijst staat. Als je dit koopt en je houdt hiervan dan krijg je wel waar voor je geld. Ik zal de individuele liedjes niet onthouden maar het album wel. Dus in die zin een geinige entry, maar dus wel slechts 2 sterren van mij.
So I have a whole week of albums to catch up on and then I get this two-f**king hour country shit to start with... God give me the strength... 01) Grand Ole Opry Song - 5,5 02) Keep on the Sunny Side - 6,5 03) Nashville Blues - 7,5 04) You Are My Flower - 6,0 05) The Precious Jewel - 5,5 06) Dark as a Dungeon - 6,0 07) Tennessee Stud - 6,0 08) Black Mountain Rag - 6,5 09) Wreck on the Highway - 5,5 10) The End of the World - 5,0 11) I Saw the Light - 6,0 12) Sunny Side of the Mountain - 5,5 13) Nine-Pound Hammer - 6,0 14) Losin' You (Might Be the Best Thing Yet) - 6,5 15) Honky Tonkin' - 5,5 16) You Don't Know My Mind - 5,0 17) My Walkin' Shoes - 6,0 18) Lonesome Fiddle Blues - 6,0 19) Cannonball Rag - 6,0 20) Avalanche - 5,5 21) Flint Hill Special - 5,0 22) Togary Mountain - 5,0 23) Earl's Breakdown - 5,0 24) Orange Blossom Special - 5,0 25) Wabash Cannonball - 5,0 26) Lost Highway - 5,5 27) Doc Watson & Merle Travis First Meeting (Dialogue) - 1,0 28) Way Downtown - 5,5 29) Down Yonder - 5,0 30) Pins and Needles (In My Heart) - 5,5 31) Honky Tonk Blues - 5,5 32) Sailin' on to Hawaii - 5,0 33) I'm Thinking Tonight of My Blue Eyes - 6,0 34) I am a Pilgrim - 5,5 35) Wildwood Flower - 7,5 36) Soldier's Joy - 5,0 37) Will the Circle Be Unbroken - 7,5 38) Both Sides Now - 5,5 TOTAL: 5,61 (56/100) Current ranking: 592/699
This is way too honky tonk for me.
Fuck this shit
it sounded fine, and i’m sure i would’ve loved this if i was into this genre a lot or if i grew up with it, but i don’t and am not, 2 hours of hardcore country music was challenging
Starting this challenge with this album makes it miserably hard to keep going. The third song reminded me of that one Wii Cow racing game, which made it quite a fun listen. By the fourth song, I was ready to bite my ears off…
This one’s tough, not only because it’s another 2+ hour album, but because that much country and bluegrass in one sitting is a lot to take in. There are a few enjoyable songs here, but as a whole it’s a bit much. Keeping all the rambling between tracks didn’t help either.
Love the sound, less the godliness
Lubię country i folk. Folk lubię nawet bardzo, ale na Boga! Ponad dwie godziny ekstremalnego country to już lekka przeginka! Gdyby było to krótsze to dałabym może 5/10, może nawet 6 w zależności od doboru utworów, ale tak? 4/10 i nigdy więcej.
Will My Patience Be Unbroken? No.
The beautiful sound of fucking your sister.
Very washboard band. Probably fun live
I've made onto disc 2, but yep, bluegrass is not for me. I understand the album is important because it bridges old bluegrass artists to the 70's generation, but itbis not too digestable. I wonder if Robert Dimery could not care to dig into bluegrass and just popped this album in the list as a bluegrass representative. 2/5
dogwater
My third country album in a row (yes, I'm God's strongest soldier). Sorry, but there's no way I'll listen to all 42 songs on this; 17 were more than enough. Musically, it doesn't sound that bad (the best tracks were the instrumental ones), but as a whole, it's just not for me
Oh boy. This is VERY country - gritty or dirty it ain't - and there's a LOT of it. Bad start. But as far as positives go I liked many of the instrumental numbers, and was generally charmed by the quaintness of it all, particularly the earnest, amiable pre-song chatter. I have no idea who most of these people were but the sense of reverence between (who I presume to be) veteran bluegrass legends did rub off on me somewhat. Happy enough to have been introduced to this one, even though I won't return to it. 2.5
The album was considered a breakthrough in bridging generational and musical differences between the old guard of Nashville, Tennessee, and the younger country rock movement (of the 1970s). So important historically, but herp-de-derp country music doesn’t make my 1001 albums! 2⭐️ (for historical reasons)
About 90 mins too much country music for me
Lots of banjo. Country standards
2 fucking hours of banjo, no thanks
Can't stand this whiney music
This whole album sounds like a Jimmy Dean sausage commercial.
Досить цікавйи досвід. Я б навряд цей альбом з такими традиційним кантрів увімкнув би. Насправді дуже багато хороших пісень. Проблема самого альбому, що такий формат кантрі має свої музичні стандарти і звучить все не дуже варіативно. Якщо це додатково накласти на тривалість альбому, то в якийсь момент ці перебори гітарні потроху починають підгружати.
Very nice
There are places for bluegrass in this world, but on a double album coming out of speakers in my home is not one of the them.
