Nitty Gritty Dirt Band at Northern Alberta Jubilee Auditorium Tickets

The 1966-founded Nitty Gritty Dirt Band plays country rock. The Long Beach, California-based band has changed a lot throughout 1976–1981. Singer-guitarist Jeff Hanna and drummer Jimmie Fadden are the last remaining original members. John McEuen, a multi-instrumentalist, played with the band from 1966 until 1986, rejoined in 2001, and left again in November 2017. In 1977, keyboardist Bob Carpenter joined.

The band helped modern country and roots music evolve with hits that include "Mr. Bojangles" by Jerry Jeff Walker, and the albums, Will the Circle be Unbroken, from 1972 featuring Mother Maybelle Carter, Earl Scruggs, Roy Acuff, Doc Watson, Merle Travis, and Jimmy Martin. Will the Circle Be Unbroken: Volume Two, released in 1989, was certified gold, won two Grammys, and was voted Country Music Association Album of the Year.

Nitty Gritty Dirt Band's 50th anniversary event at Nashville's Ryman Auditorium sold out in September 2015. The March 2016 PBS special, produced by Todd Squared, the creators of Bluegrass Underground (now The Caverns Sessions), included former member Ibbotson, John Prine, Sam Bush, Vince Gill, Jerry Jeff Walker, Alison Krauss, Rodney Crowell, Byron House, Jerry Douglas, and Jackson Browne. Circlin' Back: Celebrating 50 Years, a live CD and DVD of the PBS Special, was released on September 30, 2016. The initial release "helped smash down walls then dividing the conventional country and rock music communities, laying the way for the eventual birth of what came to be known as Americana music," according to a 2016 Los Angeles Times review.