Tuesday, August 2, 2022

The 1981 Listening Post - The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band - Jealousy

 The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band - Jealousy



#581

July 1981

Nitty Gritty Dirt Band

Jealousy

Genre: Soft Country Rock

4 out of 5




Highlights:

Jealousy

Too Close for Comfort

Catch the Next Dream

Forget it



I’m not well versed in soft rock so I always just thought this was a hard country/southern rock band. That’s what the name implies, yes? But upon reading it appears that, at least coming in 1981, they had thrown their lot in with soft rockers. 

But this is more energetic than that. It’s the kind of stuff we would all go in for when it hits their airwaves as Gin Blossoms. It’s not a surprise that they would both have hits with the word Jealousy in it. No doubt Doug Hopkins had a lot of NGDB records in his collection.

“Too Close for Comfort” could be a Rockville jam. And we would have all loved it.

What’s wrong with “Fire in the Sky”? Mixed into a party at dawn playlist? Absolutely nothing. 

Same with much of this record. “Catch the Next Dream”? Something to bust out on your campfire guitar next time you gather with friends. Does it sound like it could be written after someone heard “Welcome Back”? Yep. But that just gives it a familiarity. The same comfortable familiarity that pervades the record. 

“Forget it” could be a J. Geils track. Certainly food for anyone who missed Magic Dick on Freeze-Frame. 


Missed?: I could have paired this with The Beat Farmers and been happy. 



https://music.apple.com/us/album/blue-and-gray/1443458173





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