The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band - More Great Dirt: The Best Of The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, Volume II (1989)

Until now, the only encounters I've had with The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band have been their only charting hit single, "Mr. Bojangles" - #9 on the Hot 100 in 1970 - and their world class, collaborative, triple LP,  Will The Circle Be Unbroken, in 1972. I also saw them live at Temple University's long defunct music fair - probably back in the late 1970s - but I don't remember anything about the concert. 

It's typical of PBS to televise most of their excellent, special programming during pledge drives and the band's September 2022 concert at Nashville's famous and acoustically perfect Ryman Auditorium - formerly the home of The Grand Ole Opry - is no exception. Having recently watched this show I learned that NGDB - together since 1966 - deserved far more attention than I've ever given them.

The day after watching the sextet's concert on TV I visited a used book and magazine store that also sold discarded CDs for just a dollar, and More Great Dirt: The Best Of The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, Volume II was a coincidental, unexpected discovery that I was happy to take home.

Listening to this second collection of NGDB's classic songs was enough to convince me - and probably anyone else who loves Sweetheart of the Rodeo era Byrds, early Eagles, Poco, and Gram Parsons alone and with The Flying Burrito Brothers - that group founder Jeff Hanna and his bandmates are as good as any of those celebrated country-rockers.

This collection is more country than rock and features some of the most loved songs the group released during the 1980s. NGDB's fine singing, musicianship, and their outstanding, countrified high harmonies are all readily apparent on this CD. Most of the songs sound like the veteran outfit is having a rollicking good time even if the subject matter doesn't always reflect the mood of the upbeat arrangements.

The album opens with a cover of Bruce Springsteen's "Cadillac Ranch" that sounds like the party song it is. The heart and soul of the disc are the exhuberent harmonies of "I've Been Looking," "Oh, What A Love," Baby's Got A Hold On Me," and "Fishin' In The Dark." Those five would make a great, fun EP.

Even a serious song such as "Workin’ Man (Nowhere To Go)" - about the often sad plight of the American farmer - ends on a positive note when the protagonist indicates he is "broke but not broken."

There is a Steve Goodman cover about a young woman who wants to be a movie star, but an agent's advice that she'll never successfully climb the steep mountain to stardom wearing clothes is shattering to her. The girl realizes that her dream will probably end with her "Face On The Cutting Room Floor" and she gives up and leaves town on a Greyhound bus.

Another story is about a young man who left his hometown to make his own way in the world. He is thinking about returning to his roots but he tells himself that he can only go "Home Again in My Heart."

My only complaint is More Great Dirt is too brief. It's a ten-song set clocking in at only about thirty-four minutes. The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band has quite an extensive catalog so they could have offered their fans a lot more, but I shouldn't complain. These songs only cost me ten cents each.

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