Words and Photos by Dan Rozman
Someone said it out loud on Friday afternoon, standing in the middle of what used to be a path and was now a small river. “There’s no bad weather, only bad gear.” The person next to him laughed. Then they both kept walking toward the stage. That was pretty much the attitude all weekend.
The rain started Thursday and didn’t really stop until people were loading wet tents into their cars Monday morning. Four straight days. The Allegany County Fairgrounds turned into something that required serious footwear decisions, and the temperatures dropping into the 40s at night meant rain gear was getting layered over more rain gear. By Saturday most people had stopped checking the forecast and started just living inside whatever the weather was doing.
There was a feeling in the air that went beyond the music. Strangers helped each other navigate mud. People shared tarps. Security staff smiled for four days straight in the same miserable conditions as everyone else. Kids splashed through puddles while world-class musicians played a few hundred yards away. Local musician Eddie Lightner put words to something a lot of people were feeling without quite saying it. “The rain of DelFest felt like tears from the music gods falling for Ronnie Bowman, Skully, and Barb Buehl,” he said. There were people missing this year who had been part of this community, and the rain felt like the right weather for carrying that.
Thursday afternoon Del and the Boys kicked things off the way they always do with the Soundcheck. . Del McCoury has been playing bluegrass for more than six decades and the band still plays with a sharpness that doesn’t feel like muscle memory. Three generations of McCourys turned up on various stages across four days, including grandsons Vassar and Heaven, with Heaven appearing in sets across genres and looking like he was having the best weekend of anyone on the grounds. Before any of that, the Young Guns, assembled from players paired through the DelFest Academy alongside the McCoury grandsons, played a set that got attention for all the right reasons. The Academy runs before the festival opens, pairing players of all abilities with the DelFest performers for actual instruction. That’s not a side event. That’s the point.
Thursday closed with the Toy Factory Project playing ninety minutes of Marshall Tucker Band material with Marcus King, Oteil Burbridge, Charlie Starr, Sam Bush, and founding MTB drummer Paul T. Riddle. Then Del, Ronnie, and Rob McCoury walked out near midnight and the whole thing became something else. The crowd understood what was happening.
Later, Gaelic Storm took over the Music Hall with Jamie McKeogh of JigJam and eventually Sierra Ferrell showing up. The DelFest Chicken Man ended up dancing on stage again. This time alongside Ferrell, which couldn’t have been planned and was absolutely perfect. That’s DelFest late night.
Friday brought the Punch Brothers back for their first appearance since 2011, with Chris Thile wrapping the set in an elaborate bit about traveling to space to share acoustic instruments with alien civilizations. It worked. Andy Falco and Travis Book of the Infamous Stringdusters played separately as Falco and Book Play Garcia, stripping Jerry Garcia’s songs down to just bass and guitar in a way that made familiar material feel new. “We typically hear these songs in larger ensembles,” Book said, “but the songs done with just bass and guitar somehow make the music very interactive with the audience.” Blackberry Smoke closed the main stage with a fury.
Saturday, Maggie Rose was one of the genuine surprises of the weekend for anyone who hadn’t seen her before. She plays Americana and Southern soul with a voice that fills a field, and she closed her set with Sierra Hull joining her for a version of “Sugaree” that turned the muddy ground into a dance floor. Marty Stuart and his Fabulous Superlatives played two sets including a late-night psychedelic cosmic jam that felt like a soundtrack to a science-fiction western. The Travelin’ McCourys played Saturday evening with real fire while the crowd danced in the rain. Rob McCoury’s banjo at that volume in those conditions was something.
Sunday, Southern Avenue opened and was exactly what four days of cold rain called for. The Memphis-based band plays blues and soul and gospel-infused roots music and the energy was non-stop from the first note, spreading through the crowd before people fully realized it was happening. Jason Carter and Michael Cleveland played the Potomac Stage later and drew a crowd that got genuinely quiet watching them trade fiddle runs with an interplay that doesn’t come from rehearsal. Carter is looser and conversational. Cleveland plays with an intensity that’s hard to look away from.
The surprise of the festival came during Mountain Grass Unit’s main stage set. The young band had been generating buzz all weekend and then Del walked out after their performance and invited them to play the Grand Ole Opry. The place got quiet for a second before it got loud.
Before the festival closed, Del brought the McCoury family onto the stage dressed in their Sunday best. They kept coming. The music stopped being the point for a few minutes and the image itself was the thing. That’s what DelFest is, really. Alison Krauss and Union Station featuring Jerry Douglas closed the main stage Sunday evening, Krauss in her coat against the cold, playing like the weather was someone else’s problem.
The Travelin’ McCourys closed out the festival late Sunday night in the Music Hall with the Young Guns joining them. They played “Gas and Oil,” “Runaway Train,” and closed with Bruce Hornsby’s “The Way It Is.” The torch wasn’t being discussed. It was being passed.
By Monday morning people were breaking down wet campsites and already talking about next year. The mud was real. The cold was real. The late nights when you should have gone to bed hours earlier were real. It’s all of it was part of what happened. So was everything else. This was a DelFest that will be talked about for years to come.
