Nitty Gritty Dirt Band Announces Colorado Farewell Shows | 60 Years of Dirt

For six decades, the three-time GRAMMY® Award-winning Nitty Gritty Dirt Band has entertained audiences with top-shelf musicianship and timeless hits. Now, the time has come for the band that carried a torch for American country and roots music to say so long to the highways and byways they’ve crossed an unimaginable number of times throughout their career.

This year, Nitty Gritty Dirt Band kicked off their final traditionally scheduled run, ALL THE GOOD TIMES: The Farewell Tour, which has already received critical acclaim. This isn’t goodbye forever, but it will be the last time fans see multi-city runs and long bus rides. As 2026 arrives, so does the band’s remarkable 60th anniversary, and to celebrate, ALL THE GOOD TIMES: The Farewell Tour — 60 Years of Dirt will showcase a special slate of performances and appearances set for the year. These exceptional shows celebrate the music created by the legendary, yet ever-evolving NGDB.

And speaking of music, Nitty Gritty Dirt Band released their five-song EP Night After Night on October 24, 2025. Produced by GRAMMY® Award winner and dobro master Jerry Douglas, the EP marked the band’s first collection of all-new music since 2009’s Speed of Life, following their critically acclaimed 2022 release Dirt Does Dylan.

The title track, a Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers-esque rocker, is perfectly suited to kick off this new chapter. Produced by Douglas—who first met the Dirt Band at age 19 and went on to play on the group’s first number-one single, “Long Hard Road”—the song features Jeff Hanna’s signature, effortlessly cool vocal delivery, propelled by a freight-train groove that never lets up. “It’s right in our wheelhouse, and it’s pretty easy to tell what a blast we had playing and singing it,” Hanna says.

The EP is also a family affair. Hanna co-wrote three of the five new songs, including “Nashville Skyline,” which was penned alongside his wife, celebrated songwriter Matraca Berg, and his son and bandmate, Jaime Hanna.

Many veteran bands trade on nostalgia alone—recycling past glories and familiar emotions. The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band instead blends reimagined classics with compelling newer work. Formed in 1966 as a Long Beach, California jug band, the group scored its first charting single in 1967 and soon embarked on a self-propelled ride through folk, country, rock ’n’ roll, pop, bluegrass, and the amalgam now known as Americana.

Their first major hit came in 1971 with the epic “Mr. Bojangles,” which—along with support from banjo master Earl Scruggs—opened doors in Nashville. Behind those doors were Roy Acuff, Doc Watson, Mother Maybelle Carter, Jimmy Martin, and others who would collaborate on the multi-artist, multi-generational 1972 masterpiece Will the Circle Be Unbroken. The album went triple Platinum, spawned two later volumes, and earned a place in the Grammy Hall of Fame.

ALL THE GOOD TIMES: THE FAREWELL TOUR | 60 YEARS OF DIRT
Nitty Gritty Dirt Band

Dillon Amphitheater
135 W. Lodgepole St, Dillon, CO 80435
Tuesday, June 16, 2026

Mission Ballroom
4242 Wynkoop St, Denver, CO 80216
Thursday, June 18, 2026

Tickets on sale Friday, January 30 at 10:00 AM MTN

Was this a cutting-edge combo or a group of revivalists? Was the goal rebellion or musical piety? Yes to all of it. In the 1980s, the Dirt Band reeled off 15 straight Top 10 country hits, including chart-toppers “Long Hard Road (The Sharecropper’s Dream),” “Modern Day Romance,” and “Fishin’ in the Dark.” A second Circle album arrived in 1989, featuring John Prine, Rosanne Cash, and John Hiatt, winning two Grammy Awards and the CMA’s Album of the Year honor. Circle III followed in 2003 with collaborations including Johnny Cash, Dwight Yoakam, Emmylou Harris, and Taj Mahal.

Over the years, personnel changes have consistently brought renewed energy and new ways of approaching both old songs and fresh material. Today’s lineup expands to six members for the first time since 1968, featuring founding member Jeff Hanna, longtime harp master Jimmie Fadden, and Bob Carpenter, joined by Jim Photoglo, fiddle and mandolin wizard Ross Holmes, and Hanna’s son Jaime Hanna.

Blood harmony, thrilling instrumental flights, and undeniable stage chemistry remain central to every Dirt Band performance. A Nitty Gritty Dirt Band show is less about memory than it is about the moment—crisp as an autumn apple and rich as a royal flush.

Tickets:
Dillon Amphitheater Tickets
Mission Ballroom Tickets