The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band Is Coming To The Rialto

Country rock band, the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, will play the Rialto Square Theatre on Sunday, September 22 at 7:30 p.m. Tickets for the show presented by the Rialto and VenuWorks went on sale this week.

Since first bursting onto the music scene more than five decades ago in Long Beach, California, the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band has experienced several group changes. However, one thing has remained the same, and that is the quality of music that the band consistently releases. The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band is considered one of the most accomplished bands with American roots in music history.

When they first formed in 1966, the Nitty Gritty Dirty Band began as a jug band. They went on to release their debut album, The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, in 1967, with their first single “Buy for Me the Rain” becoming a Top 40 hit. However, it was three years later when the group achieved a Top 10 pop music hit with the single “Mr. Bojangles” on their fourth album, Uncle Charlie & His Dog Teddy. They continued their chart-topping success, particularly on the country music charts, with singles such as “An American Dream” and “Make a Little Magic.” From 1983 until 1990, the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band earned 16 Top 10 country music hits and even had The Eagles founding member, Bernie Leadon, join the band for a short stretch during that time period.

Over the years, the group has received numerous nominations and won a Country Music Award as well as several Grammy Awards. In 2018, the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band grew into a six-piece group for the first time since their early days. Fans of the group can look forward to seeing Jeff Hanna (acoustic guitar, electric guitar), Jimmie Fadden (drums, harmonica), Bob Carpenter (keyboards), Jim Photoglo (bass, acoustic guitar), Ross Holmes (fiddle, mandolin), and Jaime Hanna (electric and acoustic guitar) when they hit the Rialto stage in September playing a variety of their hits from over the years.

“We’re fortunate that we’ve got a deep songbook. That’s been on our list, to resurrect some of the tunes we haven’t done in a while, in addition to some new stuff,” Jaime Hanna says.