Center for the Performing Arts

Empire State Plaza • Albany, New York
The Egg Presents: Nitty Gritty Dirt Band

The Egg Presents: Nitty Gritty Dirt Band

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Music Sunday, April 19 2026 • 8:00pm •VIP $285, $235 | $85, $65, $55, $45–+$5 day of show

Part of the Egg Presents Series

ALL THE GOOD TIMES: The Farewell Tour – 60 Years of Dirt

Opening performance by Meels

For nearly six decades, the three-time GRAMMY® Award-winning Nitty Gritty Dirt Band has entertained audiences with their top-shelf musicianship and timeless hits. Now the time has come for the band who has 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.

On March 21, 2024, Nitty Gritty Dirt Band kicked off the first of its last traditionally scheduled gigs, ALL THE GOOD TIMES: The Farewell Tour, which has received critical acclaim. This isn’t goodbye forever, but it will be the last fans see of multi-city runs and long bus rides. As 2026 approaches, so does the band’s remarkable 60th Anniversary, and to celebrate, NGDB’s ALL THE GOOD TIMES: The Farewell Tour — 60 Years of Dirt will show-case a special slate of performances and appearances set for 2026, including a 60th Anniversary Celebration of the band’s formation (to the day) on May 13, 2026 at the Grand Ole Opry House in Nashville, Tennessee. These exceptional shows celebrate the music created by the legendary, yet ever-evolving NGDB.

And speaking of music, Nitty Gritty Dirt Band has a new 5-song EP, Night After Night, produced by GRAMMY® Award winner and dobro master Jerry Douglas, releasing Oct. 24, 2025. The new single title track—a Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers-esque rocker—is perfectly suited to kick off their release of all-new music since 2009’s Speed of Life and follow-up their critically-acclaimed 2022 release, Dirt Does Dylan. “Night After Night,” produced by fellow Grammy-winner and dobro master Jerry Douglas—who first met the Dirt Band at the age of 19 and went on to play on the group’s first number one single, “Long Hard Road”—features Jeff Hanna’s signature, every-cool vocal delivery while the freight train groove of the band 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 exclaims. The new EP is a family affair for Hanna, who co-wrote three of the new songs. “Nashville Skyline” was co-written by Hanna, his wife and celebrated song-writer, Matraca Berg, and his son and bandmate, Jaime Hanna.

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Many veteran bands trade on nostalgia, on replication of past glories, and on recycled emotions from younger, more carefree days. The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band trades on a mix of reimagined classics and compelling newer works. The group formed in 1966 as a Long Beach, California jug band, scored its first charting single in 1967, and embarked on a self-propelled ride through folk, country, rock ‘n’ roll, pop, blue- grass, and the amalgam now known as “Americana.” The first major hit came in 1971 with the epic “Mr. Bojangles,” which, along with insistent support from banjo master Earl Scruggs, opened doors in Nashville. Behind those doors were Earl Scruggs, Roy Acuff, Doc Watson, Mother Maybelle Carter, Jimmy Martin, and others who would collaborate on a multi-artist, multi-generational, three-disc 1972 masterpiece: Will the Circle Be Unbroken went triple Platinum, spawned two later volumes, and wound up in the Grammy Hall of Fame. Was this a cutting-edge combo or a group of revivalists? Was the goal rebellion or musical piety? Yes, to all these things. 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” (co-written by Jim Pho-toglo, who would join the band in the second decade of the new century). 1989 brought a second Circle album, this one featuring singer-songwriter talents including John Prine, Rosanne Cash, and John Hiatt and garnering two Grammy awards for the band (it later won another, for a collaboration with Earl Scruggs and other fine folks). Circle II also won the Country Music Association’s Album of the Year prize. Circle III was released in 2003, featur-ing collaborations with Johnny Cash, Dwight Yoakam, Emmylou Harris, Taj Mahal, and more. Throughout the group’s lifetime, personnel has changed, with each change resulting in positive steps forward, new ways of playing the old songs, and renewed enthusiasm for writing and recording fresh material. The latest Dirt Band lineup is expanded to six members for the first time since 1968. Today’s group consists of founding member Jeff Hanna, harp master Jimmie Fadden (who joined in 1966), and soulful-voiced Bob Carpenter, who has more than 40 years of service in the ensemble. Those veterans are now joined by singer-songwriter-bass man Jim Photoglo, fiddle and mandolin wizard Ross Holmes, and Hanna’s son, the preternaturally talented singer and guitarist Jaime Hanna. Blood harmony, thrilling instrumental flights, undeniable stage chemistry … these things are part of each Dirt Band show, just as they are part of Dirt Does Dylan, the first recording from the reconfigured, six-strong group released in 2022. Produced by Ray Kennedy and Jeff Hanna, it’s a remarkable ride through some of the most impactful songs of the past century, penned by Bob Dylan and taken for a blue highway spin by a great American band, with help from genius-level contemporary artists like Jason Isbell and The War and Treaty. A Dirt Band show is unlike any other. For legions of fans, it’s less about the memories than the moment, crisp as an Autumn apple and rich as a royal flush.

Meels
Singer-songwriter Meels grew up among the redwoods of Northern California, where music was as constant as the ocean air. Born Amelia Einhorn and raised in Mill Valley, she was steeped in the sounds of John Denver, Iris DeMent, The Beatles, and Peter, Paul and Mary. After studying Recorded Music at NYU’s Clive Davis Institute, she began shaping a sound all her own—one that blends folk, country, and bluegrass into what she calls “Critter Country.”

Her debut EP, Tales from a Bird’s Bedroom (2024), introduced her as a striking new voice in indie folk, praised by Earmilk for its “rich sonics, evocative storytelling, and expressive vocal lines.” Since returning to the West Coast, Meels has shared stages with Carter Faith, Molly Tuttle, Margo Price, Old Crow Medicine Show and Nitty Gritty Dirt Band.

Recent EP Across The Raccoon Strait (via Lost Highway) showcases her signature mix of humor, heart, and vulnerability—turning personal stories into universal anthems. Inspired by Johnny Cash, Joan Baez, Paul McCartney, and John Prine, Meels writes with the warmth of an old soul and the curiosity of a new one.

Kicking off 2026 on tour with Kaitlin Butts, Waylon Wyatt and The Brudi Brothers, Meels continues building her world of “Critter Country”—where nostalgia meets honesty, and every song feels like home.