Can't Stop Now

Gary Nicholson and Wendy Waldman wrote it, and it was not written for the band: Reba McEntire's 1986 album Whoever's in New England opens with it, at 2:52, so Bluegrass Today's date of 1987 for the writing is wrong. Waldman wrote in an essay on her site that she wrote it in the 1980s in Nashville with Nicholson, and that it found its true life when it was recorded at breakneck speed by New Grass Revival. It is track three of Hold to a Dream at 4:01, and a single in 1988, reaching 45 on Billboard's Hot Country Singles over 11 weeks. Michael Salomon directed the video, dated 1988 on the discography page and 1987 on an older mirror, and Capitol produced it for heavy rotation on Country Music Television, per a search summary. Toppermost calls it magnificent, with solos passing between Fleck, Flynn and Bush and a closing jam that is musically interesting and fiery as all get out.

Setlist.fm shows it in 15 setlists, seventh among their songs. At Telluride on June 18, 1988 it is track 17 at 4:02, between "Sail to Australia" and the encore of "Reach", on a soundboard at the Internet Archive. The studio recording also appears on Anthology (1990) and Best of New Grass Revival (1994); a live version at 4:29 is on Grass Roots (2005), and a digital live album of the final show on December 31, 1989 at the Oakland Coliseum carries it. Buddy Jewell covered it on Bluebonnet Highway, with a video on October 7, 2020, and Waldman recorded it herself on My Time in the Desert. We found no statement on the song's subject, and do not know whether our upload is the studio or a live version.