Uncle Charlie – NITTY GRITTY DIRT BAND***

Some Of Shelly’s Blues/Prodigal’s Return/The Cure/Travelin’ Mood/Chicken Reel/Yukon Railroad/Livin’ Without You-Clinch Mountain Backstep/Rave On/Billy In The Low Ground/Jesse James/Mr Bojangles/Opus 36/Santa Rosa/Propinquity/Uncle Charlie-Randy Lynn Rag/House At Pooh Corner/Swanee River-The End-Spanish Fandango

At the time of the release of Uncle Charlie the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band were a well established Californian country-rock band. It includes their classic cover version of Mr Bojangles, which reached the US singles top ten. (US:66)

“Uncle Charlie is the most representative of the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band's vision. It certainly stacks up well with any of the other country/rock albums emerging from this very new genre at the time. Their rendition of Mr. Bojangles is a classic, and easily outpaces the original as the standard.”

“Great and unexpected early 1970s mix of rustic country pop, bluegrass with even slight psych influences. Very consistent, with not a bad track on this.” “The Nitty Gritties sure wanted to display their versatility, and these 21 short tracks weave very fine bluegrass, country, pop, and even spoken word (the Uncle Charlie interviews) into a unique tapestry.”

“The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band do an exceptional job as their vocals and musical arrangement capture the subject of Mr Bojangles in such a way as to create a beautiful gestalt in which both the joys and sorrows of life are respectfully presented. It is a special gift to be able to bring into music a sensitive balance of exuberance and melancholy, and this recording does it beautifully.”

“There are a few different styles on this album. Tracks like Some Of Shelley's Blues and Prodigal's Return show the band's then commercial sound, the vibe is light and breezy pop, but it still makes quite a racket with full, up-beat rock n' roll, and elements of banjo and slide guitar. Also a stack of traditional American tracks with harmonica, mandolin and fiddle. My favourite of these is the full-throttle bluegrass Clinch Mountain Backstep, great to dance to at those seventies parties.”

“Standing head and shoulders above the rest of the set, the superlative 3/4 country pop Mr Bojangles is definitely a leap ahead of Jerry Jeff Walker's original. If you've never heard this fine track, it's one of the great songs of the seventies for sure. The Dirt Band had always lurked in the shadows cast by the big name bands of the seventies. They consistently defied categorization by enthusiastically embracing elements of rock, folk, country and bluegrass.”