Del McCoury Band with Roe Family Singers
For fifty years, Del McCoury's music has defined authenticity for dedicated bluegrass fans, as well as for a growing number of fans among those only vaguely familiar with the genre. The most recent decade of that half-century of music making has been filled with new and ongoing triumphs. The Del McCoury Band has shown unprecedented stability, with but a single change in membership in fifteen years. Del earned membership in the cast of the legendary Grand Ole Opry in 2003, and the Band earned their first Best Bluegrass Album Grammy award two years later. They traveled with the groundbreaking post-O Brother "Down From The Mountain" tour, and performed and recorded with Vince Gill and country star Dierks Bentley. They've made multiple appearances at Bonnaroo, and launched an impressively popular annual New Year's Eve show at the Ryman Auditorium, where Del first appeared on the Opry with Bill Monroe some 46 years ago.
Del and the boys continue to evolve creatively, with their new album Family Circle featuring choice covers drawn from diverse sources that reach beyond the standard bluegrass fare, including New Riders of the Purple Sage, Johnny Mercer, Mark Knopfler, Buddy and Julie Miller, and Charlie Rich (the Jerry Lee Lewis hit Break Up). Washington Post calls the album "essential listening for the ever-growing legion of devoted Delheads."
"Del epitomizes the bluegrass musician from the previous era, and also this one," says acclaimed resonator guitarist Jerry Douglas, a member of Alison Krauss + Union Station and producer of several of McCoury's 90s albums. "You can finally make a living playing bluegrass, and a large part of it is because of Del McCoury; he became like the new Bill Monroe. For him to have come along this far is testament to his will to stick it out-but at the same time, when he saw that he was going to be able to do it, he started really, really enjoying it, and that's when he started making the best music of his career."
Del's son Ronnie McCoury tells a story from a recent appearance that underlines just how broad an appeal the Band's music has these days. "You know, we've really been getting outside of the bluegrass box," he says with a laugh. "I mean, dad's voice is what you'd call traditional, but he's open-minded, too. And so it seems like in the last few years, especially, he's become more than bluegrass--he's being recognized as just a great singer, period. So that's really been bridging the gap between bluegrass and other kinds of music and musicians. Last year we played at the Austin City Limits festival, and the limo driver who picked us up said he'd just taken Bjork out to the festival--and she was telling him that she wanted to see us. It's just unbelievable."
Opening tonight will be old-timey Roe Family Singers, winners of this year's Battle of the Jugbands competition!
Tickets are on sale now from the Cedar Ticketline (612-338-2674 ext 2), Cedar outlets, and online at Ticketweb.
Vince Gill says it simply, and maybe best: "I'd rather hear Del McCoury sing 'Are You Teasing Me' than just about anything."For fifty years, Del's music has defined authenticity for hard core bluegrass fans-count Gill among them- as well as a growing...
The Roe Family Singers are a good-time, old-time, hillbilly band. What started as the husband-and-wife duo of Kim and Quillan Roe has now grown into a band that can comprise as few as 2 musicians or as many as 9! Whether it's a large group or small, you're...
