Few can claim bluegrass bona fides as ironclad as Del McCoury’s. While still in his 20s, he backed up the legendary Blue Sky Boys and toured with Bill Monroe: the man whose unbridled need to pick up the tempo lit a fire under American hillbilly music and brought about the birth of bluegrass. It was none other than Monroe who, in the early ‘60s, recognized young McCoury’s vocal talents and encouraged him to strike out on his own. McCoury has been singing first-rate bluegrass ever since, both as a solo artist and as the leader of The Del McCoury Band. Old Memories: The Songs of Bill Monroe is his first full-length tribute to Monroe and his legacy. Though McCoury’s keening tenor voice often sounds uncannily like Monroe’s, the interpretations on Old Memories never sound like simple copies. Rather, McCoury truly inhabits these songs. He sings them with palpable authority and a sense of grace that bears out the decades he's devoted to the study of Monroe’s art.