There was a night, I think searching out a faddish eatery, where I remember walking through the West End of London and being a taken aback, not by the garish vehicles or distracting relative cleanliness of the streets, but by the number of brands advertising that I’d simply never heard of. A whole universe of stuff that had never needed to tell me it existed, and so didn’t. I feel something similar with the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band; while I might expected to discover a flash in the pan group with a respectable couple of hundred thousand listeners, in fact the group has been recording music for 60 years and still reports monthly listeners in the 5-6 million bracket. Atop that, this record’s a kind of living museum piece. An ensemble cast of important musicians from genres as diverse as bluegrass and honky tonk (sorry, sorry), brought together to kind of live-instantiate the shift from tradition to electrification. With that said, the record itself feels appropriately self-knowing; obviously indebted to the hokey rhythms and bowing swings of what came before, but also clear-eyed about what it feels is the future of the genre (and often charming about pointing the way, too). Everything here is done with love. While I won’t soon rush to listen again, I feel grateful for the experience. (I was at one point reminded of The Magnetic Field’s “A chicken with its head cut off”; a silly ditty, but one obviously loaded with affection for the sort of thing conveyed by the Nittys.) I couldn’t tell you the name of a single one of those brands I saw that night in west London, but I can now tell you where you need to go if you’re looking for a decisive moment the history of the US’ dominant folk traditions (as they combined with rock n’roll) or need evidence of it in a retrospective format featuring key players drawn from across genre and generational lines. And that’s a lot cooler than knowing where to buy an overexpensive watch, for sure.
Have you ever been to Frontierland in the Magic Kingdom? That's what this album is. It's like listening to the Country Bear Jamboree or the music on the old Splash Mountain. And as enjoyable as those can be, I don’t want to listen to that for two hours straight. That's not to say this doesn't have merits. The guitar, violin, etc. playing is excellent, as are many of the harmonies. I just don't need 2 hours of this sound. Add in that it is a bunch of remakes and not original music, leaves this one towards the bottom of the barrel. Still giving it a 2 though, because this isn’t a band that is devoid of talent.
I have a lot of questions coming out of this one. Did it need to be two hours? How much shorter would it have been had they cut most of the instrumentals? How much shorter would it have been had they cut a lot of the useless studio chatter? And Who the hell do these people think they are? I'm sorry, but even if you absolutely love this genre of music, I find it hard to believe that you would also just be cool with this album being more than two hours long. Like, it's an insane listen. You couldn't possibly keep track of this thing. But let's take a step back. My ire towards this album is probably largely undue. I don't know the genre well enough to properly criticize or review this album fairly. I guess if you know all the country standards, that makes it a little easier. But I didn't know any of these songs until the title track, which comes at the end. It was a slog at times, and it's really easy to get lost in the instrumentals. They were fine, but there's too many. They felt like complete filler. This didn't need to be a triple album. I'm also left wondering if the band is even considered a standout artist in their genre. Their name feels corny and forced to me, but the musicianship is pretty incredible, I have to admit. The production, too, is stellar. But the content just isn't my thing. Make this a single album and I'm all for a fun country romp that ends after an hour. Double it in length, add filler in the form of studio chatter and instrumentals, and I'm out. Two stars. Standout Tracks: Nashville Blues, Tennessee Stud, Black Mountain Rag, You Don't Know My Mind, Avalanche, Togary Mountain, Earl's Breakdown, Will the Circle Be Unbroken
I can appreciate the musicianship but it’s not a genre I enjoy
This is some fine pickin' but man does it go on way too long. This should've been split into 2 albums. Cool for a genre that this album came out in 1972 and still sounds like songs coming out today. Doesn't necessarily stick out though but a fine listen. 4.75/10 (2.375/5)
The Good: It’s an easy question… The Bad: Uncertain if the band will like the answer… The Ugly: Double album... I knew of the band name when I saw the album pop up this morning… what I wasn’t ready for was the genre. I thought it was going to be some kind of stoner rock… Though I could spend minutes explaining why it is plausible that one should listen to this album at least once in their lifetime, I fear that I am going to be tarred and feathered, in good hillbilly style, for wasting people’s time. Yes, this is detrimental to American culture, so is throat singing to Bhuddist culture, yet I’m sure there isn’t a single throat chanting album on this list, and if there were, I am pretty certain it won’t last close to 2 hours… And to think that there is a Vol. 3 and Vol. 4 to this album… 2* for musicianship, it would have been 3 had it not been for that same annoying little mandolin lick being played...
I'm sure this is a good collection of bluegrass classics by great musicians. As someone who doesn't have much contact with said genre, I don't really know. I can only say that I'm not impressed enough to listen more to all of it. It just sounds to similar and I hear many of these songs in better version by other artists. 'Tennessee Stud' interpreted by Johnny Cash is way cooler!
Cowgirls is the only thing I find appealing in cowboy life More or less the same song on repeat for two hors, interrupted by some old farts talking about nothing
2 hours?! And it's not even some deluxe version of the album but the original? That is one long album. Honestly, I would've liked this more if it was a lot shorter. Perfect length for an album according to me is around 40 min. This is way too long. There are some nice bluegrass and country music in here but there are also some very long and tedious jamming sessions. It's not bad it's just way too long and overstays its welcome.
2 hours of the same sounding country music in the morning at work did not help my crashout
Fine country/bluegrass. Just isn’t what I’m generally wanting to listen to
i really fucking hate this cover LMFAO but jackson is cute and the banjos got me after the one hour mark....
