Del McCoury's Excellent Adventure
October 2003

“I don't think I had any intentions of forming my own label,” says Del McCoury from his home in Tennessee, “but it looks like I've got one.” His chuckle is bemused, almost gleeful. “It's just kinda one of those things!”

When word first got around in early 2002 that Del McCoury was thinking about leaving Ceili Music, the sister company of Skaggs Family Records, record labels began jockeying for position, hoping for a dance. “I think we met with nine companies!” Del marvels. “It surprised us, you know. Some of them were really major.”

One of the most ardent suitors was DMZ Records, the label launched in 2002 by T-Bone Burnett, producer of the O Brother, Where Art Thou? soundtrack, and O Brother filmmakers Joel and Ethan Coen.

“The first offer they put on the table was, financially, head and shoulders above what anybody else would offer,” remarks Stan Strickland, president of Rainmaker Productions, the band's management company. “I thought it was vanity on T-Bone's part.” Strickland wasn't terribly impressed, for example, by Ralph Stanley's project for DMZ. “I think T-Bone Burnett's to be commended for the tremendous thing he did for bluegrass with O Brother, but it doesn't seem that he has all the answers for older artists.”

For Del himself, it was simply a matter of following instincts that have served him very well. “T-Bone told us, 'I want to do a rock-n-roll record on you guys!' I think he thought of us as an early rock band. He may have had something in mind that might have been great, but who knows? We've got a great track record. I wasn't about to gamble with it.”

The Art Of The Deal

From the standpoint of pure profit, the McCourys' track record is undeniably spectacular. “They've grown consistently since the last album on Rounder (Cold Hard Facts, 1996),” says Stan Strickland. “They doubled their sales with The Family (Ceili Music, 1999). They almost doubled their sales again with Del And The Boys (Ceili, 2001).”

Labels lined up with tempting offers. “So many called us and wanted to talk about signing with 'em, and they offered a lot of money,” Del remembers. “While Stan was having meetings, he said, 'How about you just go ahead and go in the studio?'” The band recorded its new project, It's Just the Night, at Ricky Skaggs' studio. Released in mid-August, the recording entered the Billboard chart at a very respectable #4.

After all those meetings, Strickland finally approached the McCourys with a suggestion that made perfect sense. “Stan said, 'If we sign with a big company, they won't know what to do with a bluegrass band. Since Chris and I are gonna do all the work anyway, why not just put it out on your own label?' He thought it was better for us to keep it in the family,” Del recounts.

Leaving Ceili Music and Skaggs Family Records wasn't easy for Del; Ricky was an old friend. “I dreaded to do it,” he says. “But you know what? We get along good. I guess he realizes that he would do the same thing maybe.”

Strickland had been instrumental in the creation of Skaggs Family Records-“we put it together from scratch,” he says-and now, ironically, he was doing the same thing with Del McCoury. Del, whose friendship with Ricky goes back to the mid-1970s, had been one of the first acts to sign on with the new venture. When things started to get good, he and his wife Jean bought Ricky's old house in Hendersonville, TN. When things got really good, other record labels began approaching, until Del and his team decided to form McCoury Music.

“You don't lose an artist like Del McCoury without a few ruffled feathers,” says Strickland. He is a shareholder in Skaggs Family Records, which complicates the separation. “I finally explained to [Ricky], 'This isn't about you or me. Since I have a separate responsibility to Del, I have to do what's right as a manager. There are too many opportunities out there for us to ignore.'”

Things between Ricky and Del remain amiable, and it is unlikely that this will change; they value each other's friendship too much. “I hoped, in the beginning, that our business relationship with the McCourys would last a long time, but it hasn't,” Skaggs comments. “That's the sad part of it. It's better just to remain friends, and go our separate ways when it comes to business.”

Strategies and Benchmarks

Stan Strickland's strategies for the Del McCoury Band include establishing formal objectives for every aspect of their career, including the types of venues they play. “Big companies say, 'Well, these are our best markets. We'll start investing a little bit in our worst markets so they grow.' If all we do is play bluegrass festivals, Del can't grow. It's not good for bluegrass, and it's not good for Del McCoury.”

Several years ago, the band began actively seeking gigs in performing arts centers, a maneuver that boosted Johnny Cash's career in the 1970s. Del's festival circuit includes a combination of hardcore traditional festivals, mixed bags like Merlefest and Telluride, and lately, huge jam band festivals like Bonnaroo.

“That was actually Ronnie McCoury's idea. He said, 'This is something I feel strongly that the band needs to do.' So I started driving the agent crazy.” The band was booked to perform on the third stage of four. Organizers expected a crowd of perhaps 1,000, attracted by the novelty of bluegrass. But when McCoury's distinctive voice pierced the air, people began rushing toward the source of the sound.

“By the time Del got into his third song, there was a crowd they've estimated between 6,000 and 8,000 people. It was insane! Get the Bonnaroo DVD. Look at that crowd, and see for yourself. Kids 17, 18, 19 years old embracing what Del does--and he has never changed at all. What Del is doing, nobody else is actively doing: he's going where they are. Somebody needs to be there to give it to them the right way!”

Del's own measuring stick is pretty basic, Strickland reports. “Is he seeing new faces out there, and bigger crowds? Is he able to treat his bands better? Play at better venues? When we do our report card for Del, twice a year, typically, the answer is yeah. We've met and surpassed pretty much every one of those goals.”

