After nearly 60 years, a few Grammys, and a fair share of lineup changes, the hugely influential Nitty Gritty Dirt Band will say farewell on the All The Good Time tour. This is not goodbye forever, the band insists, but rather an end to the multi-city runs and long bus rides for the group that has helped define American roots music for over half a century.
More of a victory lap than an honest-to-goodness farewell, the first leg of the band’s “last traditionally scheduled gigs” will begin in March 21st in Bowling Green, KY. The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band will go out with a bang on the tour that stretches into July, with more dates to come.
“‘All The Good Times’ perfectly describes our career,” the band said in a statement this week. “Playing our music for Dirt Band fans all over the world has been an incredible experience for us. The most important part of that has been the connection to our audience—that beautiful communal give and take is like nothing else. That’s the very spirit we’ll be celebrating as we head into our farewell tour. We’re really looking forward to seeing you folks. Good times will be had by all!”
Tickets for most of the dates on the first leg of the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band All The Good Times: The Farewell Tour will go on sale on Friday, January 19th at 10 a.m. local venue time here. See below for a detailed list of tour dates.
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Nitty Gritty Dirt Band played its first gig in 1966 as a jug band in Southern California. Before the decade was up, the band had become a staple of the burgeoning country-rock movement alongside acts like Buffalo Springfield, The Byrds, Flying Burrito Brothers, and many others. The group brought this new style of twang-inspired rock with deep meaningful lyrics to national prominence in 1970 with the band’s hit cover of Jerry Jeff Walker‘s “Mr. Bojangles”.
Though other hits followed in the ’80s with “Fishin’ in The Dark”, “Modern Day Romance”, and “Long Hard Road”, the group’s biggest impact on American popular music came in 1972 with the first of the Will The Circle Be Unbroken records. The first installment of what ultimately proved a three-part series heard the Dirt Band team up with pillars of bluegrass and country like Doc Watson, Mother Maybelle Carter, Earl Scruggs, Roy Acuff, and more. The seminal recording provided a cross-generational bridge that merged rising contemporary voices with the established luminaries of yesteryear—a bridge that has continued to bring younger audiences into Americana music through the decades.