Maybe 1.5. Not the worst but def not for me
It's got some energy to it, and they're musically talented, but... *dramatic sigh*
Über zwei Stunden Country ist schon ein bisschen heftig. Eine Auswahl der Songs hätte es auch getan und ich hätte einem kürzeren Album mit den besten 15 Stücken wohl auch eine bessere Bewertung gegeben. Ich mag auch nicht, wenn am Anfang eines Songs noch Ausschnitte vom Aufnehmen im Studio zu hören sind. Das kommt bei diesem Album leider sehr oft vor.
OOOH JA, Old school country. Wel 2 fucking uur.. Even aanzien of dit allicht voor mij zerlfs teveel van het goede wordt. Heerlijk eerste nummer overigens, ze springen er direct in. In het 2e nummer in ene een vrouwelijke zangeres, ik hoop dat die afwisseling blijft. Leuk. Tennessee Stud is wel een parelnummer. Het is wel echt allemaal heel hillbilly country. Begrijp mij niet verkeerd, ik houd er van, maar 2 uur banjo gepingel... Ben bang dat ik dat niet ga volhouden. Sorry, ondanks dat ik echt zeer van deze muziek houdt, is dit album echt veelste lang en veelste van hetzelfde. Binnen country zijn er genoeg manieren om af te wisselen, maar dat heeft deze band niet geweten. Deze nummers zijn door continue hetzelfde banjo riedeltje niet van elkaar te onderscheiden. Dit worden helaas 2 sterren. Was het een album van 30-45 min geweest 5. FAV: Tennessee Stud, I Saw the light
More than TWO HOURS of country music?? I didn’t mind everything on here, but this is just a way too long runtime.
guys im so tired of the banjo and the oklahoma dad music.... it wasnt terrible but TWO hours??? criminal. fav: Nashville Blues
2,5
J - 2/5 Best Track - "I Saw The Light" F - 1/5
Not heard this one but held no surprises. Good album though.
Niet mijn ding en echt veel te lang
Folk
Not my vibe
Non mi è piaciuto questo album e due ore sono davvero troppe. DNF
Слишком много во всех смыслах, но не без бэнгеров. Лучшая песня - Will the Circle Be Unbroken.
This just really isn’t my kind of music.
Respect the skill of the instrumentation. Vocal performances and songwriting are very throwback country and bluegrass jams. Unfortunately just doesn’t really resonate with me.
Not my style
Bluegrass or country? Don't really care tbh. One of the instrumental tracks was ok but the rest was just too much - too long, too repetitive and too country/too bluegrass for me.
Didn't like the multiple songs of them like setting up
Twangy. Long.
i'm sure this is good if you like bluegrass.
Not into it
Blind album and artist. Yee stars / haw stars. I swear if there is another 2 hr bluegrass album though, I may use my pretend 6 six shooter and put my horse outta misery with myself before the dysentery gets me.
not for me donkey, also too long
Better than expected but why does it need to be 2hrs long ??
This is so country it’s almost comical. Seems like a different language. They sure love their strings. A lot sounds the same. Don’t hate this album, it’s just not my fave. And way too long.
I've never really been much of a bluegrass or country or gospel fan. This album is heavy on all those things and I'm still not a fan
ok for ten minutes, but for two hours? woof
2 hour long country album... instrumentals were good at least
2h of country. I stopped after 20 minutes, got the point. Stand-out: You Are My Flower
Faaaaaark, that's a lot. I don't think I can do it. Made it about 30-40% of the way in. I think I get the gist. Lots of banjos and irrelevant musical history from some foreign country Maybe a two because it's not as bad as Morrissey.
No en ihan ymmärrä. Miksi kaksi tuntia (covereita)? Sinänsä taitavasti soitettu ja laulettu enkä varsinaisesti ole ärsyyntynyt.
Het album laat er direct geen twijfel over bestaan. Dit wordt 2 schijven lang luisteren naar snaarwerk met Amerikaans geknauw. Daar bestaat ook nog wel variatie in en dat merken we. Het album begint vooral vrolijk. Ik zou het nooit uit mezelf opzetten, maar het hoeft ook zeker niet uit. Maar na een paar nummers beginnen de energietrekkende lange tonen / lettergrepen. En daarvoor is twee schijven vol gewoon veel te lang. 1,5 ster.
I just finished this album and my head is just so tired of banjos and fiddles... If this was a quarter of it's length, it would've been good. The talking before, between and after songs gets old really quickly. TIL Dark As A Dungeon was made by this band..
not a country fan
Not a country fan, but can appreciate it. 2 hours a bit much country for one day though. Yeehaw.
I had a whole thing written here but it didn’t get saved and I can’t be bothered to re-write it completely. The TLDR was this - I appreciate its conscious objection to the “pop country” sound of the time. For that, it’s respectable to lean so hard into the essence of the genre of music they’re making, instead of watering it down for mass appeal. But this album is too long for me. If I had just the best 10-14 songs, it’d probably get another star.
Absolutely need for an album to be 2 hours long
Ticking off the Southern Country / Folk box for this list with an extremely extensive double album. I don't care for this kind of thing much. It's not bad, just doesn't do anything for me, really. However, I did like the run of instrumental tracks which began Disc 2, which makes me think maybe it's the vocals which I don't like. Also as pointed out by another review, there is way too much "candid", behind-the-scenes recordings. As well as the intros and outros of each track, there are 3 tracks of nothing but studio dialogue. I can only imagine how annoying that would be if you wanted to listen to the music from this album for pleasure on its own. Not quite worth 3 stars, which is my bar for a re-listen, but not far off.
