By Ken Tardley

Concert report (2002) with Steve Earle & photos

This unlikely alliance of gravel-voiced country rocker Steve Earl and the traditional sounds of a Bluegrass band convinced more people than those who left dismayed.

The format of the evening was diverse and certainly good value for money, the concert starting at 8 p.m. and finished around 11.15 p.m. At the opening the stage was bare but for a single very large microphone placed centre stage on a rug about 12ft by 8ft. This defined the sound as well as the look of the performance. The Del McCoury Band, comprising Jason Carter (fiddle), Ronnie McCoury (mandolin), Mike Bubb (upright bass) and Rob McCoury (banjo), came up first. They launched into an instrumental and were immediately joined by Earl and ran through a few of the numbers from the recent CD The Mountain. Del McCoury then joined the throng as they all ducked, dived, weaved and danced around the solitary microphone.

I was viewing all of this from the upper circle (‘the gods’) and it sounded awful - expensive instruments making noises like tin cans and bags of nails.

You either love him or hate him

Steve Earl then left the stage after offering homage to Del McCoury and his band and the stage was theirs for half an hour. You either love him or hate him, but as they ran through their repertoire of classics like High on Mountain the audience in our part of the theatre left for the bar. Some, like us, stayed. Some stayed and laughed at vocal contentions of a screaming Del.

“Thank god it is the interval. I need a drink. In fact I think I’ll leave and get an early night. This is awful; it is one of the things that gets Bluegrass a bad press - poor sound” were my thoughts. The talk in the stalls bar was of a different kind: “Aren’t they great?”, “What a great sound out of that one mike - it’s so clear and warm.” Right; we’ve got to blag our way into better seats for the second half. Stalls are full but at the side of the circle we hit it lucky.

Del joined Steve around a single mic

Steve Earl, now plugged in, opened the second half with a solo performance and treated the audience to acoustic versions of what they know and love from his albums such as Exit 0, Copperhead Road and Steve Earl and the Dukes. His songs tell stories of small town southern USA. Songs of dirt roads, back porches , GIs returning from ’Nam and the women in his life. You just know his lyrics come from his life experience; they wouldn’t be delivered with such conviction if he’d just bought the songs in Nashville. My accomplice for the evening (not a Steve Earl fan like me) began to warm to the man, his presence and his performance. Then he welcomed back on stage the Del MCCoury Band to join Steve around the one mike and perform most of the material from The Mountain (Grapevine GRACD252, reviewed in May NWBN). Now that we could hear, we could enjoy it - Jason, Ronnie, and Rob queuing up to take half breaks in front of the single mike, moving in a circle reminiscent of the way gannets circle and dive to fish. Earl and the band played to enthusiastic applause and whistles from the crowd.

We stayed to the end...

At the end the stalls audience rose to their feet and shouted for more and got an encore. We were treated. Why is that bands keep some of their best material till the end? Here was my favourite, Hillbilly Highway, a song about leaving your roots to seek fortune in the city - “Down that hillbilly highway.... it goes on an’ on.”

So we left at the end of the night, meeting people we know from different musical backgrounds. Some were fans of Steve Earl, some were bluegrass fans. Most were leaving with a happy appreciation of the other art form. Many in the gods left not knowing what they missed. The author wishes to express his thanks to Carter Tardley for suggestions for this article.

Ken Tardley, Curator, The Dalesbilly Museum

1st July 1999