the hum / By Bob Doran

Keeper of the Flame

Del McCoury, plus festival excess and music from Outside

(Aug. 27, 2009)  Bluegrass legend Del McCoury was at his home in Hendersonville, Tenn. “About a 15-minute drive out of downtown Nashville, out in the country,” as he put it. Speaking of his life in music, he spun a long winding tale about growing up on a farm up in York County, Penn., and hearing Bill Monroe and others play regularly on radio broadcast from the Grand Ole Opry. He and his older brother eventually started a band. What kind? It’s not hard to guess.

“It was always a bluegrass band,” said McCoury. “Always a bluegrass band.”

The Del McCoury Band.

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Of course today, any band with a banjo or a mandolin might be called a bluegrass band, but for McCoury it’s pretty specific. “You know, I’ve been with this music a long time, and I worked for Bill Monroe back in ’63. I was his lead singer and guitar player — that’s a long story because before I went with him I was a banjo player … But as to my idea of bluegrass music, well, Bill, he created it … I think he had a certain thing in mind. I think he was looking for a sound.”

Monroe found the high lonesome sound he was looking for, but it wasn’t called bluegrass, at least not at first. “I think more than anything they called it ‘hillbilly music,’” said McCoury. “Most of the artists that played on the Opry at that time, they called it hillbilly music. And you know, Bill Monroe didn’t name his music bluegrass. Deejays and people like that characterized it that way, and by the time I went to work for him in 1963, it was well established that his music was ‘bluegrass.’

“I grew up on his stuff. When he wanted me to sing with him, I believed I could do it, but I wondered if I could play with him. I’d heard his timing was really great and I worried about my own. The bands I’d been with before, their timing wasn’t always that great. But it turned out that was the easiest thing, playing timing with Bill Monroe. It felt so good. And he was just playing on top of the beat, that’s all he was doing.”

With Monroe long gone, McCoury and his band have become keepers of the bluegrass flame. “I’ll tell you, the first time I heard this music, it was banjo, fiddle, mandolin, guitar and bass. And I never changed that,” said Del, “it’s exactly those instruments that I have in my band. In other words I stick to the traditional sound, but at the same time, I’ve recorded songs that people would say are not traditional bluegrass songs. But then Bill Monroe did the same thing.”

If you have even a passing interest in bluegrass, you’ll want to catch the Del McCoury Band with Del’s sons, Ronnie and Rob, when they come to town Sunday, Aug. 30, for the extremelyeclectic Organic Planet Festival. Check our calendar section for complete O-Planet details. For more of the Del McCoury interview see the North Coast Journal Blogthing.

Sunday’s OP-fest is part of a plethora of weekend music choices, including a couple of other festivals. Due to a combination of factors — Labor Day weekend, HSU back in session, etc. — promoters are bringing far too much music to town for our small market to absorb. As a result, one fest, the “Live on the County Line” alt. country show featuring Dwight Yoakam, was cancelled due to poor advance sales.

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