Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Del Downtown
Bluegrass legend opens Roots outdoor series
It’s a beautiful part of the country,” Del McCoury begins, thinking back to his most recent visit to the Ozarks. The bluegrass legend with a storied career was last in this neck of the woods in October to perform at The Farm in Eureka Springs — an outdoor event coined Del-berry, in keeping with the venue’s “berry” naming theme.
“We stayed in town there. I don’t know what hotel it was right now, but, boy, they had the best home-cooked meal. Food just like Mama used to make!”
McCoury returns to Northwest Arkansas today and Saturday for back-to-back shows at Roots HQ on the Avenue, the Roots Festival’s outdoor concert series off the Fayetteville downtown square. The shows, along with several others in the series lineup, are almost sold out.
“I played one up in Virginia back in I guess October or November,” McCoury recalls of one of the rare performances he was able to give in the past year. “And of course those folks have been cooped up for a long time, and the promoter, he had to keep them back away from the stage because of the pandemic! It really kept him busy because people were trying to get through the barricade there to get up to the stage. They were just so excited to see music and to hear music. And I guess it’s that way everywhere you go — people are so excited to be out and to get to go to live music.”
Besides only a handful of shows in 2020, McCoury says he did make good use of his time during the pandemic. There were projects around the house that got done: “I thought, ‘Well, I wonder how I got all this stuff done when I was on the road because I can’t get it all done now!’” For once, McCoury also had enough time to go through all the CDs he’s handed when he’s on the road, tracks songwriters hope he’ll record.
And he did. McCoury wrote some songs himself, found some old tracks that had never been released, and recorded a mix of around 17 new songs and re-recordings of old songs. This weekend’s Fayetteville audiences may not necessarily get to hear any of those new tunes, though.
“I’ll introduce the band at the beginning of the show, and each person will either do a song or instrumental. And then after that we just do requests from the audience,” he reveals, adding with a laugh, “and I’m fortunate they request my songs — if they request other people’s songs, I’m in trouble!”
That spontaneous performance style keeps both the band and McCoury on their toes, he says, as they almost never prepare a setlist. It also means he spends a lot of time playing the big hits, which is just fine by him — as long as the audience is hearing what they want.
“And once in a great while, I get to sing a song I really like!” he says.
“Some of the older ones,” he says when asked which songs he really likes to play that aren’t requested as often.
Although, at his age, that may be a tricky question, McCoury admits.
“‘Course, some of the older ones, I can’t hit the high notes like I used to,” he shares with a chuckle.
“I’ll tell you one song I used to sing years ago,” McCoury remembers. “It’s titled ‘Prisoner’s Song,’ and some people say it was the first country or bluegrass song ever recorded, by Gus Massey. And I like to do that song, but people never do request it.
“So sometimes,” he adds cheekily, “I sing it anyway.”