Bob Carpenter refers to himself and the two founding members of the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band as the βOG.β
No, not the βoriginal gangstasβ
Old guys.
An unapologetic reference to the fact the trio are all sliding into the back end of their 70s.
The idea of being on the road 200 days a year, something the legendary roots-Americana band has done for most of its 58 years, hasnβt been appealing for some time now.
So, in March, the band set out on its final road trip.
βAll the Good Times: The Farewell Tourβ will wind its way throughout the country over the next year or more; it pulls into Fox Tucson Theatre on Sunday, Aug. 18.
βWeβre going to take it easy and weβre going to visit all these places once and ease into our 60th anniversary (in 2026) and that will be it,β Carpenter said during a phone call from his Southern California home last week. βThis is the beginning of the end. We are letting people know that if we come to your town right now, this is it; weβre not coming back. ... Weβre going to hit these places one last time.β
βWeβre not going to do any more of these long bus tours,β he added. βIn fact, weβre crossing our fingers that we will be able to make it to our 60th (anniversary). Thatβs why we started to say goodbye now because you just never know when itβs going to be the last show.β
Jeff Hanna and Jimmie Fadden started the Dirt in 1966 in Long Beach, California, as a jug band covering folk music in the style of Hannaβs hero at the time, Bob Dylan. Early band members included Jackson Browne, Bruce Kunkel, Ralph Barr and Les Thompson, with Carpenter coming on full-time in 1979.
The band released its first single, βBuy for Me the Rain,β in 1967 and by 1970, its sound took on elements of rock, country and pop. They had their first big pop hit in 1970 with a cover of Jerry Jeff Walkerβs βMr. Bojangles.β In the 1980s, they scored soft rock hits with βAn American Dreamβ and βMake A Little Magic,β and landed on the country charts with βDance Little Jean,β βLong Hard Road (The Sharecropperβs Dream),β βModern Day Romanceβ and, arguably their biggest and most enduring hit, βFishinβ in the Dark,β which topped the charts.
But one of the bandβs crowning achievements was its series of collaborative country albums βWill the Circle Be Unbroken.β The first of three was released in 1972, featuring a cast of famous bluegrass and country players, including Roy Acuff, Maybelle Carter, Doc Watson and Earl Scruggs. Volume II, released in 1989, won a trio of Grammys and the Country Music Associationβs Album of the Year.
Volume III in 2002, featuring Iris DeMent, Sam Bush, Dwight Yoakam, Tom Petty, Vince Gill and Taj Mahal among the dozens of participants, reached No. 18 on the Billboard country charts.
The bandβs most recent album, 2022βs βDirt Does Dylan,β takes them back to founder Hannaβs original inspiration.
The band β which includes bass player Jim Photoglo, who co-wrote βFishinβ in the Darkβ; Hannaβs son, Jaime; and fiddler Ross Holmes β started working on the album during the pandemic, thinking it would be a four- or five-week project. They had been playing Dylan songs for decades, so βit was a natural thing for us to go in and do his songs our way,β Carpenter said.
But the pandemic pushed the project to a year and a half, he said.
The pandemic also got the band to thinking about leaving the road. When they were forced a few shows into the year in 2020 to shut down, they wondered βif we were ever going to perform live again,β Carpenter said.
βWe just donβt want to disappear and they go, βWhat happened to these guys?β βWell they donβt tour any more.β So we just want to let people know because we want to go out there and have our fans and thank them for the last 58 years, which is really whatβs kept us all alive,β he said.
Not that they plan to get day jobs once the tour bus pulls into the garage for the final time, Carpenter said.
βWeβre still going to be active in the music business, itβs just weβre not going to go out and drag our butts around the country 10, 11 months a year,β he said. βCanβt do it; wonβt do it.β
Sundayβs concert begins at 7 p.m. at the Fox, 17 W. Congress. Tickets are $20 to $85 through foxtucson.com.