While it may not be the first time any of the five members of GRAMMY-winning bluegrass group The Travelin’ McCourys have proclaimed their affection for the world’s favorite carbonated adult beverage, it’s certainly the first time they’ve sung about it on record. Out today, the McCourys’ new cover of Tom T. Hall’s “I Like Beer” is an uptempo waltz fit for summer music festivals, loose, late-night sing-alongs, and Oktoberfest beer halls alike. Banjoist Rob McCoury—Bluegrass’s unofficial #1 beer drinker—appropriately finds himself on lead vocals for the first time in Travelin’ McCourys history and is only briefly side-barred for a barn-burning solo section from the rest of The Travelin’ McCourys’ IBMA award-winning instrumentalists. The tune lands happily back into the song’s unambiguous tagline to drive the point home: “This little refrain should help me explain. As a matter of fact, I like beer.” Fans can stream or purchase “I Like Beer” now right here while they’re reminiscing on the good times had yesterday, National Beer Day 2022.
This weekend, The Travelin’ McCourys are on the road up the east coast: Friday (4/8) in Baltimore, Maryland, at Union Craft Brewing; Saturday (4/9) in Round Hill, Virginia, at B Chord Brewing; and Sunday (4/10) in Newport News, Virginia, at Good Vibes Concert Hall. For ticket information and more 2022 tour dates, please visit thetravelinmccourys.com/tour.
About The Travelin’ McCourys: The McCoury brothers—Ronnie (mandolin) and Rob (banjo)—were born into the bluegrass tradition. Their father, Del, is among the most influential and successful musicians in the history of the genre. Years on the road with Dad in the Del McCoury Band honed their knife-edge chops and encouraged the duo to imagine how traditional bluegrass could cut innovative pathways into 21st-century music. With fiddler Jason Carter, bassist Alan Bartram, and latest recruit Cody Kilby on guitar, they assembled a group that could take what they had in their DNA, take what traditions they learned and heard, and push the music forward. In fact, the band became the only group to have each of its members recognized with an International Bluegrass Music Association Award for their instrument at least once. There were peers, too, that could see bluegrass as both historic and progressive. Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees The Allman Brothers Band, improv-rock kings Phish, and jamband contemporary Keller Williams were just a few that formed a mutual admiration society with the ensemble.
Their concerts became can’t-miss events, whether headlining historic venues or as festival favorites, drawing the love and respect of a growing fanbase craving their eclectic repertoire. At the 2016 edition of DelFest, an annual gathering of the genre’s best aptly named for the McCoury patriarch, the band delivered the take-away highlight. Rolling Stone called it “a sublime combination of rock and bluegrass, contemporary and classic, old and young. The best set of the festival…” And in 2019, with their eponymous debut album, The Travelin’ McCourys took home the GRAMMY award for “Best Bluegrass Album,” cementing their role as torchbearers in the ever-evolving American genre in which they were raised.
