The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band has scheduled a May 6 stop at the CN Centre as part of the All the Good Times: The Farewell Tour.
This will be the band's final full-length tour — a 100-day run — but they promise it won’t be the last you hear from the legendary, long-running group.
The lineup features co-founders Jeff Hanna (lead vocals, guitar) and Jimmie Fadden (drums, harmonica, vocals), along with Bob Carpenter (keyboards, vocals), a member since 1980; Jim Photoglo (bass, vocals); Jaime Hanna (guitar, vocals); and Ross Holmes (fiddle, mandolin, vocals).
Since its beginnings in 1966, the band has won three Grammy Award winners and has performed with the likes of Tommy Emmanuel, Keith Urban, Dierks Bentley and Linda Ronstadt.
Six decades of music and memories will be celebrated on the tour, with timeless hits like Mr. Bojangles, Fishin' in the Dark, An American Dream, and many more.
The Citizen spoke with longtime band member Carpenter about the upcoming tour and what inspired their unique farewell to life on the road.
“It feels a lot better than it felt in 2020 when we thought we were done because of COVID. That was our farewell day,” said Carpenter. “We all got off stage and ran home for a year and a half. So at least this way it feels like we're finally tying things up. We're still in the studio recording new tracks and stuff. We're still alive. It's just that we're not going to do 100 days on the road anymore. We're done with these long bus tours … We've been doing it for a long time and it's really fun. We're just going to sort of tie this thing up in a little bow while we can still do this to the best of our abilities.”
Currently, the band is 20 days into the tour and excited to come to Canada, a country they’ve grown to love over more than 60 years of performing.
“I'll tell you what, we've never had a bad gig up in Canada,” said Carpenter. “We love coming up there. We've been coming up there since, what, ’82 or something like that. And we've played all over the place. We've played all over the East, but mostly we've been out West the most. And it's always fun for us. We love coming up there.”
Carpenter said his favourite part of touring is performing, and he especially enjoys interacting with fans across the country and around the world.
“The rest of it's just work,” he said. “Sitting on planes or running to airports or waiting for your run to be ready or the bus breaking down — all that fun stuff.”
He added that his favourite part of performing is helping fans forget their problems, if only for a few hours.
“We do it to be on stage and play music for people and see their happy faces,” said Carpenter. “They can forget about whatever when they come into the venue to hear us and forget about all that stuff for a while. Because that's what we do too. We have all the same problems in our lives as other people have. We have a home life and we have families and we have other things we have to deal with. But when we're on stage, it all goes away for a couple of hours.”
Carpenter emphasized that without the fans, their impressive six-decade career would never have been possible — a fact they’re deeply grateful for.
“This is an unprecedented run in a career for any band,” he said. “There were a lot of things that contributed to it, but the number one thing that contributed to it was the people — our fans — because if they don't come to the shows, we don't tour anymore. Now we've been very lucky as far as having stuff on the radio that exposed the fans to our music. But still, you know, if nobody wants to come, you don't have a career.”
Despite many changes in both their lives and the music industry, Carpenter said one thing has remained constant.
“It always feels good to sing and play — that’s why we’ve ended up doing it as a career,” he said. “Everything around it, except for the music and the experience of playing live music on stage, has changed. The travel’s changed, all the electronic things that help you travel have changed. So much of it has changed. The buses haven’t changed though — they still break down like they used to.
“But as far as everything else, the way that you reach your fans has changed. Social media has changed, but that’s all things other than the music… So all that’s changed. But the experience of getting on stage and playing has not changed at all.”
After the tour ends, Carpenter said the band still plans to make more music — though the details remain uncertain.
“As usual with us, it's a matter of our health,” he said. “As long as everybody stays healthy, we'll see what the future holds. I have no idea, but we're not gonna hop on the bus for 100 days a year, that's all I know… We're just one foot in front of the other. We've never planned more than six months ahead ever in this band. So we'll get to the end of the year and we’ll see what happens.”
Tickets for the May 6 show are available at Tickets North.
