60 years of Americana: Nitty Gritty Dirt Band’s farewell tour hits Park City

Nitty Gritty Dirt Band members Jim Photoglo, Bob Carpenter, Jimmie Fadden, Jeff Hanna, Jaime Hanna, Ross Holmes, pictured left to right, will perform at Canyons Village, August 10. Photo: Joshua Britt and Neilson Hubbard

For nearly six decades, the three-time Grammy-winning  Nitty Gritty Dirt Band  has entertained audiences with their top-shelf musicianship and timeless hits. On Saturday, their ALL THE GOOD TIMES: Farewell Tour makes a stop at Canyons Village—part of Park City Institutes Concerts on the Slopes series.

PARK CITY, Utah – Things have come full circle for Ross Holmes, who, at 40, is the youngest member of the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band (NGDB). Holmes, the band’s fiddle and mandolin player, was just a boy when his father showed him how to lay a record on the turntable at his grandmother’s house growing up in Fort Worth, Texas. 

“I remember that so vividly. I remember the album cover and the white background with the Civil War General and the handwriting of all the names of the guests on the album,” Holmes recalled in a recent interview with TownLift.

That album was the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band’s hit collaboration, “Will the Circle be Unbroken.” Released in 1972, it went triple platinum, spawned two later volumes, and wound up in the Grammy Hall of Fame. It featured many famous bluegrass and country-and-western artists like Earl Scruggs and Mother Maybelle Carter and would help define a genre of music for years to come.  

For Holmes, who played in other popular bands like Cadillac Sky, a band he started with Brian Simpson and Matt Menefee— fellow Texans—as well as Mumford and Sons and Bruce Hornsby before joining the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band in 2018, the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band was that formative sound whose presence has influenced not only him but arguably hundreds of musicians for decades over time and across musical genres.

“Throughout my career, and in Americana bluegrass folk music, their presence has been felt. For me to be a part of this group that is arguably the Genesis story of Americana music as we know it, makes it a very rich story for me personally,” Holmes said.

Joining Holmes in 2018 and adding to the circular quality that the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band has come to embody is Jaime Hanna, son of founding member Jeff Hanna. The father-son duo has added yet another layer to the band’s core authenticity and progression.

Fast-forward to today—many albums and chart-topping songs later, and the NGDB and a grown-up Holmes will be bringing the ALL THE GOOD TIMES: The Farewell Tour to Park City. The show at Canyons Village is on Saturday, August 10, and is part of Park City Institute’s Concert on the Slopes Series.

The Farewell Tour, which kicked off in March of 2024, will bring nostalgia to many fans as the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band winds down its live performances, but according to Holmes, the band might be playing its best live music ever.

“I think the plan is to hit May of 2026, which will be 60 years as a band, which is, oh my god, it’s so impressive. But also I contend that at this point the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band might be the strongest version of this band in its entire history. I think this is the strongest it’s ever been, and that’s an amazing thing to go out on such a high note. No pun intended,” Holmes said.

In contemplating the longevity that the NGDB has achieved, paired with the band’s sustained creativity over decades, Holmes attributed success on both fronts to creating a sense of familiarity in music for their fans and also to being able to negotiate conflict, growth, moments of triumph, and failure.

“This group has really excelled at navigating moments with sort of a familial, almost like blood-relative approach,” Holmes said.

The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band is one of a handful of bands that has had success across genres in rock, pop and country, which Holmes said has kept their interest in music going. He also noted the role fans have played for them over the years, bringing the band energy and a sense of purpose.

“When you have a purpose for continuing, when you feel like people are actually gaining something from the music, not just the entertainment factor, but they’re leaving the shows feeling like, wow, that affected me in some way. It drives you to keep going. It’s definitely a powerful nuclear reactor at the center for all of us at this point,” Holmes said.

The Park City show will draw on a well of Nitty Gritty Dirt Band favorites to acknowledge the hits that the band has had, but they’ll also play songs off the beaten path that Holmes says they just enjoy playing. The band is having fun tapping into gems that challenge them as players and singers and putting sets together that will give audiences a concert to remember. Holmes said that original band members Jeff Hannah and Jimmy Fadden might be playing at their best ever since starting the band in 1966.

“The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band has defined their lives. It’s an amazing thing to watch them with great love and passion, get up there night after night, knowing this is the, you know, the final chapter of such a storied group,” Holmes said.