There's aspects of this I liked, but I didn't like that it was 2h+ of music. I think I appreciated the littler interstitial pieces of discussion between the songs more than the songs. 2.49/5
Couldn’t do it. 4 seconds in and I was done with the old timey country
Cool what they were doing with bringing in the old gaurd to play with the new gaurd. Not a fan of old country/bluegrass. Also, it was 2+ hours... 2 stars for the concept.
The circle broke!!! Lord this capital B bluegrass album was on my very last nerve. This is a genre I haven’t heard very much at all in the past 800 albums, but I didn’t need two straight hours of it to make up for its lack. I got the gist after the first three songs. I nearly gave this a 1 but the instrumental rendition of “Both Sides Now” was so lovely.
While I understand the importance of Nitty Gritty Dirt Band and the bluegrass/Appalachian style they brought to country music (which set standards for other artists and even persisted in their own music well into the following decades), I really found 2 hours of this to be too much. I might could have enjoyed this more if it just hadn't been soooo looong. 2.5, not rounding up.
a double album's a loooooong time to simmer in this kinda shucks howdy shit. Imagining that I'm in a mining town only gets me halfway through disc one
Eh, not my favorite
Típica música yankee del año del pedo, country de blancos cantando con banjos, un embole bárbaro, que encima dura más de dos horas.
It's nice to have some of these old-timers on record, but this shit drags and is a c-hair from being an exercise in cringe pandering.
The music was good but it was tooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo long
They sound good and they're great players but this is not really my vibe. This is old people country. Also, it's over 2 hours long. Thats obscene. Stop it. Not cool.
Some good tracks on here but a lot more filler than anything.
not my thing, got bored, turned off
This type of music is kinda meh to me but I didn't dislike this album.
I'm not sure what I was expecting, but whatever it was this was worse. Really sounded like a joke album. The singer reminded me of the old man in the bar scene of Back to the Future Part 3/Disney Sheriff of Nottingham guy. It is mind-boggling to me that this band has 2 million more monthly listeners than Belle and Sebastian. When I turned some on Baked Tours Departing Daily the music got a little better, especially when he was walking around Main Street and Frontierland. It even had me bopping to "Black Mountain Rag." Didn't work as well in Galaxy's Edge. Had some strangely sharp turns to being super Jesus-y.
Look at that cover, this has more featured artists than any modern rap album. It also has the crappy skits. I don't know enough about this type of music to know if this is extraordinary or groundbreaking in any way. Therefore I can only judge it on my enjoyment. This really isn't for me. I got through disc 1, but part way through disc 2 I gave up. I kept picturing Homer and Grandpa Simpson being chased by hillbillies until they turned the music off.
I thought this sounded more authentic than a lot of the country we've had on this list, quite liked the collaboration between the different generations of artists and I think this was a good advert for the tradition and culture of country music. There was no need for this to be 2 hours long, all my goodwill was chipped away about 40 mins in. I'm now about 4 albums behind and I've learnt nothing I didn't know 2 days ago. Despite the improvements in authenticity it was very repetitive. Might be alright live, any three tracks would be nice enough every now and then, but all of it was too much. One of the best country albums we've had and it was mediocre at best.
I thought this was considerably better than most country we've had. It's got more of the blues sound. Guess it's bluegrass? Anyway, I did quite enjoy it for a while..... But over 2 hours is a long time! Far too long. I think the talking was quite endearing at times but annoying in others. Sounded authentic though. 2.5, better than I was expecting
Incredibly long. Songs are good but 2 hours of country is too much
2 hours of old country, no thank you
Music for the toothless inbred
Yesterday I got the Louvin Brothers. My review was, I generally don't like country music, but somehow I enjoyed it. This record here is more in line with my general opinion on country music. I can imagine people liking this record, but I hate it. And seems like it's 100 hours long.
My mum would have lived this. Loved this. Danced and had hours of joy listening to this. Not me. Irritating and frustrating. 2 stars being generous.
We've already established that country and bluegrass and all that is not for me. There's a honesty to this record. Which is a bit weird in a genre which is all about grit and honesty. But this is just a collection of people coming together to do what they love doing. Nothing more. I don't need 32 tracks of it. But I respect it.
Awful, I stopped after the second disk. More of the same. Not unlistenable, but not for me.
Best Song: Will The Circle Be Unbroken. I don't know if I actually liked the song or if it comes from a sort of Stockholm Syndrome after I waded through 2 hours of bluegrass to hit the supposedly famed title track. Worst Song: The End of the World. How fitting a title, because this song makes me want to die. Overall: I can stomach this kind of appalachian bluegrass in small doses, and sadly this is a lethal overdose. Unnecessarily lengthened by the inclusion of the folksy chit-chat so you can also feel like you were in the room, impatiently waiting for them to get along with it. The occasional finger-picking bit of gold interspersed here are not worth the two hours spent panning through the silt and mud.
Usually you do a double album because you’re on fire and are just pumping out the jams. This is a double album because they thought every word and jingle jangle they came up with was worth recording. Feels more like an unedited home movie than an actual studio production. They obviously have technical chops but lack any nuance or variety in their expression. Writing 25 songs in the exact same style and cadence has diminishing returns. It wasn’t worth it for me to try for a favorite song because it’s honestly just all the same. They could’ve snuck the same song in there 8 times with a different title and there would be no way to know. Fine background music but I like some thought and consideration out into a tracklist.
