CIRCLIN BACK-CELEBRATING 50 YEARS

Personnel: Jeff Hanna (vocals, acoustic guitar, electric guitar, washboard); Jackson Browne (vocals, acoustic guitar, electric guitar); Jerry Jeff Walker, Jimmy Ibbotson, John Prine, Rodney Crowell, Vince Gill (vocals, acoustic guitar); Sam Bush (vocals, mandolin, fiddle); Alison Krauss (vocals, fiddle); Jimmie Fadden (vocals, harmonica, drums); Bob Carpenter (vocals, accordion, keyboards); John McEuen (acoustic guitar, lap steel guitar, mandolin, fiddle); Jerry Douglas (lap steel guitar, dobro); Byron House (upright bass, electric bass). Audio Mixer: Michael Davis . Recording information: Ryman Auditorium, Nashville, TN (09/14/2015). Friends always meant something special to the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band -- their 1972 breakthrough, Will the Circle Be Unbroken, was filled with them -- so it only makes sense that the group rounded up a bunch of pals for a 50th anniversary concert held at Nashville's Ryman Auditorium on September 14, 2015. Released a year later, Circlin' Back: Celebrating 50 Years does indeed play like a celebration. Revisiting an equal portion of hits and traditional tunes, the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band sound as deep and wise as the Nashville veterans did when they guested on Will the Circle Be Unbroken, but the nice thing about the Circlin' Back concert is that it takes into account the smoother hits the band had in the '80s: Rodney Crowell and Alison Krauss sit in on "An American Dream" and Jimmy Ibbotson plays on "Fishin' in the Dark." Here, they're presented in stripped-down arrangements that nevertheless echo the soft rock gloss of the hit singles, and when combined with rollicking bluegrass, rustic folk, and straight-ahead country, it results in a full portrait of what the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band is all about. Better still, Circlin' Back is just a good time: as John Prine, Vince Gill, Sam Bush, Jackson Browne, and Jerry Jeff Walker take the stage, the entire thing feels like a party -- which, of course, is what it was. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine