Del McCoury will celebrate his 50th year in the music industry with a new five-disc box set. Celebrating 50 Years Of Del McCoury will include more than 30 new recordings of songs from the singer/guitarists first 40 years of performance, as well as an additional 18 from the Del McCourys Band past decade.

We went through the songs pretty quickly, says Ronnie McCoury, who currently plays mandolin in his fathers band. Take after take, it was just great. Dad sounds better than ever on here. We had a list of songs that the three of us made, with fifteen or twenty songs from each of the decades and the albums that he made before he started owning his own recordings, and he would just pick some things to record on each sessionand then we just went in and knocked them out. So they all have a real live feel to them.
Highlights include High On A Mountain, Are You Teasing Me, Dark Hollow, Bluest Man In Town, Rain And Snow, Good Man Like Me, Rain Please Go Away, as well as Nothin Special and Never Grow Up Boy from the Grammy-winning The Company We Keep.
Del gives hope to everybodyfifty years is a long time to be playing music in any field, Elvis Costello said in a statement. But to keep the purity that you need to do this kind of music, and the drive and energy, that takes a special kind of guy.
Del McCoury Band will perform at the Stoughton, WIs Stoughton Opera House on March 20 and 21.