Hurry Home Dark Cloud: The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band

In 1972, The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band released the landmark triple LP Will the Circle Be Unbroken. The young, shaggy haired band (best known, at the time, for their cover of "Mr. Bojangles") traveled from California to Nashville to create what they hoped would be a meshwork between two generations of musicians ensconced in the tradition of country and bluegrass music. What unfolded surpassed anyones wildest expectations.

The band was able to secure studio time with the giants of the genre, including: Roy Acuff, Earl Scruggs, Merle Travis, Doc Watson, and Maybelle Carter. In total, there are an incredible thirty-seven songs (thirty-eight if you count the dialogue track) - nearly all of which is indispensible material.

In the years to come, the band released two subsequent volumes in the same grand tradition, sometimes even featuring younger artists such as Alison Krauss and Vince Gill. Although none quite reached the artistic heights achieved on the first volume, there are still outstanding highlights to be found on both.

In 2003, roughly a year after the release of the third volume, the complete trilogy was released in a compact boxed set. It assembled the remastered version of the first volume (including four bonus tracks, though only one is a complete song), both successive volumes, and a DVD - comprising six discs in total.

Two booklets are also included: one details the song credits and performers for each track, and the other contains an interesting essay concerning the formation of the entire project.

The DVD is perhaps the best reason to purchase this set, even if you own one or two of the albums already. It contains an outstanding hour-long concert, a brief documentary about the band, a music video for the track "The Lowlands", and three bonus concert performances not included in the final version.

One of the highlights of the concert is the performance of "Catfish John" featuring Alison Krauss (pictured below). Others include a spirited rendition of the mad-cap instrumental "Earl's Breakdown" and a very fun, nostalgic performance of "Fishin' Blues" featuring Taj Mahal.

I've included some of my favorites from each album below, clicking on the pictures will direct you to each album's listing on Amazon. A click on any of the above photos will take you to the Amazon listing for the complete trilogy.