Description
The article discusses the Circle's reunion album, which features various country and bluegrass legends. While some of the performances are good, most of the album feels like it is just pleasant. The attempt to replicate the feel of the original, complete with copious between-take studio chitchat and an acoustic guitar coda by Randy Scruggs, comes off a bit self-conscious and forced.
In the early '70s, the original
Circle teamed the Dirt Band, a group of longhaired young country-rockers, with several country and bluegrass legends. In an era of polarization between young and old, it introduced countless baby boomers to that music, paving the way for the recent triumph of the
O Brother, Where Art Thou soundtrack. This time, the Dirt Band reunites with Jimmy Martin, Earl Scruggs, and Doc Watson, veterans of the first
Circle, and adds a host of other country, folk, and bluegrass greats. Despite several stellar performances, among them Del McCoury's bracing "Take Me in Your Lifeboat" and Martin's snappy re-creation of his 1950s favorite "Save It, Save It," most of what's here is merely pleasant. Attempts to replicate the feel of the original, complete with copious between-take studio chitchat and an acoustic guitar coda by Randy Scruggs, come off a bit self-conscious and forced. The original
Circle remains a landmark, but in a time when cameo appearances and cross-generation collaborations are so common--Nashville calls them Vocal Events--what was once a unique concept often seems anticlimactic and mundane.
--Rich Kienzle
Related Products
