The Travelin' McCourys bring bluegrass expertise to Flying Monkey next month

PLYMOUTH — Alan Bartram has always been a student of music, falling in love with bluegrass at a young age, before being pulled in as the bassist for two of the most renowned bands in the genre.

Bartram is the standup bassist for the Grammy Award-winning The Travelin’ McCourys, a band he helped create with the help of bandmates from the legendary Del McCoury Band. The Travelin’ McCourys are hitting the road this week. Bartram is especially looking forward to a northeast run of shows, including a return to the Flying Monkey on Thursday, Oct. 15.

“That is really an ideal size room,” Bartram said. “The Flying Monkey is great. There are a lot of places like that up in New England, and there are a lot of bluegrass fans up there. There’s always a good crowd and a good vibe.”

Bartram hails from Lebanon, Tennessee, which he said has been scorching hot, and he can’t wait to get up into the fall New Hampshire air and see foliage. While The Travelin’ McCourys aren’t road dogs by any means, he said he has been gifted with a life of being able to play music with artists he loves.

“I love playing music with my bandmates and being creative.”

Discovering musical prowess

“The short version would be that I was playing guitar, just a beginner, and didn’t have a focus,” he said. “I was just dabbling and listening to some bluegrass.”

Bartram had a love for Lonesome River Band, Lou Reid and Carolina, and Allison Krause and Union Station. Everything changed in 1995, at the age of 18, when he went to the Delaware Valley Bluegrass Festival, an annual Labor Day weekend campout held in Woodstown, New Jersey.

“That was the moment where I was like, 'This is where I am,'” he said. “I am focusing on bluegrass.”

Bartram was excited to see Krause and Union Station perform, but said the biggest thing was being able to find other likeminded musicians in the campgrounds to jam with. At this point, Bartram hadn’t picked up the bass yet, and was solely playing guitar.

“I slept in my car, and carried my guitar around,” Bartram said. “More than anything, it was meeting others, and informally jamming there.”

Over the next couple of years, he and a group of guys started playing together. He was about 20, and some were still in their late teens, but what started as jam sessions at a friend’s house turned into the band Second Edition.

“We didn’t know what we were doing, but we’d pick up some gigs, and it snowballed from there,” Bartram said.

The band played for a couple years, staying busy working their day jobs and attending college, and going on tour until 2002.

“We learned a lot in that time.”

Bartram moved to Nashville in 2003, and started playing bass with the Kenny & Amanda Smith Band.

“They were my main gig, but I met a lot of pickers, and did a lot of sub and fill-in work,” Bartram said.

One of those fill-in moments was for the Del McCoury Band, led by legendary bluegrass guitarist Del McCoury. Bartram filled in for former bass player Mike Bub, who Bartram said was a “welcoming mentor to the new guys in town.” Bartram said Bub came to see the Kenny & Amanda Smith Band play, liked what he heard, and asked him to play with Del McCoury at the Grand Ole Opry.

“So, when he left the band, I was on the radar.”

Bartram didn’t grow up listening to McCoury, but certainly started listening after 1995, and seeing him play at festivals. Second Edition played festivals in the Midwest and East Coast, and at one point, nearly opened for the Del McCoury Band. That never panned out, but suddenly, it seemed like anything was possible.

Bartram had been hanging out with Rob McCoury, Del’s son and fellow founder of The Travelin’ McCourys. A couple years after playing the show at the Grand Ole Opry, in June 2005, he was asked to try out for a full-time role.

The tryouts were unorthodox, to say the least. He was asked to come on the road and play a show, and see if it was fit.

“It was more like, 'Come to the gig with us, come on stage, and see what happens,'” Bartram said. “It was definitely a sink-or-swim situation.”

Bartram was hired to play full time in August 2005, and he’s been the standup bassist for the past 21 years.

The Travelin’ McCourys

The Travelin’ McCourys was the idea of Del himself. Before Bartram joined the Del McCoury Band, Del had been telling his bandmates, which included his sons Rob and Ronnie, they should probably get something going, for a time he wouldn’t be there.

