Balance your musical diet with some bluegrass
By Simon Umlauf
CNN Headline News
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The Del McCoury Band is Rob McCoury, Ronnie McCoury, Mike Bub, Del McCoury and Jason Carter.
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(CNN) -- You can't call yourself a true music enthusiast unless you have a balanced musical diet. You have rock (the meat group), rap (plenty of bread), country (the dairy group -- farm fresh) and bluegrass (the fruit & veggie group, sown and grown in the hills).
Many of us might lack the musical nutrients of bluegrass thanks to the bombardment of "Britney pops" and "fatty J-Lo tunes." But maybe mom was right and vegetables are good for you. A new album from The Del McCoury Band titled "It's Just The Night" tastes a whole lot better than mom's spinach casserole.
The people who follow The Del McCoury Band are called "Del-Heads." Delano "Del" Floyd McCoury says the late, great Deadhead himself, Jerry Garcia, was a fan. For those of you who aren't familiar with what many call "The First Family of Bluegrass," it's one of the most decorated bluegrass bands of all time, winning nearly 40 individual and group awards from the International Bluegrass Music Association (IBMA).
The band snagged six IBMA Entertainer Of The Year honors, with McCoury holding four male vocalist awards and an Entertainer Of The Year award of his own. McCoury's son Ronnie won eight consecutive mandolin player of the year awards, and his brother Rob was nominated for banjo player of the year seven times.
The band can trace its roots back to the "father of bluegrass," Bill Monroe. McCoury, now in his mid-sixties, started playing banjo and singing for Monroe's Bluegrass Boys at age 24, with his voice acting as a great complement to Monroe's "high, lonesome sound."
From left: Jean, Del, Rob, Rhonda and Ronnie in a 1975 McCoury family photo. Rob and Ronnie began playing music before they were ten years of age.
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McCoury left Monroe's band after a year and formed Del McCoury & the Dixie Pals. Several albums and nearly 20 years later, McCoury brought his "family" together to form The Del McCoury Band.
The new album, "It's Just The Night" is in stores now and follows the band's style of farming songs from obscure writers into a bumper crop of bluegrass. It consists of 13 tracks penned by songwriters from the United Kingdom to Tennessee, and one foot-stomping instrumental ride written by Ronnie McCoury.
The remakes also include songs by folk legend Richard Thompson and the sad but proud "Let An Old Race Horse Run," written by Tommy Cash that seems custom-fit to McCoury's high, lonesome voice.
Each song on "It's Just The Night" has a down-home feel, from the gospel gem "I Can Hear The Angels Singing," written by Don Reno, to the zippy "Zero To Love," written by H.R. Cooke.
"The thing that got me when I played ["Zero To Love"]," McCoury said in his excited southern drawl, "H.R. Cooke had an old truck that quit on him, and he was sitting alongside the road and this girl picked him up, and when he looked into her eyes, man ... it was over. That was it, he forgot everything."
Bluegrass neophytes might experience the same wonder when they hear The Del McCoury Band.
The band just started a 42-venue fall tour stretching, from Pennsylvania to Colorado.