I liked it more than I thought I would. Actually catchy and somewhat pleasant to listen to. Consistent throughout, which is a good and a bad thing as this seemed to almost be like a stream of consciousness. I am glad I heard it, but too long and not varied enough to get a 3.
For the most part we weren't connecting, but I did enjoy some of the classic Country & Western rebellion in the music.
i will not be listening to the entirety of this one before i die
Disco duplo de country é muito exagero. Se depois de Tennessee Stud tivesse mais duas ou três faixas instrumentais seria magnífico. Bluegrass de altíssima qualidade.
Ok, it’s bluegrass. Like, literally the definition of bluegrass. If you like bluegrass, you’ll love this. If you don’t, then you won’t. I do not.
Grand Ole Opry Song 2.8 Keep on the Sunny Side 2.4 Nashville Blues 2.6 You Are My Flower 2.4 The Precious Jewel 2.3 Dark as a Dungeon 2.3 Tennessee Stud 2.3 Black Mountain Rag 2.4 Wreck on the Highway 2.2 The End of the World 2 I Saw the Light 2 Sunny Side of the Mountain 1.9 Nine-Pound Hammer 2 Losin' You (Might Be the Best Thing Yet) 2 Honky Tonkin 1.7 You Don't Know My Mind 2 My Walkin' Shoes 2 Lonesome Fiddle Blues 2 Cannonball Rag 2.1 Avalanche 2 Flint Hill Special 2.1 Togary Mountain 1.9 Earl's Breakdown 1.9 Orange Blossom Special 1.8 Wabash Cannonball 2 Lost Highway 2.1 Doc Watson & Merle Travis First Meeting (Dialogue) n/a Way Downtown 2 Down Yonder 2 Pins and Needles (In My Heart) 1.8 Honky to Blues 1.9 Sailin' on to Hawaii 2 I'm Thinking Tonight of My Blue Eyes 1.7 I am a Pilgrim 2 Wildwood Flower 1.8 Soldier's Joy 2 Will the Circle Be Unbroken 1.9 Both Sides Now 2 Score: 2.062162162
catchy americana/old school country. not my cup of tea, but was still nice.
It’s def old school and a throwback but nothing really stands out for me , it’s a fun enough listen to keep it from being a 1 but lacks the depth I neee to put it into “good” 3 category
Whenever someone says honky tonky I stop taking country seriously Why is this 2 hours long? The instrumental tracks are the better part, vocals usually glide into parody country 3/10
..
This is how it feels to chase a wild turkey for two hours
I'm not a big fan of bluegrass, but anyone would go crazy after 2 hours of it.
C & BG, no B. Well done but nothing I need to listen to again.
Lógicamente no incluye Mr. Bojangles ni An American Dream. Se trata de una ejemplar fusión de country, bluegrass, pop y rock & roll que como su título indica trata de cerrar la brecha entre la vieja guardia country de Nasville y las nuevas bandas de folk-country (The Byrds habían sentado cátedra con Sweetheart ot the rodeo y Gran Parsons -con los Flying Burrito Brothers o en solitario- era un faro que iluminaría el camino a seguir). Keep on the Sunny Side" es una delicia. Otros discos de 1972 Debuts de Steely Dan, Roxy Music, Paul Simon, Big Star, Neu¡, ¿Fela Kuti? y Lou Reed (además de su espléndido Transformer ) Discos expecionales como los de David Bowie – The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars, Todd Rundgren-Something/Anything?, Stevie Wonder – Talking Book y Music of my mind, Elton John-Honky Château, Nick Drake – Pink Moon, Yes – Close to the Edge, Miles Davis – On the Corner, Neil Young – Harvest, The Rolling Stones – Exile on Main St, Curtis Mayfield – Super Fly, Raspberries- Fresh, Genesis – Foxtrot, Van Morrison - Saint Dominic's Preview, Deep Purple- Machine Head y Made in Japan, Joni MIttchell- For the roses, Tangerine Dream - Zeit, T Rex- The slider, Kevin Ayers- Whatevershebringswesing, la banda sonora The harder they come... una cosecha excelente.
No.
What in the county bears hell is this?? 2.4.
Not for me.
Jesus this was far too long. I didn't mind the music itself, but I've got to mark this down on album length. Favourite song was Lonesome Fiddle Blues.
90 minutes overlong!
i did not like it :c
Not listening. I'm sure it has it's crowd
Brit here so there is nothing nostalgic about this. It’s just country music, and too much of it.
I tried, but a country double album was more than I could take...only made it about halfway through the first album. Just not my thing.
OK, but too long. Could've skipped the talking parts...
I'm all for some more bluegrass but damn this was long.
It is what it is.
To be fair, it's probably a great album. I just don't like the music.
Good at what it is, and enjoyed some of it but just too far into the country genre for my taste
Too long and a little too twangy for me.
