The Blue Ridge Music Center presents The Del McCoury Band

The Del McCoury Band + Wayne Henderson & Friends

Saturday, August 30th at 7 pm

Music Center Outdoor Ampitheater

near Galax, VA, Sparta, NC and Mount Airy, NC

We are super excited to welcome the one-and-only The Del McCoury Band back to The Music Center’s outdoor amphitheater stage where they will be performing with special guests Wayne Henderson & Friends on Saturday, August 30th at 7 pm.

If you like the some real deal acoustic string band music then you won’t want to miss this opportunity to see the Grammy Award Winning The Del McCoury Band in the spacious outdoor amphitheater at the base of Fisher Peak on the Blue Ridge Parkway (Milepost 213).

Advance tickets are $50 for adults & $20 for children 12 and under & can be purchased through the Music Center’s website – see link in comments below. Tickets will be available for purchase the at the admission gates the night of the show for $60.

We are grateful to our concert sponsors Grayson County VA Tourism, National Council for the Traditional Arts (NCTA), and Classic Country 98.1 FM WBRF for their support of this show.

DEL McCOURY BAND

Even among the pantheon of music’s finest artists, Del McCoury stands alone. From the nascent sound of bluegrass that charmed hardscrabble hillbilly honkytonks, rural schoolhouse stages, and the crowning glory of the Grand Ole Opry to the present-day culture-buzz of viral videos and digital streams, Del is the living link.

Emerging from humble beginnings in York County, Pa. nearly eighty years ago, Del was captivated by the banjo playing of one of its masters, Earl Scruggs, and decided he’d be a banjo picker, too. He was offered the opportunity of a lifetime to join Bill Monroe’s Blue Grass Boys in early 1963. Monroe transformed McCoury, moving him from the banjo to guitar, anointing him lead singer, and providing him with a priceless trove of bluegrass tutelage direct from the source.

Now helming the Del McCoury Band, with sons Ronnie and Rob, the ensemble is a peerless torchbearer for the entire sweep and scope of bluegrass history. Those many years, not to mention a good-natured willingness to stay alert to the latest sounds and opportunities around him, earned McCoury a whole new generation of fans, including some in unlikely places.

“I’m just doing what’s natural,” says Del. “When young musicians ask me what they should do I always tell them, ‘You do whatever’s inside of you. Do what you do best.’”

With but a single change in membership in twenty seven years The Del McCoury Band shows unprecedented stability as well as garnering the respect and admiration of the industry for its unmistakable work: 10 x IBMA Entertainer of the Year trophies (most recently in 2024); membership in the cast of the legendary Grand Ole Opry; Best Bluegrass Album Grammy Awards in 2005 & 2014, (not to mention double-digit nominations).

If there was ever a collection of recordings confirming McCoury’s wide-ranging impact and spirit of musical comradery, it would be American Legacies. Recorded post-Hurricane Katrina, the album is a collaboration with New Orleans’ revered Preservation Hall Jazz Band, presenting a musical cross-section of traditional bluegrass and the Dixieland pomp of New Orleans, typifying the Del McCoury Band’s evolution from bluegrass vanguard to an American treasure. “All music is related. Bill Monroe went to New Orleans and listened to jazz players. Earl Scruggs- some of the tunes he recorded were from New Orleans,” says Del. “It all fits together if you’re willing to be open-minded.”

On their latest release, Songs of Love and Life, A 15-song collection, the album features a diverse set of tracks–vintage and contemporary–as McCoury and his crackerjack band nod to icons Kenny Rogers, Roy Orbison, and Elvis Presley, as well as welcoming next-generation talent Molly Tuttle to the party.