Ronnie McCoury

Ronnie McCoury

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Ronnie McCoury Keeps Company with -- and Co-Produces -- Daddy Del
In a career boasting a wealth of powerful recordings, the Del McCoury Band achieve a new high-water mark with The Company We Keep. The 65-year-old Del McCoury, a true bluegrass boy and former Bill Monroe sideman from Pennsylvania, invests his performances with the energy and zest of a young whippersnapper. And that inspires spirited instrumental support from his band, which includes his sons Ronnie (on mandolin) and Rob (on banjo), as well as Jason Carter (on fiddle) and Mike Bub (on stand-up bass). From Del's original mission statement, "Never Grow Up Boy," to Ronnie's instrumental "Seventh Heaven" to the tear-jerker "When Fall's Coming Down" to the barn-burning "Blown Away and Gone," The Company We Keep beautifully balances expressive singing and soulful playing. Shortly before embarking on tour to support the album, Ronnie McCoury, who co-produced, spoke to Barnes & Noble.com's David McGee about the company he keeps.

Barnes & Noble.com: Did you and your dad have any defined concept for this album when you started talking about it?

Ronnie McCoury: No, not really. I've been playing with Dad for 24 years, something like that, and we know when it's time to make a record. We get lots of CDs from people all the time, sending us stuff. Dad sits down and listens to everything. I may find a song here and there, or I try to write an instrumental. But the majority of it is Dad knowing what he wants to sing. I've never thrown a song at him and said for him to record it that he didn't want to do. But I guess the special thing about this record is that there had been talk about my dad co-writing, and he had never done that before, and he didn't really know if he would like it or if he could do it. He's in his mid-60s, and every song he's ever written he's written by himself. But he hadn't been writing the last few years, and it was a real boost for him. He really enjoyed it -- got to write with Harley Allen and Don Schlitz -- and it turned out to be really good for him. You know, all these guys want to write with Dad now.

B&N.com: He's hip!

RM: Yeah! So I think the next record will be a lot of that.

B&N.com: Why has he called this his most personal album?

RM: I think a lot of it has to do with the co-writing, absolutely. Then the concept of "the company we keep." On the CD you'll see all the photos -- the cover, of course, is the band; the back cover is the grandchildren in the same position as the band on the front; on the inside, under the CD, are the wives. We started a record company with the last record, and we had talked to about nine major recording companies in Nashville. They were throwing advance money out and record deals and all this, and at the end of the day it came down to Dad will own everything. Therefore, I will have it, my brother, my sister, and my sister; it will be passed down. I think that really made my dad think hard about things. The last record paid itself off in just a couple of months, and then started recouping, which is unheard of, after all the years my dad's been in it. With this one I think he understood it's a win-win thing. He was kind of thanking the company we keep. The pictures include all the songwriters that had anything to do with this record; it included the management team; it included the Grand Ole Opry folks; it included our booking agent; the guy who did the last video. I think that's why it's so personal for my dad.

B&N.com: The first song on the album that has his name as co-writer is "Never Grow Up Boy." In it he addresses a love interest, advising that he'll always be ready to get on a bus and go play music somewhere. Is this one of those very personal songs?

RM: You know, I think a large part of that was Harley Allen. He's such a great writer. His father was a guy named Red Allen, who my dad had known before Harley was born. I think Harley had the idea, because he knew how his dad was and he knows how my dad is: They just play music for the love of it and travel all the miles and do all that for the love of it. His father, especially, had no monetary benefits, but my dad has in the last couple of years; it's been a whole lot better.

B&N.com: One of the songs I keep coming back to on the record is "When Fall's Coming Down," an incredibly vivid, beautiful lyric that describes the beauty of the natural world and juxtaposes that against the internal torment the singer is experiencing. Your dad really sells it, too.

RM: That goes back to him knowing what he wants to sing and can deliver. This tune, Jeff and Dean Presley wrote it; Dean and my dad go back a long way. He's from Pennsylvania and he used to play some music with my uncles. They sent us some songs that he wrote for the last record. I played them for my dad. And it just kind of happened. But that one's hard-core bluegrass.

B&N.com: One song he did write, "Keep Her While She's There," closes with a western swing kind of sendoff. Was that always there or was it an accident in the studio?

RM: No, that was something I came up with, and I like the way it says, "That's it!"

B&N.com: It's kind of comical.

RM: It is! We always try to do something a little different rather than keep it just straight ahead. Dad played it for us and the way he delivered it was kind of straight ahead, and I thought, Well, let's do this on the end. That would be my only contribution to the song.

B&N.com: Another song he didn't write but that seems to have personal significance is "Fathers and Sons." Thinking about that, I wonder what your dad looks for in songs that come to him.

RM: I don't really know. He's been asked that question before and most of the time his answer is, "I don't know what it is in the song that hits me, but [when] I hear it and sing it a little bit, then I'll know if I can deliver it." Now on ["Fathers and Sons"], I had talked to Gary some time back and got that song, thinking, Boy, this is a good song. It suits us really well. I played it for dad. Of course, my brother Rob is singing on that one too, and he doesn't sing too much. But he sang the third part, and I think that makes it even a little more personal.

B&N.com: You close the album with your instrumental, "Blown Away and Gone," which is certainly an apt title for what happens on that cut. Was that a no-brainer to be the last track on the album?

RM: I'll tell you, my dad views an album like a show. He likes to start with something up-tempo, and he likes to change peoples' moods throughout, going up and down, and then he always likes to end with something up-tempo. That's basically how we did that tune. My dad always says it's so hard to find a new up-tempo song. Bluegrass is known for some good burners, and it's hard to find something new that's worthy.

B&N.com: Did you have to spray Jason with a fire extinguisher after you finished recording? I thought he must have set his fiddle on fire the way he's bowing so furiously on the song.

RM: [laughs] I'm telling you, he really ripped it up.

B&N.com: As the co-producer of the album, was it a fairly easy project to get down?

RM: Yeah. You know, a lot of times when we set these recording dates, and Dad's pulling all these songs together, some of them we haven't really worked on a whole lot because of the time and he may have found one or two of them just recently. We get in the studio and sometimes it might take us a little time to figure things out; it's not like we're polished when we walk in there. That's the fun part of recording to me. It can be tedious but it's fun.

July 2005