Will the Circle Be Unbroken by The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band is an album that showcases the band’s exceptional skill and deep respect for traditional American music. The choice of songs is spot on, blending classic country, folk, and bluegrass tunes with impressive musicianship. The collaborations with legendary artists add authenticity and depth to the project. However, the album's biggest flaw is its length. At over two hours, it stretches on far too long, leaving you feeling fatigued long before the final track. While the quality of the music is undeniable, the sheer volume of content makes it feel more like a marathon than an enjoyable listening experience. NUMBER OF BANGERS - 0 STAND OUT TRACK - None
In order to maintain the integrity of this project, I have listened to over 2 hours (42 songs!) of bluegrass, interspersed with lots of studio chatter. I love ‘oh brother where art thou’ but this was a slog, and I’m left thinking of all the MAGA voting, tobacco chewing, tourist raping musicians that created this. A tiring 2.5/5
Normally 3/5 but DNF so it lost a star
I enjoyed this twice as much as I normally like Country Music so will give it twice the number of stars I usually give Country Music. Liked the instrumental songs most! Even the story telling between tracks was bearable.
I swear all country/folk music from this time period sounds the same
Once again, not for me. Music is fine, but I find the vocals and lyrics sooooo fake. Trying to sound like a cliche and succeeded.
Maybe it’s a bit cruel to give this 2 stars but it went on for wayyy too long
This smells and sounds and looks like racism, 'Murica I guess.
I understand keeping a record of Americana but it is so long and the interstitials are so distracting. Also I had a roommate in college that would practice playing a banjo whenever he was drunk, so I have bad memories of this type of music. My kid danced to it in the car though, so I guess it's not a total waste...
What a slog!
Too much hillbilly for me.
Not bad but way too long
I do like Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, but this is a two hour compilation of other people's music with guest artists. How is this even considered a must listen?
I think that the title of the opening track, "Grand Ole Opry Song", says it all - this is an American country/country-folk/bluegrass album from 1972 with lots of banjos and fiddles, but it's not what we'd now think of as a C&W album, which is its saving grace.
Enjoyed some of Disc 2, which was more uptempo, instrumental pickin'. I enjoy that type of bluegrass, which is similar to jazz (in a way). The energy and the musicianship really holds my interest. The slower, more country stuff with vocals, like on most of the first disc, is what I do not enjoy. That really bores me. I recognize that Country & Western music was one of the building blocks of rock n roll (along with Rhythm & Blues and Gospel) and that this is a significant step in the genealogy of modern music. But it’s so. Goddamn. Boring. 2.5/5
Not my thing and waaaay too long, but y’know not bad. Also neat to hear the Devil Went Down to Georgie pre Charlie Daniels (2.5/5)
Lord help me, I do NOT have the fortitude to listen to a two-hour bluegrass and country album interspersed with snippets from the recording sessions. Although I can appreciate the synthesis of styles and artists that Will the Circle Be Unbroken represents, it's just not my jam.
I made it through disc 1🤷♂️
There’s actually some good stuff here and the NGDB obviously have talent as musicians. However it’s got a good song to mediocre song (or worse) ratio like Use Your Illusion and has as much senseless chatter between songs as a 90s hip hop album. And it’s over two hours long.
Not bad but way too long, couldn't even finish disc 1
Nitty Gritty Dirt Band is not for me. I will have to form a new circle with some other music.
Buckle up, buckaroos. This is 2+ hours of country. If you're into that sort of thing, it is likely quite good. If you're not, it's 2 + hours of country :|
just not quite a 3 star albs.
too much twang for me.
One of them boys shure can play the git-fiddle! (And for a long time, too.) Or was that the dobro? Disc 2 much better than disc one. Even the Beverly Hillbillies thought the album would be better as just one disc. It seems like one of the criteria to got on the 1001 list is to make an album that is just essay too long. (1.6*s)
This album is tolerable, it has some good harmonica, up-step banjo, and their voices are perfect for the genre. A more fitting album name would have been "This Circle is Never Broken" because it's like a run-on, never ending loop of knee-slaps. It's way too long and very repetitive. It's fine if you're a pilgrim, have a rag designated for cannonballs, and know anyone with "belle" at the end of their name. I didn't hate it but I wouldn't play it again.
Head on out to the barn yard and don't forget your spitoon for this one. I like the instrumentals but they do run on and sound the same in most songs. I found some of the namter between musicians amusing. Another unnecessarily loooong album. I beginning to think the creator of this list is choosing them to try and get as much of the artists materiel in one album.
A group of friends gathered in a recording studio with bluegrassy instruments, lots of liquor, and a bunch -maybe too many- stories to tell. Yes, they play really well; yes, they made a famous album for their genre; yes, the album has a laid-back, charming, and relaxed atmosphere, but man, it is more than two hours! I cannot stand that! too demanding for me, I am sorry.
Not really for me
Okay, so I listened to the wrong album first, The Circle Will Be Unbroken Volume II, and then tried listening to this. I really like blue grass, but this I did not enjoy. Too much, too long, repetitious.
An album that you don't expect to be standable for those not really into the genre, but is overall an easy, albeit tedious, listen with moments of quality sprinkled into something that is just too long for its own good. The best parts were when they were all talking because it was far more interesting than the equivalent of your grandma going through the hymn book on her piano while you sit there, uninterested, but too afraid to leave. At first I liked the instrumental tracks the most, but putting as many in a row as they did left it feeling tired and repetitive. Again, easy listen, but not worth the time spent.
Yee’haw Country for 2 hours. Thats it, that’s the album.
Digging the banjo and slide guitar. But it’s just SO country….
Folk endurance album. Dark as a dungeon 👍
Oh boy I am one song in and will not like 2 hours of this. The 3rd song is cool cuz it has no vocals straight finger pickin banjo. Nothing constitutes making this album 2 hours long. I feel like I should be out in the fields with a piece of strawgrass in my mouth to really appreciate it. While I am not and it's taken me 3 days to listen to this I'm between a 1 and 2. Going 2 because I can at least appreciate some of the elements of the bluegrass/folk and the raw construction of it.
