Interview with Del McCoury | Sound Authors Radio

January 14, 2009

Dr. Kent: Welcome to Sound Authors! It’s my special honor on the show today to speak to blue grass music legend Del McCoury, an amazing musician and hero of mine and he has a brand new album out called Living in Moneyland and it features songs by the Del McCoury band, Merle Haggard, Emmy Lou Harris, Bruce Hornsby, Chris Knight, all sorts of good folks. There’s also some special guest appearances by Rodney Crowell from the Fairfield Four, whom I love. Tim O’Brian, Gillian Welsch with David Rawlings, this is a special project for Del McCoury called Moneyland and its talking about hardworking folks and how we all need to get back in the game. So I’m going to play a tune here first from Moneyland, its called Forty Acres.

[Music]

Dr. Kent: That’s a hot tune called Forty Acres from Moneyland, by Del McCoury and this is an album that’s all about reconnecting to the lives of hard scrabbling people, people that are just trying to make ends meet. Welcome to the show Del McCoury.

Del McCoury: Hey Dr. Kent, how are you doing?

Dr. Kent: I’m doing great. Tell me about this album. This is a new thing for you.

Del McCoury: Yeah it is you know and its kind of the release date was kind of an accident. It’s probably been two years since we recorded the album but we were kind of holding off on it, I don’t know why, for some reason. But anyway our distributor is Sony Red up there in New York City so it was time to release our next record so that just happened to be it. So it was kind of timely you know? But I’ll go back to the beginning and tell you what happened. This song came to me from John Herald. He was one of the Greenbrier Boys, a New York City bluegrass band. So it’s a city band up there.

I’ve known John Harold for a long time but evidently he passed away and this other friend of ours sent me a CD with that song on it and when I heard that song; actually no. Actually the song was Moneyland, that’s what I got, he sent me that on a CD and I wanted to put it on our next record so it would just be part of an album. But my manager said we should get some of our friends to put some songs on this album that kind of pertain to middle America and the plight of the working people, men and women in this country. So that’s kind of the way that album came about you know.

Dr. Kent: It’s so timely right now because everybody in the entire world is thinking about the Americans and people are losing their jobs and people are using the depression word and all of that.

Del McCoury: I know, I know! It is and back actually when we started this thing, it seemed like the country was in pretty good shape then but still we knew that hardworking folks in America were having problems two years ago. But when it did come out it was at a time when the country was in even worse shape so that’s kind of the story of the record. And Forty Acres actually was a song that John knew a guy in California who’s a great songwriter and anyway he was one of the writers on that song. It’s the what would I say, probably the most unserious song on the record. And a fun song, but it still pertains to things that are happening today.

Dr. Kent: You’ve been on the road for a long time and I’ve seen you several times and it’s always a fun show. How do you keep up your energy for staying on the road and getting out there all the time doing great concerts with your band?

Del McCoury: I’m 69 and I’ll be 70 in February, but I don’t feel like I’m dead yet, I feel in pretty good shape and I try to stay in shape and I’ve done a lot of hard work all the time too and that probably pertains to the shape I’m in today; I never did, I was raised on hard work. So I am in pretty good physical shape yet and I can keep up with those younger guys, there’s no problem there at all.

Dr. Kent: You got your start with Bill Monroe way back when and he was also with the hard, he always thought about the folks and went out to all the little schools and places around the country and connected to those real people.

Del McCoury: Yeah, yeah. Really we did you know. I was kidding about these young guys, sometimes I do wonder if I can keep up with them. The guys in my band are all about half my age really. Somewhere around that, I’m the average but they’re great musicians so I have a lot of respect for the guys in my band. But going back to the Bill Monroe days yeah I tell you we played places in eastern Kentucky where there was not even a sound system. In theaters, schools and you just have to project; you have to learn to project your voice and your instrument.

