Photo by Cory Tressler
When DelFest rolls out its four-day line up over this coming Memorial Day Weekend (May 27-30), attendees can expect to hear a variety of sounds, some of which are grounded in traditional acoustic bluegrass, some of which utilize electric tones. This is precisely the intent of the fest’s founder and namesake, Del McCoury. Sure, Del built his reputation as a player with Bill Monroe’s Blue Grass Boys, but his love for pushing the boundaries of bluegrass has made him an influence and mentor for bands from Phish to Dierks Bentley who said during a Washington, D.C. concert last week that hearing McCoury had “changed my life.”
With DelFest around the corner, we went to the founder himself to find out what’s ahead for the festival and the legendary player himself.
Q: DelFest has a great line up with a lot of bluegrass bands but also some that aren’t traditionally associated with that format. Bluegrass is very popular right now, of course, but what’s your thought behind the mix?
A: I do think we do have a good line up. Bluegrass is big right now, but all music is so inter-related. I didn’t realize that when I was a kid. I thought bluegrass was the only music in the world worth anything when I was young.
I heard Earl Scruggs when I was young, in about 1950. From that that time on I wouldn’t listen to anything except bluegrass and especially Earl Scruggs. And you know, as I grew older I realized just how all this music fits together. All musicians can play together if they want to.
We just thought if we are going to have a festival we want to get different bands so fans will hear something different. They might become fans of someone they never even heard of if they hear the music at our festival.
Q: I remember you once said Bill Monroe would hear non-traditional bluegrass performances and tell the musicians he didn’t like it.
A: Oh he would. He’d say ‘Do you call that bluegrass?’ And they’d say yes, of course. And he’d say ‘Yeah I don’t like that.’ Bill was pretty opinioned and narrow minded, too. But he listened to jazz in his early years. He told me one time when I was working for him he said ‘I learn from musicians. They don’t know it, but I do.’ He would disguise it but he learned from other people.
When I was working for Bill, there weren’t many venues we could play. This promoter in North Carolina was talking to Bill about having a bluegrass festival and Bill argued with him and said that will never work. Well in 1965 this promoter had the first one just outside of Roanoke and then in 1967 they went to Northern Virginia for a weekend festival. I was one of [the first performers who played the festival] so I owe a lot to him.
That year, Bill Monroe said ‘I want my own bluegrass festival.’ So it took two years for Bill to get it through his head that a bluegrass festival would work.
Q: The festivals had to help the format.
A: It popularized the music so much. We started getting fans from Europe, the Far East, everywhere. There was a time after it grew that it leveled out for a while but it’s kept going.
Q: Unlike Bill, it seems you’ve always advocated pushing the boundaries of the music.
A: I think it has to grow and expand. I will go back to the beginning. I did a jazz fest in New Orleans with Preservation Hall [Jazz Band]. They wanted to put a record together to help Katrina victims and asked my manager if I’d play with them. I said I was glad to. You know, those boys and my boys are just fascinated with each other…
The clarinet player in that band [Charlie Gabriel] is about 80 but he is still really good. Of course, my fiddle player [Jason Carter] is really young and he looks up to that clarinet player a lot. I said to him, what is it about his playing you find so different? He said, it’s his phrasing. I learn something every time I hear him. See, my boys are learning from them and I bet they are learning from my boys, too.
Q: Tell me how the fans accept that kind of cross pollination.
Well, [Preservation Hall] came to Nashville and I said ‘Did you ever play the Opry?’ They hadn’t and came over and were really excited and it went over really well…Ben Jaffe plays tuba and had visited me in Nashville earlier [last fall]. I asked him if he’d brought his tuba and he did. I said he should play with me at the Opry. I told him I’m going to leave a spot in this song where you can play the tuba and he did it. I think it was the first time a tuba was ever on the Opry stage. The fans were really excited about it.
Q: So many legendary musicians – really your peers – have stopped performing or only perform occasionally. What keeps you going especially with DelFest?
A: I just never lost my interest in music. I was the type of person who always liked the road, was never was disheartened having to be on the road. I think it takes a certain kind of person to do this. The main thing is I don’t have the desire I had when I was 20 but I still have it and it excites me to go out on stage. Back in those days, I could play all day and all night and all the next day. My body won’t let me do that today. But I still have the desire to play music and I’m always looking for a new sound.
Q: DelFest has the workshops, I know, taught my your band members (including sons Ronnie McCoury on mandolin and Rob McCoury on banjo). That has to be fun, to see a new generation of musicians come through.
A: Yes, we do the Academy and all these young people come and want to learn to play acoustic instruments. It’s great because youth is where it’s at. The young people are what keeps the music going – it’s uplifting to know a lot of young people going to play bluegrass.
Q: When we talk about DelFest I just have to ask – why have it in Cumberland, Maryland?
It’s such a beautiful place. You know, I’ve played a lot of festivals and I’d rather play there than anywhere.
We found out later that Cumberland the town have had hard times. [My manager] told them we are not just going to come here and do a weekend and never come back. We want to be part of the community every year. We help them with charity, with their food bank, and donate money for all kinds of different things. The town, the county, they’re behind us now.
