Uncle Charlie and His Dog Teddy
Today I rediscovered one of my favorite albums, Uncle Charlie and His Dog Teddy, by the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band. I’ve loved NGDB since I was in my teens. One of my best high school memories is seeing them in concert at the Fox Theater in Billings, Montana in the early 1980s. It was a small venue, and I’ll never forget when two of my friends stood up on the theater seats to surf as the band played a Beach Boys tune.
I haven’t heard the music on this album for probably 15 years. Somehow I never got around to replacing my old cassette with a copy on CD, but today I found it on iTunes after getting a gift card from Brenda for Valentine’s Day.
Uncle Charlie is a masterpiece of Americana music by one of music’s most entertaining bands. Mixing bluegrass, folk, country and rock, the album moves back and forth across the spectrum of traditional American music. Its most famous song is the Jerry Jeff Walker classic “Mr. Bojangles,” but there are several other tracks worth their weight in dirt: “Living Without You,” “House at Pooh Corner,” and “Some of Shelly’s Blues,” not to mention a rocking cover of Buddy Holly’s “Rave On.” My favorite part of the album, though, is the interview with Uncle Charlie, especially when he gets his dog Teddy to sing “The Old Rugged Cross.”
Do yourself a favor and give Uncle Charlie and His Dog Teddy a listen.