I learned a lot from Bill Monroe because he came up and of course we did too but that was the first time I was ever in New York City was when I was playing with Bill Monroe. That’s when I met this fellow John Harold I was telling you about and it was the first time ever in California. We’ve been all over the United States and Canada too and I owe a lot to him. Because actually he was one who invented bluegrass music along with other people like Flatt & Scruggs. So I owe a lot to him and those guys man they traveled this country when it was really hard. There were no interstates when they were doing that back in the 40s.

Dr. Kent: With the upright bass tied to the top of the car?

Del McCoury: Yeah and sometimes put it inside and ride with it (laughs), because if it rains they had to put it in there or it would get wet and fall apart. We even did that when I was with Bill. We’d travel in a station wagon there for awhile. It was like a 1969 Oldsmobile Super 88. I’ll never forget it, there was a lot of room behind the backseat and most of the time we had the bass on top, but if it started to rain… we’d tie it up and strap it on top but if it would start raining we’d stop real quick and put it in the back on top of everything else. Those were the days! But you know, we really didn’t think about it as being hard times because nobody knew any better. We were just going along for the ride.

Dr. Kent: This is really hard times for a lot of people right now. I can’t imagine how many people are losing their jobs and all of that. At the very end here, talk about what Moneyland means to you, this album, and reconnecting to all these hardworking folks.

Del McCoury: You know, it really means a lot to me to be able to. I’m not a politician and I don’t really know how politics work but I know one thing, I know folks are having it rough and this is the only way that we knew. I grew up with a lot of those folks; I grew up on a farm. Their work never ends, it’s just continuous every day and a lot of times they don’t get rewarded for the work. Years ago they did; probably the good times on farms were back I’m talking farmers especially because that’s the thing I know about.

Of course there’s a lot of other things like factory workers. They have their nose to the grindstone day to day and hit that clock every morning. And another thing, a lot of folks that had back when I was a kid got a job, they’d get a job somewhere and they could depend on retiring there and get a gold watch. They could get a job at 16 and retire at 62. Now you can get a job somewhere but you don’t know if you’re going to be there very long. So it’s uncertain and it’s the uncertainly that’s on peoples minds and I have a lot of compassion for those people. That’s kind of the reason we put this record out, to bring attention to it. That’s the only way we knew to do it was to sing about it.

Dr. Kent: And you’re not retiring any time soon?

Del McCoury: No, not at least for another 50 years! We’re trying to get the boys to go out and do some things on their own because I may have to slow down sometime. I’m not slowing down yet but I may have to and when I slow down they’ll have something they could do and we’re actually in Asheville, North Carolina now doing the Christmas Jam so the boys, they’re playing with other bands. They’ve played with several other configurations.

Dr. Kent: Your sons Ronnie and Rob are still in the band, right?

Del McCoury: That’s right, yeah. Ron’s the oldest, then Robbie, and then Jason Carter plays fiddle and Alan Daltrum plays bass. They’re great bluegrass musicians, I’m just fortunate. A lot of times there’s family bands that lose their families, actually I couldn’t replace these guys they’re just hot.

Dr. Kent: And they share the rewards also.

Del McCoury: Yeah they have; they’ve won awards on their own as playing their instruments so I’m just fortunate to have them and be able to travel with them and keep up with them.

Dr. Kent: There’s not too much fighting on the road?

Del McCoury: No, you know well I’ll tell you. years ago the times I was talking about like with Bill Monroe we were always cooped up in something small but nowadays a lot of times we can fly and then we bus and a lot of times in a bus you can get away from everybody. So it’s easier than it used to be, campers are not a quick as they used to be or anything like that. Yeah it’s a lot easier to get along these days.

Dr. Kent: Well it’s been an honor speaking with Del McCoury, a great hero of mine and this new album Moneyland should be one we all pick up and think about the folks that are having hard times right now.

Del McCoury: Yeah! I would like to say hello to all your listening audience out there.

Dr. Kent: Thank you so much for being on the show.

Del McCoury: All right and we’re looking forward to coming and seeing you sometime.

Dr. Kent: All right, have a good one.

Del McCoury: Okay doctor, see you now.

Dr. Kent: Now my next guest on the show is a New York Times best selling author and we’ll come on back for that and talk all about it

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