THE DEL McCOURY BAND
GROUP MEMBERS: Del McCoury (guitar), Ronnie McCoury (mandolin), Rob McCoury (banjo), Jason Carter (fiddle), Alan Bartram (upright bass).
BIO HERE
ALBUM: "The Company We Keep"
LABEL: McCoury Music/Sugar Hill
RELEASE DATE: July 12, 2005
PRODUCERS: Del and Ronnie McCoury
HEAR HERE.
TOUR DATES HERE
WEB SITE: delmccouryband.com
PAUSE & PLAY: In addition to bluegrass, "The Company We Keep" mixes blues, folk and rock. Was it hard to pull off without alienating bluegrass purists?
DEL McCOURY: "I never really thought about it, alienating any of the bluegrass people. I just picked songs that I liked when I heard them. Cause I've always done that, record songs that I liked and I guess I really never thought about where they came from, whether they came from blues, or folk or rock or whatever. There are some in there that are really kind of hardcore bluegrass, too, especially 'Mountain Song.' It is true. They do come from everywhere. But you know I've never had any of the bluegrass people complain about what we record so, they could, though this time. Who knows? I guess the answer is I never really thought about it."
P&P: Some of the themes on the album center on appreciating what you got, putting family first. What's the secret to keeping your family act together for so long?
McCOURY: "You know, I don't know if there is a secret or not. I'm not really that hard to get along with. Probably if I was really that hard to get along with, they would have left me before now. The band that is, the boys. They have always been satisfied to play my type of music and years ago I thought it's a possibility that at any time they'll take a notion to do their own thing. I kind of kept that in my mind for a long time, that at any time they could just take off and leave and start something of their own. But they really never did that. And I think they are actually satisfied with what they're doing here, you know, with me. I guess in the later years, I think, I've probably thought about putting the family first more than I did in the earlier years. Then I started thinking about their future. Where before, I guess I thought well, I better do what I want to do because you never know what they want to do. They might wind up - you know how kids are - you can't predict what kids will do. But now that they are older, I can tell their heart is in it. I never really forced them to play. I taught them the basic things in the beginning on their instruments, you know, the basic thing that you have to know to play. But then after that, after they learned that, I could tell they were starting to play a lot of their own things. Then I didn't direct them anymore after that."
P&P: Tell us about your performance at the Newport Folk Festival on Aug. 6, your first time there since 1963.
McCOURY: "You know I was really looking forward to that, but I didn't realize that the festival had moved. When I got there, I thought, boy, I don't remember anything here. I asked somebody and they asked what year I played it last. And I told him it was 1963 and he said, 'Oh yeah, we're a long way from that one.' I had a lot of anxiety about it because I thought that was really an important thing for me back then when I was playing with Bill Monroe because it was the first time I had ever played any major thing like. That year with Bill, I played all sorts of places I never dreamed of playing on my own. And to go back there was really an exciting thing since the only time I ever played it was in 1963, until now. And so I was really looking forward to it and it was great thing because I got to meet Richard Thompson and we had a lot of bluegrass fans there. We did a show before Richard and, of course, I had requests from the audience to do 'The Vincent Black Lightning' and so I thought, well I got to do it. I kind of thought maybe I should let Richard sing it, but they wanted me to so I sang it and then he did too later on his show and I heard him mention that we had recorded it. That was probably the highlight of the festival."
P&P: "O Brother, Where Art Thou?" exposed bluegrass to millions. Has the renewed popularity continued?
McCOURY: "I'm sure 'O Brother, Where Art Thou?' really boosted the exposure of bluegrass to a lot of people cause I think they probably saw the movie and then they came just to see what this is all about, even if they weren't bluegrass fan. They were just coming to that show just to see what it was all about. A lot of folks that we play to now they say, well, the first time we ever saw you was at the Down From the Mountain Tour. So, we gained a lot of fans through that and once you gain a fan, if you're lucky, you can keep 'em. And we've been pretty fortunate to be able to keep the ones that we gain. I know on my part it was a great boost."
P&P: Is it true there is a Del McCoury bobble head?
McCOURY: "Yeah ... I'd never even thought of anything like this, but we have one. And I guess the guy that had the first idea for it was our booking agent, Bobby Cudd, and I thought, a bobble head, what's he talking about? I remember seeing these little dolls in the car window, but we have one now and it's for sale on the Web site. We had 500 made and I signed and numbered every one of them. It was a little strange seeing this little army of Del's sitting there. I can't figure anyone would want one of those things but maybe they do (laugh)."
P&P: For someone who has never been to the Grand Ole Opry, what's a typical night like?
