Customer Reviews

Stars & Stripes Forever

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I first got interested in the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band's music after one of my sisters got the original "Circle" album, which came out in '72. While I was in college in Greeley, Colorado, I became a real fan of these guys and even saw them in concert when they played on campus. I've remained an NGDB fan since, although I haven't been back to one of their shows, and in my music collection, I have quite a few Dirt Band records on LP, CD and tape. Though some of the Dirt Band's albums have been allowed to go out of print because of record companies' concern with the "bottom line"(at least in my opinion), there is still a lot of good NGDB music out there. Stars and Stripes Forever, originally put out as a double LP in 1974 and re-released a few years ago on CD, is a classic NGDB concert album.

The record starts out with one solid Cajun rocker, the Hank Williams classic "Jambalaya On The Bayou", and closes with another great Cajun tune, Doug Kershaw's "Diggy Liggy Lo". In between, the Dirt Band has over an hour of good-time, toe-tapping music and even a little humor thrown in at times--for example, Jeff Hanna's sometimes offbeat recitations "The Aluminum Record Award" and "It Came From The Fifties(Blast From The Past)", along with Jimmie Fadden's "Fish Song" and "GloCoat Blues", are funny, well-done numbers. Of course, the NGDB classic "Mr. Bojangles" is on here. Hanna is in fine form singing lead, and John McEuen's mandolin and Jimmy Ibbotson's accordion also stand out. "Mr. Bojangles" is one Dirt Band song that I think sounds better live than it does in the studio. Another early '70s Dirt Band hit, "House At Pooh Corner", is a funky tune with a fine guitar solo by Fadden. The Dirt Band also scored a modest hit in the late '60s with the mellow folk-rock tune "Buy For Me The Rain", which is included on this record.

The rest of this record's material is a fine mix of country, rock and bluegrass. There are many notable tunes, besides the ones I've already mentioned. Michael Martin Murphey's classic country rocker "Cosmic Cowboy" is a fun, danceable number. Another upbeat Hank Williams song, "Honky Tonkin'", features Fadden playing a great harmonica part in addition to singing lead. Buddy Holly's classic "Oh Boy", in the Dirt Band's hands, is more country-sounding than Buddy's original. McEuen and guest musicians Les Thompson(an ex-Dirt Band member), Jerry Mills(who played guitar and mandolin with Michael Martin Murphey), and Vassar Clements stand out on the traditional bluegrass numbers "Dixie Hoedown", "Cripple Creek" and "Teardrops In My Eyes". There are a couple of strong tunes by guest fiddler Clements, the swing song "The Sheik Of Araby" and the traditional folk song "Listen To The Mockingbird". "My True Story", like "Oh Boy", pays tribute to Fifties music. The well-known march "Stars And Stripes Forever" serves as the introduction to the classic Jimmy Driftwood song "Battle Of New Orleans". The Dirt Band's version of "Battle Of New Orleans" is yet another Cajun rocker with some great fiddle work by McEuen. McEuen also backs himself up on banjo while he recites "Mountain Whippoorwill(Or, How Hillbilly Jim Won The Great Fiddler's Prize)". That one, like "Fish Song" and "It Came From The Fifties", is a solid example of Dirt Band humor. McEuen plays several different instruments on here(guitar, banjo, fiddle and mandolin). When John left NGDB in '87, he left a void that the band hasn't been able to fill, although the guys had hit records into the '90s.

I'm glad I found this classic Dirt Band record. Stars and Stripes Forever is a fun, well-done live set that features the NGDB guys at their best. If you want a great Dirt Band album, I suggest that you check this one out. You might really enjoy it--I sure did.

In 1970, the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band released their breakout album UNCLE CHARLIE which contained the band's first Top 10 single "Mr. Bojangles." Two years later they released the critically acclaimed WILL THE CIRCLE BE UNBROKEN. So it was only natural that there would be a great deal of excitement when STARS & STRIPES FOREVER was released in 1974.

At first glance, it's a curious album comprised of live cuts from a March 1972 concert and two June 1973 concerts, along with a couple of interviews and eight studio recordings (tracks 8-12, 18-19 and 23) from a single January 14, 1974 session in Nashville. Of the studio recordings, the only band-penned song is "Glocoat Blues," a blues spoof written by Jimmie Fadden.

