"Will The Circle Be Unbroken" - Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, Roy Acuff, Maybelle Carter, et al. (1976)

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[MacNaughton]

8 My Father’s favorite song was “Life’s Railway to Heaven”. It was also my GGrandfather’s. It was sung at both of their funerals. I saw a great version on youtube by Johnny Cash, The Carter Family, Earl Skruggs, and the Dirt Band. Johnny really could sing.

Will the Circle Be Unbroken: Volume Two (also Circle II) is a 1989 album by the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band. 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.

Track listing
"Life's Railway to Heaven" (Traditional, arranged by Johnny Cash) – 4:39
Lead vocal and guitar by Johnny Cash with June Carter Cash, Anita Carter and Helen Carter (as the Carter Family)
Randy Scruggs plays "Mother" Maybelle Carter's Gibson L5

[uncbob]

Bought the album
Wished I hadn’t

[YogicCowboy]

I have Symphonion Dream. I never got around to getting this classic. I will put it on my list.

[RideForever]

When I did my H1-b protest I got their permission to use their ‘Workin Man (Nowhere To Go)’.

[YogicCowboy]

My all-time favorite One Hit Wonder is also the most literal one.

It is the only single released by a band that did not really exist:

“Forever” (1960), by The Little Dippers - a fictitious group.

It was an afterthought recording for Buddy Killan, by Anita Kerr and her Singers, with Floyd Cramer on piano, at the end of a recording session.

To their surpise, it went Top Ten, and the label wanted a tour. There was no such band, so they drafted fill-in singers to play the band on stage.

Anita Kerr, with a lovely pure soprano voice, was an extraordinary arranger, producer, and performer who, more than any other, created “The Nashville Sound.”

She and her quartet provide the background for much of the greatest hits in Country and Pop in the 1960s.

“Forever” was later covered by several acts, most notably by Pete Drake and His Singing Guitar in 1964.

[Fiji Hill]

“Will the Circle Be Unbroken?” was originally a hymn from 1907 with lyrics by Ada Habershaw and music by Charles H. Gabriel, two of the heavyweight hymn writers of the postbellum era (1865-1917). These re the original words:

There are loved ones in the glory,
Whose dear forms you often miss;
When you close your earthly story,
Will you join them in their bliss?

Will the circle be unbroken
By and by, by and by?
In a better home awaiting
In the sky, in the sky?

In the joyous days of childhood,
Oft they told of wondrous love,
Pointed to the dying Savior
Now they dwell with Him above.

Will the circle be unbroken
By and by, by and by?
In a better home awaiting
In the sky, in the sky?

[Fiji Hill]

Saggitarius, the band that recorded My World Fell Down in 1967 was also a non-existent group.

[newfreep]

“Country Music” has been a pleasant surprise...considering ken Burns is a flaming leftwing kook.

That said...

I especially enjoyed the segments with Emmy Lou Harris, Gram Parsons, Rosanne Cash...and, of course, “Hello, I’m Johnny Cash”.

Special kudos for the back story of Townes Van Zandt’s masterpiece, “Poncho & Lefty”

Townes Van Zandt talks about writing the song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g3bFAuuUeXU

[Songcraft]

Jimmy Swaggart has a bit of a shaky past, but he comes from a famous, talented musical family, and I like his version of that song.

       "Life's Railway To Heaven" - Jimmy Swaggart

(He also does a nice, slow, sad version of "Will The Circle Be Unbroken", but I could not find his version of that song on youtube, only a sermon of his with that same title.)

[AppyPappy]

Boston was pretty much a put together band

[yarddog]

Thanks, my Great Grandfather actually owned his own railroad. It was just a single engine, water carrier and whatever was needed to haul timber to his sawmill. The sawmill was also steam powered and my Father learned to operate steam boilers there when he was a kid.

[HartleyMBaldwin]

Great album. I have it on vinyl, cassette, CD, and MP3. Was listening to it within the last week.

[YogicCowboy]

Correct. Glen Campbell, formerly of The Beach Boys (and The Wrecking Crew), sang the lead on that song.

My point was: The Little Dippers produced one song - that was it - and it was literally off-the-cuff at the end of the day. There were no other singles, much less an entire album.

Sagittarius was a dedicated studio effort by Gary Usher (Beach Boys) and Curt Boettcher (The Association), and they produced an entire album.

I own it. I like it. I like Baroque Pop; Pet Sounds, the precursor, is my favorite album.

[Henry Hnyellar]

Yea, Doc Watson was the star of that album.

[MinuteGal]

I accidentally wandered onto this this series depicting the detailed history of country music and the fascinating, compelling, moving, and sometimes tragic stories of its greatest stars over many, many decades......I watched for a few minutes or so......and became entranced, nay...absolutely riveted.

It is THAT good !

I hope Ken Burns wins some big finger-lickin' award for this terrific documentary.

Leni

[MinuteGal]

See my # 35 above.

Leni/MinuteGal