The Del McCoury Band Goes to the Heart of Bluegrass

Traditional bluegrass is high-octane folk music that can be hopelessly dated or absolutely timeless. On Friday at McCabe’s Guitar Shop, the Del McCoury Band represented the genre at its most graceful, bringing the sounds of Bill Monroe and Earl Scruggs to a new generation of listeners.

Leader McCoury and his four-man band shared a single microphone to perform music that was sometimes humorous, sometimes haunted. “We didn’t plan a thing,” McCoury told the crowd. “So I guess we’ll just do it as it comes.”

What emerged was a sound both exciting and disarmingly direct. As fans shouted requests, the Nashville group ripped through 90 minutes of love songs, murder ballads and folksy joke tunes, with lengthy soloing on fiddle, banjo, mandolin and stand-up bass.

With his thick gray hair slicked back neatly into a near-pompadour, McCoury was a soft-spoken, neighborly figure. While picking at his acoustic guitar, he sang in a voice that was high, warm and reedy.

Mandolin-player Ronnie McCoury led the band through “Baltimore Johnny,” building a rhythm as fast and energetic as a speed metal riff. And the band paid tribute to Monroe by performing his “The Bluegrass Twist,” a song that blended traditional rural textures with Chuck Berry rock ‘n’ roll patterns. Versatile, passionate and timeless.