What this album did was to help solidify the band's reputation as a legitimate country band. They perform two Hank Williams classics ("Jambalaya" and "Honky Tonkin'"), as well as Jimmie Driftwood's "Battle of New Orleans" and Doug Kershaw's hit "Diggy Liggy Lo." They also take on traditional bluegrass with "Teardrops in My Eyes" and "Cripple Creek." To add further credibility to their country credentials, fiddle virtuoso Vassar Clements performs on all of the studio recordings except "My True Story.

The live tracks include electrifying versions of NGDB classics like "Mr. Bojangles," "Cosmic Cowboy," "House at Pooh Corner," "Buy for Me the Rain," and one of my all-time favorites, "Fish Song." Not everything, however, fits neatly into the country genre. There's John McEuen's solo reading of Stephen Vincent Benet's poem "The Mountain Whippoorwill," accompanying himself on banjo. They also do a foot-stomping version of Buddy Holly's "Oh Boy." Then there's Jeff Hanna's nearly 7-minute monologue, "It Came from the 50's." Their cover of the Jive Five's "My True Story" marks the last studio recording featuring founding member Les Thompson. [Thompson also appears on the 1972 live tracks (1, 3, 5, 6, 14, 16, 21 and 24).]

I saw the NGDB while I was in college a year before this album was released, but they performed many of the songs here. Listening to this album again (now that I've replaced my LP version with CD) brings back the memories of that concert from more than 30 years ago. Taken all together, this is one of the NGDB's most enjoyable and satisfying albums of their 40-year career. [Running Time - 73:14] VERY HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

I loved the NGDB back in their "jug band/bluegrass/eclectic rock" days (before they went mainstream and began sucking with a vengeance), and this is an album I've always mostly enjoyed a lot.
The music is great... kickin' versions of classics like "Mr. Bojangles", "Buy for me the Rain", "Diggy Liggy Lo", "Battle of New Orleans", "Jambalaya". Funny songs like "GloCoat Blues", "The Fish Song", "Cosmic Cowboy". Fabulous fiddling from Mr. Vassar Clements throughout, and excellent bluegrass instrumentals.
The "interviews" are less successful, but are still interesting, for the most part.
Now we come to the two cuts that both make and break this album...
"The Mountain Whippoorwill"... Oh man, the rest of this album could even have been "(c)rap" and I'd have given it 5 stars just for this cut! A brilliant interpretation by John McEuen. With his muted delivery and old-timey banjo accompaniment, he makes this wonderful poem by Stephen Vincent Benet (one of my top 5 all-time favorite poems) really come to life. An amazing, spellbinding piece of live music. Unfortunately, it's more than counterbalanced by:
"It Came from the 50's (Blast from the Past)". One of the most misbegotten attempts at "humour" I've ever heard. So adolescent and unfunny that it transcends stupidity and just becomes pathetic and sad. Sure, 14-year olds might have sniggered at this during the early '70's (I didn't- I thought it was embarassing even back then... when I WAS 14!), but that doesn't make it funny. Almost unlistenable, I hate this cut so much that the album overall loses 1 star.
Other than that, I highly recommend this one, along with "Uncle Charlie and His Dog Teddy" as THE two quintessential NGDB recordings.

I'm not sure what I expected when I ordered this. I think the interviews kind of take away from the music, but they do provide some interesting insight. Also, the sound quality was a bit spotty to my ears.

All in all, I liked the songs and it was worth the $5.98 I spent for it. I guess that's all you can really ask for.

This album should not be considered 'just a live album', it gives the listener an idea of what it's like for such musicians to get on stage, and rather than thinking of it as just another show, can have fun. All throughout the band enjoys themselves, the music is lively and it seems very unique. Not a lot of bands can do what the NGDB did. That was making great music and giving a good stage show, which, at that point the band had been doing 8 years at the time. Be sure to check out the "Alive" album as well, it's as good (and maybe even better) than this album. "Alive" was issued in 1968 and features the early incarnation of the NGDB.

