One of the most acclaimed and talented groups in modern music, regardless of genre, bluegrass’ The Del McCoury Band has been decorated with awards, accolades and adoration for over a decade. Their hard-driving, soulful brand of mountain music has found audiences from the bluegrass faithful to jam band-loving neo-hippies, with every audience greeting the band with the same fervent praise. One of the reasons for the group’s power is the brilliant musicianship of its members. Chief among them is the blistering mandolin of Ronnie McCoury. After just releasing their newest album, It’s Just The Night, and in anticipation of their upcoming show with Leftover Salmon at the Barrymore Theatre, Ronnie spoke to the Herald.
Badger Herald: Your material is pretty eclectic for a band associated so closely with a genre. How do you develop your repertoire?
Ronnie McCoury: We get tons of songs from writers here in Nashville, and also just from folks from the road. There are probably three songs on the new album that people handed to us on the road, and I know that in one or two cases, I can’t remember the people. When it comes time to record, we have a big box of songs and we pick from there … plus we just keep our ears open to new stuff. You know, my dad just knows what he wants to sing, and how he can manage it.
I was really surprised at four or five of the new songs — where they came from and how they turned out, and how his ear picked them up through the music. There are a lot of great songwriters here who’ll never get songs on country radio, and they are great songs. Like this Canadian songwriter born in Scotland, who used to be a carpenter for 20 years, and we did his song “Mill Towns.” Doesn’t play an instrument, just sings and write songs. I just think he’s a great writer.
The guy who wrote “It’s Just The Night” has been writing for 18 years and never had a song recorded before. We’re lucky we produce ourselves and we don’t have somebody telling us to record a song he didn’t want to sing.
BH: You’ve now recorded three songs by British rocker Richard Thompson. How did that collaboration come about?
RM: We were on Delbert McClinton’s Blues Cruise, and Richard Thompson’s manager was on the boat and went up to my dad and told him how much Richard liked “1952 Vincent Black Lightning” [the first Thompson song recorded by the McCoury Band], and asked him if he’d heard other of Richard’s stuff. He sent Dad all of Richard’s CDs, and we pulled two songs off of there and did them totally different from the way Richard does them.
BH: Beyond songwriting, you’ve worked with many interesting collaborators. On this album, for example, you duet with the great gospel group The Fairfield Four. How do you approach such collaborations to make them successful?
RM: We’ve never had any problems with blending; I guess it’s just camaraderie or something. We’ve known the Fairfield Four since we moved to Nashville — had the same booking agent back then. We were always thinking of something we could do with them; I just heard their haunting background in the song, which is not a gospel song. I didn’t know if it would work. We called them up, and they came in, and just to watch them work the song up together … it was magic.
BH: In recent years, lots of jam-band fans have discovered the band. How do you feel about that?
RM: It’s funny. We don’t know how really it happened. We’ve had the opportunity to play with different bands, like Phish and String Cheese Incident, and of course there’s my dad’s friendship with David Grisman. Grisman collaborated with Jerry Garcia and Garcia mentioned my dad through the years a couple times. I don’t know if that’s where it started. There are also bands like Phish, who are so great at bringing different elements to their music, and introducing their fans to different bands. We’ve found that when you get in the jam band community, you find people who just love music and don’t listen to contemporary radio as much. We appreciate it. We’re open arms, we love it.
BH: You’ve got a lot of blues in your music, which certainly isn’t new in bluegrass, but it’s very apparent in your case. To what do you attribute that?
RM: My Dad just thinks it’s just the way he grew up singing, and the way his mother sung. They were from North Carolina, in the mountains, and there’s a lot of blues in those melodies. Other than that, we have an aggressive band. We don’t play all that soft, so it just comes out.
BH: Current tour, Leftover Salmon.
DM: This is going to be an interesting thing for us. It’s going to be fun. Salmon’s going to play acoustic, then we’re going to do what we do, then they’re going to play electric, and we’re going join them. It’ll be a learning experience. We like the guys and that’s why we’re doing this.
BH: What artist do you think most folks would be surprised to find is a personal favorite of yours?
RM: I love bands like The Grateful Dead. I also love bands like the Allman Brothers, where they would do their tight twin-guitar stuff.
BH: What are you listening to right now?
RM: I just got Tim O’Brien’s new record. I like that a lot. And Cash’s new record.
The Del McCoury Band double bill with Leftover Salmon Sept. 16 at the Barrymore Theatre.