McCOURY: "A typical night at the Opry is like what I heard it called years ago, 'an organized confusion.' It's funny, it's a show that's not really down pat or rehearsed, really that much and I think that's the good part about it. It's really loose and it's spontaneous. I know when we go there a lot of times we never know what we're going to do. Sometimes we walk out of the dressing room and we still don't know what we're going to do. And I think the spontaneity is really good about the Opry. I'm sure some people know exactly what they are going to do when they walk out on stage, but a lot of people don't either. I think Vince Gill just goes out there and does whatever comes to mind. And it comes out so good. And a lot of times we're the same way. I mean, we know we're going to do songs that we have recorded, but we don't know which ones they're going to be. There is a lady there that comes in the dressing room and she's supposed to write these songs in order before you ever go on, and she says 'You haven't figured out what you're going to do yet, have ya?' She's funny, you know. But we really don't sometimes and you can expect a really professional show, though. If you come to the Grand Ole Opry and I'll tell you, you are never going to know who to expect there, because some of the really big stars could just walk on stage any time."
P&P: Out-of-left-field question: Which do you dread more: a trip to the dentist or to the doctor?
McCOURY: "I believe, I think I probably dread the doctor more than the dentist because I know if I go to the dentist he is either going to fill a tooth or pull a tooth or clean a tooth, but if you go to the doctor you never know what to expect, you know what they're going to find because I'm 66 now and I don't like surprises at a doctor's office. Which I don't, I haven't had any yet. I'm in pretty good health. But I would have to say that I would dread the doctor more than the dentist. And I don't mind dentists sticking needles in there ... it don't bother me."
P&P: What's the first record you ever bought?
McCOURY: "You know, I don't remember. I'll tell you what, when I was a kid, I was 11 years old I think, when my older brother had a job, see I was just working there at home on the farm and I really didn't make any money. We never made money till we left home. And my brother, I guess he got a job, he had gotten married and got a job and he could buy records and he bought all kinds of records. After a while, I'd get to listen to what he bought and, of course, then later on it seemed I was never a big record buyer. I'm sure I bought some and I can't remember what they were. I know they were bluegrass, probably Bill Monroe ... a Bill Monroe record and it might have been 'Knee Deep in Bluegrass,' which was his first long play album. In the middle '50s, they started putting out long play albums and they called them LPs and I think his first one was 'Knee Deep in Bluegrass' and that might have been the first one that I bought. And it may have been one of the only ones that I bought because it wasn't too long after that till I started playing with him and traveling and didn't really have enough time to listen to things. But then after I got married, I bought a few, but they didn't impress me like the first thing that Bill Monroe did or first thing of Flatt & Scruggs."
P&P: What's the first concert you ever went to?
McCOURY: "Oh, that's really going back. The one that I remember, probably better than any other would have been around 1950. My sister had a job and a car and there was a drive-in theater, you know. They were big in the '50s and '60s, those drive-in theaters. It was a place for kids to go to. So she was going to this drive-in theater and I found out that Bill Monroe was going to play there and back in those days they'd have a movie, then they would have a band play on top of the refreshment stand. They put a microphone up there and they'd stand on the roof of the refreshment stand and play music. And it would come through the speakers into the car. Oh man, when I found out that Bill Monroe was going to be there, that was my first concert. ... I don't think I ever went to a theater to see a band or anything. It was usually outdoor things in those days. ... In the summer of 1950, that's it. I would have been 11. It seems a lot of things happened to me at right about that time. I started playing when I was 9. My oldest brother, G.C., taught me to play guitar when I was 9. And then I heard Earl Scruggs and that changed everything for me and, of course, I knew Bill Monroe had a banjo player and so that was probably the reason I went. And you know, they tell me I couldn't remember who the guitar player was with him, but they tell me it was Jimmy Martin. I knew the lead singer, but that was the only one I could remember, the guitar player. I remember the banjo player was Joe Stewart and he was playing comedy also. He was dressed up in his comedy outfit playing banjo."
P&P: What's the worst job you've ever had?
McCOURY: "Oh, that's easy. I'll tell you what, when I got out of high school I got a job at a weaving mill, I think that's what they called it. And it had all these spools of yarn or thread or rope or something and you had to put them in these machines and I don't ever remember what I really did. But I can remember standing and having these bobbins, they call them big bobbins, this great big ole thing, and the work wasn't that hard, but I thought I would go nuts, man. I was just standing mainly in the same part of a room all day long and that's when I found out I could not work inside. All the work I'd done before that, you know was outside. I was raised on a farm and it was all outside work and you know I didn't mind that that. It didn't seem like before. I got that job inside and it just about killed me and I didn't stay there long either. And the next job I got was outside and so all of the jobs that I ever did besides music were outside then, like construction, or timber cutting, or things like that."
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