Jun 25
Dailey, Vincent pay homage to Bean Blossom fans
Dailey & Vincent on stage at the 2008 Bean Blossom Bluegrass Festival. Photo by Dan Tackett.The crowd at the just-ended Bill Monroe Memorial Bluegrass Festival in Bean Blossom, Ind., roared in gleeful disbelief when surprise guest Earl Scruggs stepped up to the mic to perform with Lizzy Long & Friends.
The throng was on its feet time and time again when festival closer Seldom Scene took the yuppies, old hippies and baby boomers back a day or two with their song catalog.
And Dr. Ralph Stanley & the Clinch Mountain Boys, as they always do, performed multiple encores on the closing Saturday night.
But none of those shining memories compared to the sheer emotions evoked by Dailey & Vincent, when they performed “More Than a Name on the Wall” during their evening set.
It was one of those nary-a-dry-eye-in-the-house moments, with the crowd on its feet and not stopping until the artists repeated part of the song.
The emotional moment very evidently touched not only the audience, but also Darin Vincent, who was visibly choked up by the crowd’s response to the tune, a Top 10 hit for the Statler Brothers in 1989 about the Vietnam War Memorial in Washington, D.C. The song is No. 1 for a fourth consecutive week on the Count Down Yonder Weekly Top 17 Songs of SIRIUS Bluegrass.
“We’ve had an overwhelming response from the very start of this,” Jamie Dailey said in an interview between shows — and before the performance of “More Than a Name on the Wall” in the group’s evening set. “It’s just been unbelievable.”
During the interview, the two bantered back and forth between the band’s leadership and philosophy. From the conversation, it is readily apparent that these two are dedicated to God, bluegrass, their fans and making a go in a musical genre that doesn’t necessarily measure success by big bank accounts.
“This is a joint thing,” Dailey said. “We’re both leaders, good leaders in this.”
“I think I’m a leader, just like Jamie,” Vincent agrees as he compares the dual leadership of the band to his marriage.
Earl Scruggs made a surprise appearance with Lizzie Long onstage at the 2008 Bean Blossom Bluegrass Festival. Photo by Thomas Stout.“There’s some things I’m good at and there’s some things my wife is good at,” Vincent said. “Well, we’re doing the same thing with this band. There’s some things I don’t like to do that Jamie is good with. And I can do some things well that he doesn’t want to do.”
Bottom line: It works. And they both agree there’s one big reason for that.
“We’re playing the best music the Lord created, bluegrass,” Dailey said.
They also are shunning the bluegrass super-hero status they have seem to have attained with this new partnership after long careers with other popular groups — Vincent with Rickey Skaggs and Kentucky Thunder and Dailey with Doyle Lawson and Quicksilver.
“We’re just human beings,” Dailey said. “There’s no difference” between the band and its fans. “We try to give back to the people.”
Dailey indicated he and Vincent have already enjoyed some financial success with the new group, which took off running around the first of the year. But he said the two will never forget that the fans are the sole supporters of Vincent & Dailey.
“It was clearly understood from the git-go … the reason that we have what we have is the people who buy the CDs and come to the shows,” said Dailey.
Meanwhile, the duo are involved in a new a capella gospel CD, “Singing From the Heart,” which is due to be released in late summer or early fall. It features several guests, including Doyle Lawson, Molly Skagss, Shawn Lane and Tony King.
For the next “Vincent & Dailey” CD, fans will have to wait. It won’t even get into the recording stage until early next year. But the duo is already screening material.
They have their work cut out if they intend to outdo performances such as “More than a Name on the Wall.”
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