This would avoid starting from scratch if Del retired, although now, at the age of 87, and still one of the most lauded singer-songwriters in the industry, Bartram laughed, and said there’s no indication of that coming soon.

“But it was his blessing to get another band going,” Bartram said. “He still takes precedence when booking gigs. Our No. 1 commitment is to Del, but it is very symbiotic. Like this weekend, both bands are playing, and that happens quite a bit.”

The Travelin’ McCourys was born in 2009, and booked some shows with a rotating cast of guitar players. The lineup included Ronnie McCoury on mandolin, Rob McCoury on banjo, Bartram on bass, and Jason Carter on fiddle.

The band quickly brought on Cody Kilby to play guitar, with Bartram noting he was a pretty clear choice, with great chemistry.

“Cody was the first call guy before becoming the guy,” Bartram said.

Christian Ward has since taken over on fiddle, as Carter went on to pursue a solo career.

Each band member is highly acclaimed. Bartram was named the 2017 International Bluegrass Music Association bass player of the year.

The two bands have their similarities, as they come from the same bluegrass roots with the Del McCoury Band, dating back to 1968. There are differences, however, as The Travelin’ McCourys tend to be a bit more exploratory.

“The biggest difference is with the Del McCoury Band, even though he’ll feature in the show, it is very much Del’s show,” Bartram said.

With The Travelin’ McCourys, it is a different repertoire, and less traditional. All five members of the band sing — some more than others — and feature their own original material.

“It’s a natural progression of what each of us likes to play,” Bartram said. “Each of us has a different taste. Each singer and player brings their own style, and gets to feature the way we want to play it.”

They also like to throw in some covers, noting almost everywhere they go there, are Deadheads who go wild for a Grateful Dead cover. They created the Grateful Ball, full of bluegrass takes on the Dead’s music, and is how the tour starts on Friday, at Rock Castle’s Bluegrass Jam in Hendersonville, Tennessee.

Painting a picture with music

Bartram is always collecting ideas for songs, jotting lines here and there, but admits he is great at procrastinating when it comes to writing. He said the best ideas tend to come out when he’s cutting grass on his tractor for a couple hours at a time, because when he sits down and writes, he almost always finds something else to distract him.

Bartram has always been drawn to songs that paint a picture in his head, and that is what he does with his music.

“Different folks listen to music differently, but I am drawn to lyrics and what they paint in my mind,” he said. “When I am singing, I am picturing what I’m singing about, and listening to music, I picture where it takes me.”

The band released the song “Gas and Oil” in February, which Bartram sings, and also wrote, about time working with his father in a Tennessee timber cutting operation as a teenager. His main job was to carry the chainsaw, gas, and oil, and “just kind of be a gopher.” It was hard work, and ultimately not for him, but carries memories he was able to bring forward in his music.

“I wanted to paint a picture of what that was like,” Bartram said. “It is a fond memory. It is really dangerous and hard work, and it turned out that this wasn’t going to be my career, but I do miss it sometimes. Just being out there working in the woods. I wanted to kind of capture that time of my life.”

Flying Monkey

With a capacity of less than 500 people, the Flying Monkey provides an intimate setting, which Bartram loves. He has played in front of thousands of people at music festivals, which he loves, because people are partying and dancing. But in this case, it is a chance to connect with the crowd on a quieter level between songs, as many at theater showgoers are attentive and responsive.

Bartram said those attending the Flying Monkey show can expect a “wide swath of music,” and they always play something from “the bluegrass cannon” from the early days of bluegrass to their own material, to fun, sometimes unexpected, covers. He said it's music anyone can enjoy.

“One thing I love to see is folks of all ages, and people bringing their kids to the show,” he said. “That is amazing, and it makes me proud that they can have a good time, their kids have a good time, their grandparents have a good time.”

The Travelin’ McCourys hit the stage at the Flying Monkey at 7:30 p.m. on Thursday, Oct. 15.

For more information, visit flyingmonkeynh.com.