The Travelin' McCourys

The Travelin' McCourys

SUN March 22nd, 2026

Doors 6pm | Show 7pm

THE TRAVELIN' MCCOURYS

From a source deep, abundant, and pure the river flows. It’s there on the map, marking place and time. Yet, the river changesas it remains a constant, carving away at the edges, making new pathways, gaining strength as it progresses forward. TheTravelin’ McCourys are that river.

The McCoury brothers—Ronnie (mandolin) and Rob (banjo)—were born into the bluegrass tradition. Talk about a sourceabundant and pure: their father, Del, is among the most influential and successful musicians in the history of the genre. Yearson the road with Dad in the Del McCoury Band honed their knife-edge chops and encouraged the duo to imagine howtraditional bluegrass could cut innovative pathways into 21st century music.

“If you put your mind, your skills, and your ability to it, I think you can make just about anything work on bluegrassinstruments,” says Ronnie. “That’s a really fun part of this—figuring the new stuff out and surprising the audience.”

The newest member of the band, fiddler Christian Ward, joined after Jason Carter moved on to pursue a solo career. BassistAlan Bartram, and Cody Kilby on guitar, they assembled a group that could take what they had in their DNA, the traditions theylearned and heard, and push the music forward. In fact, the band became the only group to have each of its membersrecognized with an International Bluegrass Music Association Award for their instrument at least once. There were peers, too,that could see bluegrass as both historic and progressive. Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees The Allman Brothers Band,improv-rock kings Phish, and jamband contemporary Keller Williams were just a few that formed a mutual admiration societywith the ensemble.

The band played the Allman’s Wanee Festival and guitarist Warren Haynes’ Christmas Jam—an annual holiday homecoming ofSouthern music. An early-years jam with the Lee Boys was hailed by many as the highlight of the evening, and with the videocatching fire online, earned a legion of new, young fans of their supercharged combination of sacred steel, R&B, and bluegrass.There were unforgettable collaborations with country smash Dierks Bentley, onstage magic jamming with titans String CheeseIncident and Phish, cutting an album with Keller (Pick), and creating the Grateful Ball—a tribute concert-turned-tour bridgingbluegrass with the iconic music of the Grateful Dead.

“That’s something that’s part of us being who we are,” says Ronnie. “It comes, too, with us plugging in. It gets louder, for sure.We can’t be another version of our dad’s band. It wouldn’t make any sense for us to do that.”

Their concerts became can’t-miss events, whether headlining historic venues or as festival favorites, drawing the love andrespect of a growing fanbase craving their eclectic repertoire. At the 2016 edition of DelFest, an annual gathering of the genre’sbest aptly named for the McCoury patriarch, the band delivered the take-away highlight. Rolling Stone called it “a sublimecombination of rock and bluegrass, contemporary and classic, old and young. The best set of the festival…” The river was goingnew places, getting stronger. It was time to re-draw the map.

https://www.thetravelinmccourys.com/