FOLK/Music The Del McCoury Band, Bluegrass

Saturday: 3 p.m. Railroad, 8:45 p.m. Railroad

The Del McCoury Band’s first-rate instrumental work and vocal firepower combined with deep-rooted dedication to bluegrass heritage have kept this family band a favorite with traditionalists. Its eclectic and adventurous repertoire also has gained it a host of enthusiastic new fans beyond the bluegrass world. Whether soulfully bluesy, hard-driving or high lonesome, this band is making some of the hottest bluegrass heard today, delivered with consummate showmanship, high spirits and style. Reigning International Bluegrass Music Association Entertainers of the Year, the band is the most awarded group in bluegrass history.

The band’s leader-patriarch-namesake is Delano Floyd “Del” McCoury, a nimble, inventive guitarist whose penetrating voice and compelling singing style are at the heart of the band’s sound. Already an accomplished banjo picker as a young man in York County, Pa., McCoury eventually came to the attention of the legendary Bill Monroe. In 1963 Monroe hired him, and it was Monroe who switched McCoury from banjo to guitar and first recognized that his distinctive tenor was well suited for lead vocals. After a year of traveling with the seminal Blue Grass Boys, McCoury accepted an offer to appear on a weekly California television show with The Golden State Boys in 1964.

Despite the sunny weather and TV success, the pull of home was stronger, so McCoury and his new bride returned to Pennsylvania to raise their family. He worked weekdays in a sawmill, keeping his hand in music with weekend gigs. As his tribe grew up, he returned to music full time. His son Ronnie joined Del’s Dixie Pals on mandolin and vocals at age 14 in 1981; son Rob – originally on bass, now on banjo – brought his talents into the fold in 1988. But, contrary to prevailing stereotypes, neither boy was pressured to join “the family business.” “Dad’s great,” Ronnie McCoury states matter-of-factly. “With both of us, he never told us to practice; he never told us to sit down and play. Laid-back … Dad is a supremely laid-back guy.”

Del McCoury has recorded 16 full-length records for a variety of labels since 1968. In 1992, the family relocated to Nashville. Young Kentucky fiddler Jason Carter and Lonesome Standard Time bassist Mike Bub joined in short order, and that stellar lineup has been intact ever since.

In their 11 years together, the Del McCoury Band has dominated the International Bluegrass Music Association’s annual awards, receiving nearly 40 individual and group citations from the IBMA – including a whopping seven Entertainer of the Year honors. Brilliant live performances and collaborations with musicians such as the alternative rock group Phish and singer-songwriter Steve Earle have expanded the band’s audience, as have brilliant arrangements of songs outside the traditional bluegrass repertoire such as Richard Thompson’s “1952 Vincent Black Lightning.” After 30 years, Del McCoury is making some of the best music of his illustrious career – not as an icon of bluegrass music’s past, but as an architect of its future.