After six decades of touring and some of American music's most recognizable hits—like Mr. Bojangles, American Dream, Make a Little Magic and Fishin’ in the Dark—the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band heads out on the road one last time for All the Good Times: The Farewell Tour.
The band stops in Bloomington as part of the tour, for a one-night-only show March 22 at the Bloomington Center for the Performing Arts.
It's hard to give up life on the road—just ask Kiss about that—but Nitty Gritty Dirt Band say this farewell tour is one and done.
“For us to do 60 shows a year, we’re on the road for 100 days or more,” said longtime band member Bob Carpenter. “We’re gonna start toning it down.”
Dates are currently scheduled through September, with no clear end for the tour. Bloomington comes at the front end of All the Good Times, as just the second city on the docket.
“We just want to make sure we end things on our terms,” Carpenter said. “We will not be able to do this into our 90s.”
In addition to Carpenter, who officially joined in 1980 but had played on and off with Nitty Gritty Dirt Band for nearly a decade by then, original members Jeff Hanna and Jimmie Fadden are all in their 70s. Hanna’s son Jaime has joined the last few years, along with Ross Holmes on fiddle and mandolin and bassist Jim Photoglo to complete the current roster.
“We don’t want to go onstage and not do the job we’re used to doing,” said Carpenter. “We want to be able to put on a great show for people, sing well, play well—and that’s not going to last forever. We just thought we might as well come to terms with all this and go out there and thank people for having us.”
Country by association
Carpenter sings and plays keyboards, but accordion is his primary instrument. Inspired by the Lawrence Welk show in the 1950s, Carpenter wanted to play drums; when he was 4, his parents bought an easier-on-the-ears accordion instead. He has several others, but still plays that accordion on stage. It was featured in Nitty Gritty Dirt Band’s 2022 album, Dirt Does Dylan.
While the players have changed over the years—influencing shifts in NGDT’s sound comprising three semi-distinct eras sandwiched in and around the early 1980s—the instrumentation has largely stayed the same: guitar, bass, mandolin, drums, keys, accordion and harmonica, with richly layered vocals and a few surprises here and there.
“Mr. Bojangles was not a country hit,” Carpenter said. “They didn’t start looking at us as a country band until our Warner Bros. days.”
Indeed, it’s not until 1984—nearly 20 years after Nitty Gritty Dirt Band formed—that they landed their first Academy of Country Music (CMA) nomination, winning that Album of the Year and three Grammys (for Best County Collaboration, Best Bluegrass Recording and Best Country Instrumental) in 1989.
“Genres are set up by the people that don’t play or write or make music,” Carpenter said. “We were on pop radio through Make a Little Magic. Then all of a sudden, they decided, 'Look at all these instruments. This is country music.' So, then we went to Nashville.”
Will the Circle be Unbroken
In 1972, Nitty Gritty Dirt Band released the first of three volumes titled after Ada R. Habershon’s 1907 hymn, Will the Circle be Unbroken. The compilation was aimed at bridging the gap between what was then a bunch of rock-n-roll hippies and elders like Maybelle Carter, Doc Watson, Merle Travis and Jimmy Martin. Two subsequent albums, colloquially known as Circle II (which garnered those Grammys) and Circle III, brought in equally impressive lineups, including Johnny and Rosanne Cash, Emmylou Harris, Hank Williams, John Prine and Bruce Hornsby, to name a few.
Instigating the Circle projects alone justifies Nitty Gritty Dirt Band’s legacy and influence on roots and Americana music—genres in which they’re considered to have moved the needle, despite starting the band before those genres were dreamed up. But then there’s all that glorious music, too.
“You’ve got those that came before you that you learn from, and you have those that come after you who learn from you. It’s just part of being the fabric of the music community and musical history,” Carpenter said. “After doing something for 58 years, I guess you’re bound to leave your mark.”
Nitty Gritty Dirt Band's All the Good Times farewell tour stops March 22 at the Bloomington Center for the Performing Arts, 600 N. East St. Tickets are $37-$269 at 309-434-2777 and artsblooming.org.
