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October 18, 2007
Del McCoury Band Performs "1952 Vincent Black Lightning" at NPR
Today was an absolute treat. My friends at Talk of the Nation invited NPR staff to sit in studio 4A while bluegrass legend Del McCoury performed live for the show. There were probably no more than 20 of us in the studio, and they were marvelous. I wouldn't even consider myself a bluegrass fan, yet I loved every moment of it. Del was a great storyteller, taking questions from the audience, and they played four songs, including one of my all-time favorites - Richard Thompson's "1952 Vincent Black Lightning." I could barely believe my ears when Del announced he would play it. Normally it's performed on a solo guitar - I've tried playing it for years but have never mastered it - but Del and his band did the song justice and then some by rendering it bluegrass style.
Perhaps the best moment in the show was when a 10-year-old boy name James called and said he was a mandolin player. He even offered to play a song for us, and he was amazing! Because he played it through his speakerphone, the quality wasn't very good, but it rendered the song like an old-time recording from the 1920s. It was a magical moment.
Talk of the Nation has posted a video of Del performing '52 Vincent on their website. I made a recording of it myself on my cameraphone, but the audio is so bad I won't make you suffer through it. -andy
Posted by acarvin at October 18, 2007 4:32 PM
Listen to a computer-generated podcast of this article