Kinda goofy
I am breaking the circle.
tam country
2 hours of country wow. A little odd at times.
Boaah Country?? Banjos?? Ahaha ich finds irgendwie maximal lustig. Finds krass das Lüüt so musik zu ihrem Lifestyle mached... Yeehaw undso 🤠 Jaaa aso so usnahmswiis chli country lauft scho xD Aber da Album isch ja über 2 Stund lang???? So zwei drei songs chani mir ja scho geh und macht au spass aber alles nachher chumi uf suizid gedanke 2.3/5
Old school bluegrass and it shows. I don’t mind a little bit of bluegrass here and there. I enjoy older country as it feels like there’s more heart and the stories are better, but a two hour album with half of it being instrumentals is a bit of a reach for my appeal. This may have been 3 stars if it was just the first album but it being a double album dropped it down for me. 4.4/10
Not for me, but one bonus star for the Both Sides Now cover
Country!! Vaya. Problem is that after the 3 song it all feels the same. Will the circle be unbroken es buena cancion. Apareció en la pelicula broken circle breakdown.
Uitgezet, kon het niet meer aan.
The instrumentals on disc 2 help redeem this. The End of the World (off disc 1) stands out, as well as Orange Blossom Special which flies along at breakneck pace. Overall it's way too country but there's some folksy stuff I like.
The whole history of country and western music in real time.
Amazing musicianship, especially given each song was recorded in only 1 or 2 takes. I really love the concept behind the album, bringing the older and new musical generations together. I also enjoyed the insight provided by the dialog between tracks. However, I didn’t personally get much enjoyment out of the album. Country/bluegrass just isn’t really my jam, especially at 2 hours long.
When you feel the album is too long hearing these guys tune their instruments and talk every couple songs drives in a little deeper on the frustration scale. There are some real good songs on this album, but they are scattered among about 30-35 terrible songs and whole tracks of them talking and tuning. This could have been condensed into a single album.
This was fine at first, but it got old pretty quickly. Way too much twangin’ for me.
I could not get through it. That is not to say it is bad, but after the first 12 songs, I feel I have heard enough. I do have to say that it is great for what it is, but I am just not a fan of country.
So there's stuff on here that I kind of like and would get 4 stars. 2 problems, it's still a genre in general I'm not big on and while I enjoy some of this, I enjoy it in small doses... over 2 hours and 40+ songs is the opposite of a small dose. I had to do something listening to this that I have yet to do on this 1001 album journey and something I didn't want to do; I took an intermission and listened to something I enjoy. I needed a break. 2 stars
Too long.
noin tunti albumin runtimesta on puheskelua ja huvittavaa kommmentti.. pälätystä plöjäytystä. en ole fani. kuitenkin hyviä pätkiä on monts, ja parasta ollakin kun noin paljon biiisiä. liikaa peruskantrin spämmäämistä kuitenkaan että voi nauttia liikaa nashville blues
Heard it before?: No Enjoy it?: it was good in parts but far too long for me Favourite song: didn’t have one
Nei
Too much Honky not enough Tonk. Maybe trim it down a bit lads? The songs don’t do much and all sound pretty similar, not sure you’ve got 2 hours of material here.
42 songs later... This thing is long (130 minutes to be exact). Like really long. I couldn't listen to it all in one day. The deal here is a 70s country rock band wanted to make a record with some of the most famous country artists from the prior few decades. All the old guys thought the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band was a bunch of long-haired hippies, but they eventually convinced a few of them to do it anyway. So what you ended up with is a bit of a mixed sound across a few decades of country, with kind of an all-star lineup from that era. They're all clearly talented artists, but I rate these on the quality of the album overall, and this one was just overwhelming. I think it would be perfect as like an exhibit at the Country Music Hall of Fame that just loops repeatedly with some video and you can sit and watch it for however long you like until you get bored and then move on. There's clearly a lot of historical value, but it's not a cohesive album (I don't know that any triple album can be). There's also a lot of talking and whatnot between songs, which again is cool for historical significance but hurts album flow a lot. Anyway, the actual music was fine, but not much really stood out to me either. I do think if I'm picking out any of the old guys, I like Merle Travis the best. Dark As A Dungeon was my favorite song overall and his voice and songwriting are both great. There's also a cover from The Byrds country album on here which was good. Favorite song: Dark As A Dungeon Other: Grand Ole Opry Song, Nine Pound Hammer, Way Downtown, I Am A Pilgrim 11/4/23
Nonces
2h10m of country is about 2 hours too much. not all bad, but I wouldn't listen to anything myself without somethjng pushing me
Waaay too long
Country /20
I'm usually not a fan of country music, like... at all, but I enjoyed each song starting with band discussions. Way too long though.
First thought: man I really know this band's name from growing up. I don't really remember much about them. Second thought: yeah this is okay. I mean, I get why people would like it. Third thought: 42 F*C#ING TRACKS?!?! I'm out.
