Bob Carpenter

He grew up in Philadelphia, singing in church with his family, and took up the accordion at four after watching The Lawrence Welk Show; he still played the accordion his parents bought him in 1951 on stage. He went to California in the late 1960s and moved to Colorado in 1969, where he met the Dirt Band after it relocated there from Long Beach, and through the 1970s he wrote songs for the band and played on its albums.

As a member from 1980 he played keyboards and accordion and sang, through hits such as “Make a Little Magic” (with Nicolette Larson) and “Fishin’ in the Dark” (1987). On Will the Circle Be Unbroken: Volume Two (1989), recorded at Scruggs Sound in Nashville, he sang lead with Emmylou Harris on “Riding Alone,” which he wrote with Jeff Hanna and Richard Hathaway, and took verses on John Prine’s “Grandpa Was a Carpenter” with New Grass Revival and on the band-written “Blues Berry Hill.” The album won three Grammys, among them Best Bluegrass Recording for “The Valley Road” with Bruce Hornsby, his own favorite of the band’s recordings, and he said his work with Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson and Harris came through the Circle albums. He also recorded on Volume III (2002).

Away from the band he did sessions in California, including keyboards on a Quiet Riot album and accordion on a live album by Steve Vai. In March 2020 the Dirt Band, by then Jeff Hanna, Jimmie Fadden and Carpenter with Jim Photoglo, Ross Holmes and Jaime Hanna, began Dirt Does Dylan; finished after the pandemic and released in 2022, it has Carpenter singing “I Shall Be Released” with Rebecca and Megan Lovell of Larkin Poe and sharing the verses of “Forever Young.” In 2024 he toured with the band on its All the Good Times farewell tour.