Sunday, January 08, 2017

Del McCoury - Celebrating 50 Years of Del McCoury

As the title suggests, Del McCoury has been a bluegrass legend for 50 years now, since starting his career with the great Bill Monroe before moving on to his solo work that continues to this day. He surrounds himself by excellent musicians (including his sons on mandolin and banjo) and his voice is extraordinary - capable of swooping into a lovely falsetto or near-yodel with no apparent effort. Modern bands such as Phish and String Cheese Incident have been influenced by Del (though don't hold that against him!) and he has covered groups as diverse as the Lovin' Spoonful, Tom Petty and Richard Thompson. There is an annual DelFest that celebrates the man and bluegrass music in general and McCoury has won innumerable awards.

For lovers of traditional bluegrass, this is the place to go! The set is a nicely packaged 5 CD package (although there are only 10 songs per CD - it easily could have been condensed) - one CD for each decade - with a well done booklet. A great place to start with Del!