Twenty Years of Dirt: The Best of

I've been a huge fan of the Dirt Band since I purchased their Uncle Charlie album in 1970--and I've bought every album since. Unfortunately, now that I'm looking to replace my old vinyl with CDs, I find that much of their catalog is out of print. In the case of their Eighties output, however, it's not a major tragedy. Much of what you'd want to hear from those albums is on this disc (and the companion disc, More Great Dirt).

Once you get past the fact that the first ten years of dirt are covered by only two songs (1970's "Mr. Bojangles" and 1975's "Ripplin' Waters"), this collection adequately covers the country radio-friendly tunes the Dirt Band recorded during their peak commercial years. [In fact, why didn't Warner Brothers simply focus on the Eighties? It would have made more sense than trying to promote this as a 20-year retrospective.]

Both "American Dream" and "Make a Little Magic" returned the Dirt Band to the pop...Read more

This CD is so much less than it could have been. 1986 marked the twentieth anniversary of the band and this is what we get? Eleven songs? Twenty years? What kind of career retrospective is that? I don't mind that there are no songs from their four albums prior to Uncle Charlie and His Dog Teddy (although the inclusion of "Buy for Me the Rain" would have seemed appropriate), but this collection contains only two songs ("Mr. Bojangles" and "Ripplin' Waters") from their first ten years--how skimpy is that?!!!

Essentially what this CD actually is, is a collection of their 1979-1985 country radio hits. And that's not altogether bad. I'm a huge NGDB fan and I own all the vinyl albums these songs came from. And except for the Uncle Charlie and the Dream albums, these songs represent most of what you'd want to own from this period of the Dirt Band's career. [An excellent overview of the Dirt Band's first ten years is the two-disc, 37-song...Read more

For all of the complaints about this disc(lack of early tunes, too country, too brief), folks seem to forget that the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band has been around for a long time. Trying to pick the top hits from a band that has been consistently putting out great music is like trying to pick the best child in your family. It's impossible. Someone will get hurt because "their" song isn't included. Another person will cry because certain time periods or albums are focused on too much.

Anyway, take this album for what it is. It's a nice package of well known hits by a band that deserves the respect given to the top groups in country music. It doesn't include all of their greatest hits, but it has some great ones on it. Also, the price is great for such good songs.

Recommended to folks interested in learning more about NGDB who might have only heard songs like "Fishin' In The Dark" on the radio. It's not included here(but it is on their second greatest...Read more