Many a current bluegrass fan first encountered the music watching The Andy Griffith Show on television. During the early-to-mid 1960s, The Dillards appeared on this hit show in regular guest spots as The Darling Boys, hillbilly musicians who would come to town from time to time, generally with hilarious results. This helped propel the band to folk and bluegrass music stardom, with the band headlining festivals and recording for Elektra Records for the next decade or so.
They began to experiment with adding percussion and electric instruments to their original bluegrass sound, and became early pioneers of the then burgeoning folk rock scene in the late 60s and early 70s. Collaborations with such mainstream artists as Gene Clark and The Byrds followed, with the band becoming less recognized as a bluegrass act.
Rounder Records is set to reissue an album from 1979, Decade Waltz, which comes from this folk rock period for The Dillards. Rodney Dillard and Dean Webb are featured, along with Herb Pedersen, Jeff Gilkinson, Douglas Bounsall and Paul York. It is scheduled to be available tomorrow, June 27.
No audio up on the Rounder site at this time.
