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	Podcast:		Jazz Fest Minutes
	Episode:		Jazz Fest Minutes: The Legendary Del McCoury
	Category:		Government & Organizations
	Duration:
	Publish Date:		2013-04-12 08:30:00
	Description:		Bluegrass Hall of Famer Del McCoury’s folks came from the mountains of western North Carolina, but he grew up on a farm in York County, Pennsylvania, less than an hour’s drive from Baltimore. “My dad and my older brother listened to the Grand Ol’ Opry every Saturday night,” McCoury said. It was before television, in the middle- to late-1940s. “At a young age I heard Earl Scruggs, and that’s what got me into music.” McCoury had already learned a little guitar from his older brother — who had learned it from their mother — when, inspired by Earl Scruggs, he took up banjo. And, thanks to his dad, soon acquired one. “My dad knew a guy who had an old banjo; he didn’t play it, and so he borrowed it from that guy because I kept talking to my dad about getting me one. And he said, ‘I know a guy who’s got one. He don’t even play it.’ And, after a while, that guy started owing him money for something, so we got a banjo out of the deal,” he said. “It wasn’t a good one, but you could play it.”
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