The Del McCoury Band

If you missed the Del McCoury Band’s sell-out show at Sierra Nevada’s Big Room last winter, here’s your chance to get caught up. The clan’s back with a new album, the first on its own label, offering 14 tracks of pure kick-ass bluegrass, with Papa Del tenoring lonesomely—as he’s done since his 1960s apprenticeship with Bill Monroe—and sons Ronnie and Rob smokin’ on mandolin and banjo, stepping back nearly every tune for Jason Carter’s fiddle. Like their broad fan base, It’s Just the Night includes a wide range of material, with two pieces by Chico fave Richard Thompson (whose “1952 Vincent Black Lightning” the boys also cover), as well as songs by Delbert McClinton and Tommy Cash (brother of Johnny Cash). The gospelly harmonies on Don Reno’s “I Can Hear the Angels Singing” are alone worth the price of admission.