I first bought this on vinyl many, many years ago. The songs, at least some of them, are the kinds that find their way into your head no matter how long it's been since you last heard them..Having said that, I decided I needed to buy this disc so I could finally hear what I'd been humming to for years (off and on). Once I received my disc it brought back all the enjoyable memories from way, way back.

This band knows how to work an audience. Funny monologues are combined with what was their limited repertoire of the early 1970s. Hits would come later but at this point the band played the music of other artists with smatterings of their own material. But there was in place the connections with each other that would lead to those future hit songs.

This is not a typical "live" album as it breaks up and drifts between two diffeent live venues and a "live" studio session. But the end result is worth putting up with the disjointedness of the album. This is a must have for any fan of the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band.

Excellent cd. For fans of the Dirt Band, I think this is a "must have" cd.

When I was a young 'un, I'd go to the cut-out bins at the local discount and record stores and blow most of what spending money I had trying out interesting looking albums. In this way, I was introduced to a lot of great music that I otherwise might have missed.

This was one of those albums. I was not a big country fan in 1976 when I ran across this LP in the bargain bin. I had "Mr. Bojangles" on 45. I'd heard "House On Pooh Corner" For a buck or so, I took a flyer on "Stars and Stripes Forever." If bang for the buck was my only criteria for defining the success of a purchase, this is like buying Microsoft as a startup. Through this album, I was introduced to bluegrass and a whole musical spectrum of country artists that I'd never heard and that give me so much pleasure today.

This is not "country" as you'd define it today. The Dirt Band, along with The Outlaws and the Ozark Mountain Daredevils were just the bridge a young rocker like me needed to expand my horizons. These guys were long haired, hippie types like me! And the music was beyond cool...

"Stars and Stripes Forever" is not the perfect NGDB album, but it is my personal favorite. I'll always be grateful I found this album in that bargain bin at Zayre's department store 30-odd years ago. I still have the LP with the clipped corner; it is one of the few pieces of vinyl I haven't disposed of over the years as I've replaced them with digital recordings.

By all means, buy "Uncle Charlie;" that IS the perfect NGDB album. For $6 bucks, you shouldn't miss this.

This isn't your normal studio/live compilation which is one of the primary reasons some folks may have a difficult time fully appreciating the outstanding performances contained herein and the context in which they are presented. Had I not experienced "Stars And Stripes Forever" when I did I might have similar misgivings. In 1974 there was no internet, no MTV, and concert footage on television was a rare treat. If you wanted to find out about an artist or group not in the mainstream and not covered by the limited music magazines in circulation at the time then you had to take a calculated gamble, purchase one of their albums, and then hope for the best. That was certainly the case for me with NGDB and "Stars And Stripes Forever". The gamble paid off and, looking back, "Stars And Stripes Forever" was the perfect answer to my NGDB questions. It introduced me to these fabulous musicians and gave me insight into who these guys were that a normal studio or live disc could only partially provide.

As for content, "Stars And Stripes Forever" contains a variety of musical styles that are all firmly anchored in Americana. You will find pop, bluegrass, country, blues, and rock performed to perfection alongside a sampling of folk comedy and spoken word (i.e. a poem, interviews, and concert dialogue). The documentation provided with this disc is very helpful. It not only tells you who plays what on each song like the LP version did back in '74 but now lets you know when and where each tune was recorded:

Kansas State University March 13, 1972
Cowtown - Kansas City, Mo. June 17-18 1973
Woodland Sound Studios - Nashville, TN January 14, 1974
Original Release Date: June 3, 1974

Please don't misunderstand me and think that I am stating that this is the perfect introduction to NGDB for everyone as times have changed. The elaborate lengths that the band went to to showcase their musical talent while at the same time offering a glimpse into their individual and collective personalities is no longer necessary. The information not readily available in 1974 is now only a mouse-click away. Still, the interviews and concert dialogue add a nice touch if you are willing to accept an occasional interruption of the musical flow. For me, it is like a visit with old friends.

Great stuff if you're a big fan like me. Early '70s, interviews with band members, all live with some of the banter they're so good at.