Inside McCoury Music

The arrangement between the band and its new label seems fairly straightforward. “Stan and I handle sales, marketing, and getting the project to the street,” explains Chris Harris of Rainmaker. “Everything we can't do, we're outsourcing-publicist, royalty accounting, all of it. We're keeping Del's exposure lean. He has no overhead-just expenses as part of the label. He owns everything, and pays a per-unit fee to Rainmaker. We don't get paid till Del gets paid.”

Through Bev Paul and Steve Buckingham of Sugar Hill Records, Del's new label got a sweet deal from Welk Music Group, which acquired Sugar Hill in 1998.* “Stan says they're doing more than they contracted to do! It's a good sign,” says Del.

According to Harris, the Del McCoury Band became profitable only a few years ago. “In the last four years, they're making quadruple the money,” Harris says. “Del has saved everything. His discipline has allowed them to do this. The first pay cycle, Del will have recouped everything he spent on this project.”

Not surprisingly, McCoury is quite pleased about his new venture. “The thing about it is, I own the masters from this point on. I've never owned anything that I recorded. This way, my kids will own whatever we do from this point on. And when I'm gone, it'll be theirs.”

As the new CD was released on August 12, the team was thinking about filming the Del McCoury Band's first video, and contemplating a new tour: Under The Influence, with Leftover Salmon.

Two Great Tastes That Taste Great Together

“Fusing an unrivaled improvisational fervor,” as its Website says breathlessly, “to a dizzying combination of bluegrass, Cajun, funk, Southern rock, boogie, Caribbean, Latin, and jazz influences, Leftover Salmon has earned a legion of diehard fans, critical accolades, and a reputation as one of the most exciting, engaging concert experiences currently on the road.” The Colorado band is loud, funky, and followed faithfully by growing ranks of young neo-Hippies and displaced Deadheads.

As Stan Strickland remembers, he and Leftover Salmon manager John Joy first began talking about collaborating in 2002. “John said, 'I really would like to break into bluegrass festivals. How are we ever gonna get past the biases?' I said, 'Well, the first thing you have to do is prove you can actually play!'”

So the bands did a couple of shows together. “It went really well,” says Drew Emmitt, mandolinist and founding member of Leftover Salmon. “Partway through our set, we got Del and the boys up, and we did a little acoustic session where we all played around a couple mikes.”

“We didn't even rehearse before we got onstage!” adds Del. “Just got up there and did some old traditional bluegrass songs that we figured both of us knew.” Before much longer, Joy and Strickland and their teams began planning the Under The Influence tour.

The name is a nod and a wink to several longstanding musical traditions. “Del's been heavily influenced by young bands who are about half-acoustic--Phish, Leftover Salmon, String Cheese Incident,” says Strickland. “At the same time, they've been heavily influenced by the masters. People have a tendency to think of it as a big hemp-abusing crowd, but what brings those folks together is their love for that old music.”

Drew Emmitt is waiting eagerly for the tour to begin. “I couldn't be more excited! Ronnie and I go back a few years, and we play well together. We have similar tastes and mandolin influences; we're both into Bill Monroe, Sam Bush and David Grisman. We really play off each other well.” The bands like singing together, too. Del even contributed lead vocal on Emmitt's original tune, “Midnight Blues,” on The Nashville Sessions, Salmon's 1999 collaboration with guests like Taj Mahal, Lucinda Williams, Waylon Jennings, Sam Bush, and Earl Scruggs.

Leftover Salmon expects to release its new album, Everything Is Round, in the first quarter of 2004. Produced by Bill Bayne, the original keyboardist for Little Feat, the project returns the band to its bluegrass roots.

Those roots will be exposed every night on the Under The Influence Tour. “The way the show is going to be structured, Salmon will play an acoustic set before Del, which will get us in front of that older audience,” says John Joy. “Then Del will play his 60-minute set. Then we're going to do an electric, plugged-in set that will finish out the night, with Del's band.” As this issue of BN went to press, 19 dates were confirmed, with shows in large markets like Atlanta, St. Louis, Minneapolis, Louisville, Charleston, and Philadelphia.

The tour is also being pitched to bluegrass promoters for the 2004 festival season as a creative way to attract younger crowds to the Saturday night shows, Strickland adds. “At 8:00, they can put Salmon on to play a set that's gonna hold its own with anybody they have in the festival. At midnight, they can bring in those kids who would never in a million years be there for a traditional festival.”

Is Del McCoury afraid of alienating traditional fans? “When they come to see us with Leftover Salmon, they'll still get the same show from us. We might have a little fun at the end, you know,” Del chuckles. “I've never really had any complaints about us playing with other bands. Or if people did complain, they didn't to me!”

Stan Strickland invites traditionalists to watch the show and judge for themselves. “Come see if Del sells you out when he plays Hookahville (the twice-yearly jam band event in Kirkersville, Ohio)!” he challenges skeptics. “Whether he's in Syria, VA, or Bean Blossom, or Telluride, Del McCoury does not change. He's a tremendous ambassador for the people who love this music, but he has the courage to take it to different audiences. He's not playing for the tried and true.”

* Another bit of irony: Barry Poss founded Sugar Hill Records in 1978. The first artist signed by the label was Ricky Skaggs

Caroline Wright is a freelance writer. She can be reached via e-mail at c@wrightforyou.com .

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