Del McCoury - Biography
By J Poet
Del McCoury is one of America’s great traditional bluegrass musicians, a singer, guitar picker, songwriter and bandleader that blends traditional roots with a progressive attitude about the music. He’s never played crossover music as such, but with the input of his sons Ronnie and Robbie, he’s booked his band into rock venues and jam band festivals, touring with Leftover Salmon, Phish and The Dead. As a result The Del McCoury Band has won legions of young fans and introduced thousands of people to his uniquely American genre. He started his own label, McCoury Music in 2003 and after six Grammy nominations finally won a Best Bluegrass Album Grammy in 2005 for The Company We Keep (2004 McCoury). He’s won more International Bluegrass Music Association awards than any artist in the genre's history – 39 individual and group citations - including nine Entertainer Of The Year Awards.
Delano Floyd McCoury was born in Bakersville, North Carolina in 1939, but the family relocated to York County, Pennsylvania while he was still a child. When his older brother G.C. brought home a Flatt and Scruggs 78 of “Rolling in My Sweet Baby’s Arms” McCoury took up the banjo.
By the time he was 18 he was appearing regular on local radio stations and in 1958 was a founder of Keith Daniels and the Blue Ridge Partners, with his friend Keith Daniels. He worked day jobs and played bluegrass at night in the Baltimore/Washington CD area with bands like the Franklin County Boys and Jack Cooke’s Virginia Playboys. When Bill Monroe came to a Virginia Playboys gig, he liked McCoury’s style and asked him to audition on guitar. McCoury got the gig as lead singer and guitarist for The Bluegrass Boys and stayed with the band two years 1963-1964, before he moved with his family to California.
Bluegrass gigs were sparse in California, so he returned to York County and worked days as a logger while playing nights and weekends in bluegrass bands that traveled throughout the tri-state Maryland, Pennsylvania, Virginia area. His bands included The Shady Valley Boys and Del McCoury and the Dixie Pals. He recorded six albums in the 70s, with various backing musicians including Del McCoury Sings Bluegrass (1968 Arhoolie),
I Wonder Where You Are Tonight (1968 Arhoolie), Collector's Special (1971 Grassound), Livin’ on the Mountain (1971 Rebel), High on a Mountain (1972 Rounder) his first masterpiece, credited to Del McCoury and the Dixie Pals on the cover, and Del McCoury and the Dixie Pals (1975 Revonah).
In 1981, Del’s son Ronnie, who was 13, joined the Dixie Palls part time on mandolin. In 1987, Rob came in on banjo and McCoury changed the band’s name to the Del McCoury Band and Del’s brother Jerry joined on bass. In 1988 they signed to Rounder and cut the four albums that catapulted them to the Bluegrass A List - Don't Stop the Music (1988 Rounder), Blue Side of Town (1992 Rounder), which showed off McCoury’s songwriting and his eclectic taste in covers with tunes by Steve Earle, David Olney and Big Boy Crudup, A Deeper Shade of Blue (1988 Rounder) which showed the band’s skill with honky tonk music and Cold Hard Facts (1996 Rounder) with unexpected covers of tunes by Tom Petty and Robert Cray, another simmering masterpiece.
Del stepped out on his own for Del, Doc, and Mac (1998 Sugar Hill) a trio collaboration with Doc Watson and Bluegrass legend Mac Wiseman that introduced him to Americana fans. In 1999, Steve Earle hired McCoury’s band to back him up on his bluegrass album The Mountain (1999 E-Squared/Artemis). McCoury opened for Earle’s Mountain tour, which introduced him to rockers, hippies and jam band kids.
The band toured the US, Canada, Japan, Great Britain, and Europe and signed with Ricky Skaggs’ Ceili Records (later renamed Skaggs family) for Family (1999 Ceili Music) and Del and the Boys (2001 Ceili/Hollywood). In 2003 McCoury started his own label and started buying back the master recordings for albums he made early in his career. At the suggestion of his sons It's Just the Night (2003 McCoury) included tunes by Richard Thompson and gave the album a slightly psychedelic feel, which won over more new young fans. The Company We Keep (2005 McCoury) was a return to a more traditional sound and after 40 years in the business, won McCoury his first Best Bluegrass Album Grammy. The Promised Land (2006 McCoury) was the band’s first Gospel album, and in 2007 they invited Merle Haggard into the studio to cut The Bluegrass Sessions (2007 McCoury). Haggard’s stentorian tone is a perfect match for McCoury’s high lonesome tenor, making the album sound like another instant classic. In 2008 he released Moneyland, followed by Family Circle in 2009.
