Del McCoury was born in Bakersville, North Carolina, in 1939, moved to York County, Pennsylvania, as a toddler, and spent his youth trying to play banjo like Earl Scruggs. This episode follows his early years with the Stevens Brothers and Keith Daniels and the Blue Ridge Ramblers, then the 1963 phone call from Bill Monroe that changed everything: Monroe already had a banjo player, so he handed Del a guitar and made him the lead singer of the Blue Grass Boys.

After one year on the Opry stage and six tracks for Decca, McCoury went home and spent two decades logging with his father by day and driving to weekend gigs across Maryland, Virginia, and Pennsylvania by night. We track the arrival of his sons Ronnie and Rob, the move to Nashville, the single-microphone stage show that won over Phish fans and the jam band circuit, the Steve Earle colla ...