Monday, October 26, 2009

Will The Circle Be Unbroken - Herran huosta kaiken kantaa


Jussi & Boys & Friends (see earlier entry) released an album called "Kehä kaartuu" in 1975. It was an ambitious record recorded in Sweden. The "Friends" were The Wigwam legends Jukka Gustavsson (organ) and Pekka Pohjola (base) and Swedish session men (horns). One of the tracks was "Herran huosta kaiken kantaa" (Lord bears it all). The lyrics were not done by Jussi himself this time, they were written by Mats Hulden (also ex-Wigwam man). The original song is an old American country/folk song "Can the Circle Be Unbroken (By and By)" reworked by Carter Family in 1935. It is based on the hymn "Will the Circle Be Unbroken?", whose lyrics deal with the death, funeral, and mourning of the narrator's mother. The song has been versioned by many, many artists, but perhaps the most known version (and the one that inspired Jussi & Boys) was done by American country-folk-rock group, Nitty Gritty Dirt Band in 1971. The song is officially credited to the band but it was done (like the eponymous album) with collaboration from many famous bluegrass and country -artists, including Roy Acuff, Mother Maybelle Carter, Earl Scruggs, Merle Travis and others. The song reflects how the NGDB was trying to tie together two generations of musicians.

Here's the pair:


You can see a selection of some hand-picked Youtube videos of today's Finnpick song by playing my shared playlist in tuberadio.fm.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Köh köh!

Outoa rypistystä täällä nykyään. Mitä täällä on tapahtunut musiikin suhteen?

Terv:
Owqaasdf

robert said...

Actually, I believe the true original gospel song, "Will the Circle Be Unbroken," that preceded the Carter version and others, was written by an Englishwoman named Ada Habershon. It contains more of a gospel emphasis, and less about mama's hearse and grave. You can check out both on my daily blog on hymn history, Wordwise Hymns.