Del McCoury Band To Release New Album In September

Before bluegrass legend Del McCoury was recruited into Bill Monroe’s famed Blue Grass Boys ensemble in the ’60s, he learned his trade in Baltimore honky tonks in the late ’50s. Del will channel those early days of his career on the new Del McCoury Band album The Streets Of Baltimore. The LP is due out in stores and online on September 17.

Del was the main force in putting the album together as his sons had their hands full with The Travelin’ McCourys. Unlike Del’s last two albums -2011’s American Legacies and 2012’s Old Memories -McCoury didn’t employ a theme for The Streets Of Baltimore. “I just put together a group of songs that I liked,” says Del in a statement. “And then we got into the studio and tried to make them sound good!”

Some of the album’s tracks mix bluegrass and country as was popular during Del’s Baltimore Days. The Streets Of Baltimore includes the title track (a 1966 country hit for Bobby Bare), “Too Many Rivers” (a crossover hit for Brenda Lee in 1965 and recorded by dozens of country singers at the time), “Once More With Feeling,” a massive hit for Jerry Lee Lewis and a nod towards country singer and humorist Ray Stevens with a banjo-driven version of “Misty.” It also features a number of new originals courtesy of songwriting contributors such as Mike O’Reilly, Shawn Camp and friends, Jerry Salley with Donna Ulisse and Verlon Thompson.