Parts of this album were pretty good and no doubt there is no lack of skill behind it. I just find the genre unappealing and the length of this album to be a crime against my free time. Didn't hate it. Not gonna listen again tho
If not for its length this would be fun. There are a handful of cool tracks and other versions of songs I know. 2
2 What in the “South will rise again” is this album cover? Kudos to them for at least making it a Union soldier, though I still can’t help but feel the whole thing is a little questionable - especially for a group from Long Beach, California. Like, your state didn’t even fight in the Civil War, what are you on about? I digress, really didn’t think this would be the kind of thing I’d like, but I was actually enjoying myself quite a bit as I started listening. I know these guys aren’t the original writers of the majority of these songs, but I was surprised by how much I knew from renditions by other artists - Keep on the Sunny Side obviously, but also Dark as a Dungeon from Johnny Cash’s Folsom Prison album, Lonesome Fiddle Blues which would later go on to became The Devil Went Down to Georgia by The Charlie Daniels Band, and Cannonball Rage from… well I recognize it from somewhere, that’s for sure. The biggest déjà vu moment for me though was the title track, Will the Circle Be Unbroken. I had myself convinced it was just because it sounds similar to Amazing Grace, but then it hit me - this is the song that greets Booker when he first arrives in Columbia in BioShock Infinite. I realize that probably means nothing to most people reading this, but all I can say is it’s an awesome moment from an incredible game - go play BioShock Infinite. Outside of those songs, most of this album kind of runs together, which wasn’t necessarily a bad thing - at first. I was getting Toy Story/Red Dead Redemption/Frontier Town at Cedar Point vibes all over that I was appreciating, but let me tell you, at two hours and ten minutes long, once that charm wears off, it’s gone, and it doesn’t come back. It kind of reminded me of running a marathon - it’s refreshing and fun at first, but then halfway through it hits you you have to run 13 more miles and you start asking yourself what you signed up for (Disclaimer: I’ve never actually run a marathon). It even feels like the album is taunting you with its length sometimes by putting a long stretch of instrumentals in the middle and then some dialogue tracks towards the end. Will the Circle Be Unbroken? More like “Will the Album F*cking End”. So yeah, this really wasn’t bad, it just needs to know its limitations, because as is, I find it highly unlikely that I listen to the full thing ever again - which is kind of a shame because there’s actually some enjoyable moments here. At least it made me think of Bioshock. Can’t wait for these guys to show up on my Spotify Wrapped this year!
This is getting ridiculous. It's like saying that the dictionary is a book you have to read before you die - surely some important documentation, but not quite fitting the format. The title track and the following 'Both Sides Now' were delightful. Only to be immediately followed by more goshdarn fiddle and banjo.
This is an anthology before it’s an album. There are great passages and I appreciate the fact, that every song was recorded in the 1st or 2nd take - it gives it a feeling of authenticity and urgency. But for an album that so prominently features the confederate battle flag on its cover, I’m surprised to say that the most problematic thing about it is the sheer length.
Nashville Blues // You Are My Flower // Dark As A Dungeon // Wreck On The Highway // Will The Circle Be Unbroken // Both Sides Now // 2.5/5
Too much banjo
Ara
Over two hours! If you like bluegrass I imagine this is a real treat. If after two tracks you're thinking of that meme where it says "it's the same picture" and after 40 you're questioning your life choices, bluegrass definitely isn't for you. It does for the banjo (and any other jangly instruments) what the 80s did for the saxophone - ie ensures you can happily not hear one for a good 30 years until Carly Rae Jepsen makes them cool again. Skip it. It's a museum piece.
Not my genre but I do like Fishing in the Dark (more recent).
This doesn’t need to be 2h long.
2 hours of country no thank you.
Unleash the Banjos!!!
I wanted to finish it but I couldn’t. It’s really long but the songs sound fine. Maybe when I have more time I’ll finish.
This album and 69 Love Songs almost broke me. Back to back near 3 hour albums seem intended to make people give up and cry. This is the whitest album in history. Whiter than Weird Al. This is torturous, regardless of the talent level on display.
Competent musicians but oh boy I hate it
Deux heures de débiles qui parlent en accordant leurs guitares.
2.-- Hillbillies,... todo suena IGUAL!
Countrystä ei ole vieläkään oppinut tykkämään. Alussa oli yksi ihan lupaava biisi ja hetkellisesti toiveet paremmasta levystä nousi, mutta eipä tämäkään levy onnistunut toimittamaan.
2 hours of country/folk
Country meh
nolan favorite album i heard. very mid and long
It might have been tolerable if it was shorter, but 2 hours of mediocre old folk music is way, way too much. I didn't finish.
Not my thing.
banjo is nice and gives it a good country vibe, but I feel like it's 2 hours of the same song played on repeat.
Some great stuff but mostly not my vibe.
Hillbillymusik.
Ouch
Listening to this for 2 hours = descending into insanity
That is a lot of bluegrass. Reminded me of when I used to play railway tycoon and it had bluegrass as the soundtrack. I used to turn the music off. Obviously, 2 hours to too long, but it was more sufferable than I imagined.
You can imagine the immediate reticence to listen to this given the rebel flag on the cover... but at the same time I live 10 minutes from a civil war era monument (stone mountain) with confederate generals carved into it. I grew up hearing this kind of music from various family members but I still can not stand most twangy county/bluegrass/folk like this. I listened to 3-4 songs on this record trying to find something that didn't make me cringe, it wasn't easy but I managed to find some great harmonies and musicianship going on. I will never listen to this again though lol I'm giving this 2 stars because I think the musicians are skilled and the harmonies were pretty solid
More bluegrassy than country but not horrible nonetheless