Del Mccoury

Grammy-award winning rock outfit The War on Drugs has a longstanding love for Asheville.  The band, which will play at 7 p.m. June 15 at Rabbit Rabbit, have performed in town for more than a decade.  ...

Del McCoury is the patriarch of the musical McCoury family and has been one of the most respected musicians on the Bluegrass scene for decades. In this session, we explore Del's reflections about Bill Monroe, Earl Scruggs and Lester Flatt, as McCoury was there at the beginning of the bluegrass movement. For this new album, Almost Proud, quarantine gave McCoury time and space to dig through a box of collected music to find some gems to record. We talk about that — the present, plus the past and the future, which, of course, includes his sons Ronnie and Rob, aka The Travelin' McCourys, in this spirited session.

With wondrous humility, Del McCoury connects the dots of his expansive career that lead him back to the great Bill Monroe. The now 83-year-old bluegrass musician, with bountiful awards and honors under his belt, has accomplished the ultimate goal: ensuring the longevity of an age-old music tradition. To do so,...

“I was as nervous as a cat in a room full of rocking chairs,” Del McCoury says of his early shows with Bill Monroe. This was back in 1963, when McCoury was a 24-year-old kid, tall and skinny with hair that was still dark-brown. He’d recently been hired as lead singer and guitarist for Monroe’s Blue Grass Boys, and was thrown into the fray without so much as a rehearsal.

Del McCoury is a legend many times over. A snapshot from any period of his life would be enough to earn him a place in the history books. From his time playing with Bill Monroe in the early ‘60s to fronting his own band with his sons Rob and Ronnie McCoury, Del’s career is a triumph. The Del McCoury Band is the most-awarded band in IBMA history, and Del has been honored with a Grammy Award, induction into the Bluegrass Hall of Fame, and a lifetime achievement award from the National Endowment for the Arts.

This is FRESH AIR. Del McCoury leads one of the most popular and respected bands in bluegrass music, The Del McCoury Band, which includes his son Rob on banjo and son Ronnie on mandolin. A singer and guitarist, Del McCoury is now 83 years old, and he spent some of his COVID lockdown time going through an old box of cassettes containing demos of songs various songwriters had sent him. He's recorded a batch of them on a new album called "Almost Proud." Rock critic Ken Tucker says it's a fine, energetic piece of work that also takes a dark turn.

“The way he plays and sings just blows me out of the water,” 54 year-old Ronnie McCoury says of his father, Del, who turned 83 on Feb. 1. “He amazes me, and he amazes Sam Bush, Ricky Skaggs and an entire generation of musicians who want to be able to do what he does at that age.”

Del McCoury will perform at the Big Top in Grand Center on April 28 as part of Jamo Presents’ The Lot Series. Tickets are $35-$65 and are on sale now at metrotix.com. The Greyboy Allstars were recently announced as part of the series.