The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band - Will the Circle Be Unbroken

By and By, Lord, By and By

For John, who knows why.

1. Listen to the masters talk.

   Will the Circle Be Unbroken is a holy revival that demonstrates, beyond doubt or reason, the beauty and healing power of a family who actively seeks beauty and healing. Not all families have the same collective will or desires. The album, as a whole, handles a great many things, but this title cut doubles down on birth, life, death, mortality, and as much love and longing as can fit into a song. To do this well, and honestly, to do it properly, the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band called on the finest around - Doc Watson, Merle Travis, Roy Acuff, Jimmy Martin, Mother Maybelle Carter, and her son-in-law John R. Cash. It was a coup. Drug-taking hippies invite bonafide members of the Grand Ole Opry to their album, and it becomes a mentorship session over the course of a triple-vinyl adventure, one on which the headliners willingly take a back seat to the masters. The band understands the great lesson: you must listen to the masters when the masters talk.

   I said to that undertaker
   Undertaker, please drive slow
   For this lady you are carrying
   Lord, I hate to see her go

2. Cry.

   That’s lesson number two. Cry. Grieve. Release. In the modern era, grieving has become a competition. When a celebrity dies, suddenly or otherwise, people take to social media to express their grief. Invariably, grief becomes a commodity. Who can grieve harder, in the right way, over the right people? How DARE they make money off our sorrow. Will the Circle Be Unbroken competes with nothing. It exists in its own distinct place and time, as a statement unto itself, and because of that, it remains outside of place and time. This is right and proper and as it should be. Cry. We all deserve profoundly human moments. Each of us enters and exits the lives of others - sometimes over the course of decades, sometimes over the course of an afternoon. So it goes (Thanks, Kurt). In books and movies, going back in time invariably comes with a warning about not changing anything in the past because it will absolutely affect the present. What’s never mentioned is that a small change in the present can and will affect the future. We can examine it over decades or an afternoon, but we can do something in the here and now. If we’re doing it properly, we’ll grieve even harder. In the grief, we’ll be even more profoundly human.

3. Be.

   Exist. Live your life. Do the things necessary to pay the bills, to recreate, to live. More than that, enjoy it. Enjoy your life with as many people as you can. Old age isn’t a gift given to everybody. We are, each of us, going to make an exit, so share your life with your people as often as circumstance will allow. I mean not the drunken Sunday brunch gossip. I mean the real deal agony and joy of your life, the exaltation and the despair. What hurts is that most of us only do that in our grief. The dying teaches us about living. Live your life so well they all cry and grieve.