Dillards: Cornball Comedy, Light-Speed Picking

You can keep your Who, Stones and McCartney. For Los Angeles bluegrass fans, the big “memories” tour of the year features the Dillards, the reunited Missouri-originated band that was a mainstay of the local folk scene in the early ‘60s.

The Dillards’ appearance at McCabe’s on Saturday was as much an antithesis to the big reunion tours as you could find. Could you imagine a Stones concert being interrupted by a note from the audience letting them know that one of their flies was coming open? That happened Saturday, with bassist Mitch Jayne--the class clown--the butt of the joke. And jokes aplenty there were: As a live act, the Dillards are almost as much comedy as music . . . cornball comedy, but truly funny stuff.

That’s not to discount the music. Jayne, mandolinist Dean Webb, guitarist/singer Rodney Dillard--who looks as if he hasn’t aged a day in 20 years--and banjo picker Douglas Dillard (and new guitarist Steve Cooley) still make magic with light-speed picking and three- and four-part harmonies that can only have been learned on a back porch in the Ozarks.