* The Del McCoury Band - Inside story: Taking bluegrass to the masses
DAN FINK
* 02/19/99
York Magazine
(Copyright 1999)
It's a hectic time for Del McCoury these days. In the past year,
he switched to Ricky Skaggs' Ceili Music record label, signed on
with new management, and has not one but two records out.
* His collaboration with country rocker Steve Earle will put
McCoury on - hang onto your hat - "Late Night with Conan O'Brien."
* Bluegrass music on hip, late-night TV? What's going on here?
* York County's most famous picker and one of bluegrass music's
most honored players was typically low-key.
"I guess every music has its day," McCoury said in his folksy
drawl. "I've been around it since the '40s. I was never a big
promoter. I just like to play and make records."
At age 60, he's playing and making records as well as ever. He
* and his band have won a slew of International Bluegrass Music
Association awards in the past decade.
Now comes the collaboration with Earle. The two men met about
four years ago, and McCoury and his band recorded a cut on Earle's
* 1997 bluegrass-flavored "El Corazon" album. About a year ago, Earle
* and McCoury talked about another bluegrass record, one that would
pay tribute to the spirit of the legendary Bill Monroe.
"He said he wanted me and the boys to work on it with him, so I
said sure," McCoury said. "We never thought it would be so quick,
though. A couple of months later, he came back to us with a bunch
of songs, and we did 'em. He's fast. And I admire him, too. He's a
great songwriter."
The result is "The Mountain," the latest in a series of records
from Earle to be heaped with critical praise. The record is due out
this month and Earle and the Del McCoury Band will head out on a
world tour at the end of March.
First, though, come a few local appearances. Saturday, Del and
* the boys will be at the Strand (minus Earle) to headline Bluegrass
'99. Joining McCoury for two shows will be Doyle Lawson and
Quicksilver and the Lewis Family.
This weekend, PBS's "Sessions at West 54th" will feature a
performance of Earle and the band taped in New York last October
(see it at midnight Sunday on WITF-TV). Rolling Stone's America
Online Country Web site described the show as an "inspiring summit
* between the genre-busting Earle and the finest bluegrass ensemble in
the world."
Next month, the Earle-McCoury tour kicks off with four sold-out
shows in Nashville starting March 3. They make a stop in
Philadelphia at the Theater of Living Arts on March 16 and squeeze
in the appearance with Conan O'Brien on the 19th. Then they'll be
on the road through at least June.
* Bill Knowlton, host of "Bluegrass Ramble," a weekly music program
on public radio station WCNY-FM in Syracuse, N.Y., said McCoury and
Skaggs are nudging the music into the mainstream.
* "They are kickin' butt in bluegrass right now," Knowlton said.
"Del is the one making records. He's the one making the personal
* appearances. He's bringing bluegrass to newer audiences, and he's
* doing it while keeping the traditional bluegrass sound."
It's all a far cry from the little farmhouse McCoury grew up in
near Glenville in southern York County. Del and his brothers, Jerry
and G.C., all learned to play music, thanks to their parents, Grover
Cleveland and Hazel.
"My dad was a good singer, but my mother had the instrument
talent," Jerry McCoury said. "She played guitar, piano and a pretty
good harmonica. Still plays harmonica a little bit."
G.C. taught Del to play guitar, and they played together in a
quartet while Del was still in his teens.
That was right around the time Monroe added the legendary
* guitar-banjo combo of Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs to his Bluegrass
Boys band.
That band - Monroe singing and playing mandolin, Flatt on guitar,
Scruggs on five-string banjo, Chubby Wise on fiddle and Cedric
Rainwater on bass - is generally credited with inventing the
* bluegrass sound: several acoustic string instruments, with lots of
bluesy harmonies, fast tempos and high-pitched vocals.
* "People say that was kind of the classic bluegrass band," Del
McCoury said. "They set the standard. That's what made me want to
do music."
After graduating from Spring Grove High School in 1956, McCoury
* played in a couple of different bluegrass bands as a banjo player
* before heading to Nashville to hook up with Monroe and the Bluegrass
Boys in 1963.
Two years later, with his wife Jean homesick for Pennsylvania, he
came back to York County. Initially, he worked in a sawmill through
the week and played music on the weekends. During the 1980s,
McCoury became more of a full-time musician, but he continued to
live on the farm near Glen Rock. About seven years ago, he packed
up the whole family - wife Jean, daughter Rhonda and sons Ron and
Robbie - and moved to Nashville.
The two boys were in the band full-time by then, and the lineup
* has slowly become the most honored band in bluegrass.
They averaged about 100 shows a year the past few years, but that
could soon be changing. Ricky Skaggs' record label has introduced
McCoury to a whole new level of commercial success. Skaggs used his
* track record in country music - he was a country superstar before he
* began concentrating on bluegrass - to build a distribution network
for his new label.
"With Ricky's label, it's been really good," McCoury said. "They
told me: Before you even record one song, I'll have 30,000 records
sold for you. I'd never had that with any record I'd ever done."
More records, bigger crowds, different venues - that part of it
is all new, and he's enjoying it. But the music hasn't changed.
"This is what I've always been doing," he said. "As long as I'm
able to to do this, I will."
