Smokin’ ’Grass

It’s a phenomenon Del acknowledges in his own down-home way: “The first time we played Bonnaroo, the boys said to me after the show, ‘Did you see that girl right out in front of you?’ I said, ‘Yeah, why?’ They told me, ‘Those clothes weren’t clothes, they were just painted on.’ I must be getting old. I missed that!”

Of course, McCoury got his first taste of hippie culture long before Oswego. “With [Bill] Monroe,” McCoury says, “we were playing those [early-’60s] folk festivals…and there was a lot of pot-smoking hippies and beatniks…. They smoked pot, and they still do.” He pauses. “When we’re playing onstage you’ll smell it every now and then,” he adds, laughing.

According to Strickland, the New Year’s Eve show is a precursor of things to come. With Del tapering back his schedule, his sons and bandmates have their own future to think about. “We’re using this show to signal where the McCoury family is headed as a whole,” Strickland says. “How do we evolve? How do we find what Earl found when he stretched into his Earl Scruggs Revue thing in the ’60s?”

To that end, the sons, along with Carter and Bartram, are joining forces with Emmitt and String Cheese Incident’s Bill Nershi to create a new group, The McCoury Influence, which will be hitting the road in the coming year. According to Strickland, talks are under way to bring Fishman into the mix.

Apparently that’s news to Fishman. When told of the plan, his voice shoots up an octave: “Are you kidding me? Del’s manager said this? Good Lord! Well, no one’s said this to me.”

But it’s a pleasant surprise. “They’re just phenomenal musicians, and great singers,” says the former Phish drummer. “I’m open to anything. I don’t really have any plans right now…. It’s funny because I was talking to [Phish guitarist] Trey [Anastasio] recently and he said, ‘Who knows? Maybe the universe has decided that you’re going to be the world’s first official bluegrass drummer.’ ”

Regarding the New Year’s Eve gig, Fishman is ecstatic. “It’s not often that you get paid to play a gig that you would have bought a ticket for. It’s good they’re paying me. Otherwise, I probably would have paid them. Don’t tell them that!”

Del McCoury is equally excited about the gig, and has no qualms about picking up a mic and fronting a rock band. “I’ll sing a few songs with the boys when they’re plugged in,” he says. “I don’t think it’s really structured. Whatever happens, happens. But I know we’ll run out of time before it’s all over.”

Spoken like a true hippie.

For a snippet of the Scene’s interview with John Fishman, featuring tales of the Phish drummer’s stint in a University of Vermont frat-house band witnessing tales of homoerotic debauchery, visit our music blog, nashvillecream.com.