Two Nitty Gritty Dirt Band’s a decade apart, 1982 and 1994 respectively make up this release, and they complement one another perfectly. Let’s Go possess a sharp, keen country rock feel, smattered with some poppy hooks hence there’s a bunch of radio friendly tunes; some from band members Jeff Hanna, Bob Carpenter (“Special Look”), Hanna, Jimmie Fadden (“Let’s Go”) and top ten country single “Dance Little Jean” (Jim Ibbotson) that was written about his young daughter. Fourth member of the band, John McEuen plays banjo, mandolin and lap steel guitar. A mercurial talent who vacated his chair only to re-join one of the finest a set of players to grace country music the record is more a reflection of the times than true worth of lead vocalists Hanna and Ibbotson (guitar, mandolin). Country music was in transition, leaving behind country rock, the urban cowboy craze and about to unfold on an exciting period in time as the New Traditionalists came through. Best of the imported songs comes in the way of Rodney Crowell’s “Never Together (But Close Sometimes)” and Andrew Gold’s “Heartaches In Heartaches” without threatening to become career-making fare.
Acoustic came after Will The Circle Be Unbroken 11 (1989) and the band’s live album Live Two Five (1992), and as noted in John O’Regan’s liner noted by way of a review from Jim Newsom of how older, established acts in 1994 were being swept away by Garth Brooks, the new hat acts and pretty, model-like female acts. Doomed to slender pickings no matter what kind of record they made. So doing something they believed in, Acoustic was as good as anything one could think of!
Acoustic has the band perform as a bare four-piece, unlike Let’s Go you don’t have any extras, only the above noted members, less McEuen with Bob Carpenter once again a first team player. Although Carpenter does figure on the former alongside fellow players Steve Gibson, Fred Tackett, Phil Aaberg, Dave Loggins, Barry Chance and George Doering. Song wise Acoustic is far more personal, Dennis Linde’s “Hello, I’m Your Heart” apart all songs have at least one member of the band involved in the writing. Ibbotson’s harmonica colours his song “Sarah In Summer” as Hanna leads the band through a song vivid in descriptive prowess, and it doesn’t stop here as melancholy ode “Let It Roll” (Hanna, Carpenter, Kell) and mandolin fuelled “Tryin’ Times” (Fadden, Harvey) ease along in effortless fashion. Best of all comes in the form of “This Train Keeps Rolling Along” (Photogolo, Melamed, Ibbotson) and with a hint of mystic, “Badlands”, plus Ibbotson’s wondrous plaintive piece, “One Sure Honest Line”, before Carpenter on piano and lead vocals disperses a serene beauty on “The Broken Road” (Hanna, Hummon, Boyd). Rich in emotional content it is the kind of song a band or solo act has a heaven sent song to close a show in heart-stopping fashion.
Maurice Hope