‘An American Dream’: Grammy Award-winning Nitty Gritty Dirt Band ready to say goodbye on farewell tour stopping in Spokane
As the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band rolls through Spokane on their farewell tour, longtime member and keyboardist Bob Carpenter has not had much opportunity to reflect on the band’s nearly 60-year history.
The group has been touring for decades, and although Carpenter will be the first to say that playing 100 or more shows a year has grown increasingly difficult, it is primary lifestyle he knows.
The farewell tour is a very intentional one, stemming from the fears of 2020. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band spent over a year off the road and were left in a sense of limbo, not fully knowing if they’d perform together again.
“It was weird to sort of disappear,” Carpenter said, “so we want to take this opportunity to give folks in all the places we’re playing one last chance to see the band live and say thank you for all the years of support. I mean, they’ve supported this band for 59 years now.”
The Grammy Award-winning country/country-rock group was initially founded in Long Beach, California, in May 1966, but relocated to Colorado during the early 1970s. Carpenter had his own band in the area and ended up having the same manager as the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, who he started doing songwriting sessions with. Over the years, Carpenter took over more responsibilities until becoming a full-time member in 1980.
Fast-forward to the present day and Carpenter has seen a solid chunk of the world and the United States a few times over with the band he now considers family. He had toured with multiple groups before joining the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, but never to this extent.
“I think it expands your consciousness, makes you a kinder, more benevolent person when you can relate to other people across the world and across the United States,” Carpenter said.
Carpenter is more than grateful for the lifestyle the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band has granted him, the kind that a young accordion-playing, high school choir-singing kid never imagined. But as the farewell tour marches forward, he has yet to grasp the idea of a true goodbye.
Carpenter cites the rigors of tour as the cause for a lack of internal processing.
“You’ve got to do all this stuff … because you’re all focused on doing a great show for two hours, and that’s what takes your energy,” Carpenter said. “You don’t have time to reflect on anything … when you’re in it I mean that’s what you’re focused on.”
Nonetheless, Carpenter’s sheer love for the music, his bandmates and the beauty of a loving crowd having a great time have kept him out on the road – the same road that will take the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band to the Spokane Tribe Casino (alongside Little Feat) on Saturday.
“When we play like Fishin’ in the Dark and (Mr.) Bojangles, I mean people just light up, it’s great,” Carpenter said. “That’s what they come to hear and it’s great to sort of be able to hit those home runs for them when they come to the ballpark.”