This year’s third annual Folky Fish Festival on May 29-30 will see a bluegrass legend return to the stage at Maramec Spring Park. Rodney Dillard will be performing hits familiar to fans of the Andy Griffith Show as well as the songs which helped inspire bands as diverse as Led Zeppelin, The Eagles and Elton John.
“I'm just really looking forward to coming down to the Folky Fish Festival and seeing some old friends,” Dillard says. “I turn 84 this year and I want people to have a good time. I want everyone to have a little bit of Mayberry in their lives when they leave.”
The Dillards formed in Salem and found statewide success before leaving for California in 1962. The original lineup included Rodney, his brother Doug Dillard, Mitch Jayne and Dean Webb. Rodney is today the last surviving member.
“We just climbed in a ‘55 Cadillac that belonged to the mandolin player with a one-wheel trailer and a few dollars headed for California,” Dillard says. “I wanted to venture forth into things but use the Bluegrass as a cornerstone in trying different things because that's what I wanted to do. We went to Los Angeles rather than go to Nashville at the time because in Nashville the music wasn't represented as much as I thought it should be. It was on The Opry once in a while, but it was used more on the radio as the introduction to furniture commercials.”
A record deal with Eleckra Records was official soon after arriving in California. From there, The Dillards big break came by appearing as the house-band The Darlings on The Andy Griffith Show.
“We weren’t trying to get hits, we were trying to make music that we felt was valid,” Dillard says. “We had a platform to do it because we had a major record label and just wanted to do music that really meant something and not just cash in. Of course, that's part of it. I'd be an idiot to say that it wasn't part of it, but if I could do what I was doing and enjoy it without being told what to do by corporate record labels, then then I felt blessed.”
Beyond not only reaching a national level of success from their roots in Salem, The Dillards lasting legacy came through innovating the styling and sounds of bluegrass from being a musical outcast to becoming a primary chord of American culture. Rolling Stone magazine summed by the enduring influence of The Dillards by calling the band “the fathers of country rock.”
“Our fourth album Wheatstraw Suite was one of the turning points for me,” Dillard said. “When we got Herb Peterson in the band, that was the starting of what I felt was the strongest of our career from that point on. Even though the Andy Griffith Show was a blessed thing to have happen, it was great, but a lot of people responded to that album. In fact, I think that's what got me into the Country Music Hall of Fame. Don Henley once told me he heard that album in college and he drove through a snowstorm to come and see us.”
Elton John was another fan.
“He came to see us when we were playing a very famous club called The Troubadour,” Dillard said. “He came and saw the first show, then he came back and saw the second show. The next thing I know, our agent calls and says ‘Elton wants you on his next tour.’ That was great, he was wonderful to work with.”
These days, a new generation is discovering the music of The Dillards through social media and finding inspiration in its authenticity versus modern artificially generated content. As an example of the band’s continuing reach, their performance of “Walking Down The Line” was recently included on a dedication album of artists covering Bob Dylan songs, which was released in conjunction with the premiere of the Dylan biographic film “A Complete Unknown.” Moreover, Dillard says the band’s recording of the Dylan song was inspired by personal meeting.
“We went to the Newport Folk Festival and they had what they call the ‘folk house,’ where Judy Collins, Bob Seeger and Bob Dylan and all of us just hung out,” Dillard said. “That's where I first met Dylan. We sat out on the back porch and sang songs for several hours. That's when I first heard the song “Walking Down the Line” and I thought that would make a nice song for the Dillards to do. Then Dylan came to the Troubadour to see us, and up in the dressing room when everybody was gone, he sat down and started singing me some songs. That was one of them, and that was a sign I should do that song, and so that's how it came about on the live album.”
Now in his mid-80s, Dillard’s creativity isn’t slowing down. He recently founded a new record label dedicated to putting recording artists first, released a new album titled “Songs That Made Charlene Cry” and is writing memoir titled “Nuggets from the Horse I rode in on.”
“I'm trying to tie it all together,” Dillard says of his memoir. “I come up with different vignettes and its very personal. I recall going up and sitting on the gravestone out there in New Hope Cemetery with my aunt, who was talking to her dead husband, and how I saw that in my perspective as a kid. Then, it starts going into what happened to us and our growth and getting to where we did.”
During his set at the Folky Fish Festival, Dillard says long-time fans and newcomers can expect the same world-class bluegrass which has defined his 60 years in the music industry.
“I was very blessed God put me where I am despite of myself,” Dillard says. “When I look back and see all of this, it's amazing to me to know these four guys came out of the Ozarks, hit Hollywood had all these things happen to us. It still blows my mind to be able to go in other parts of the Earth, like Japan, and have them sing back your songs back to you as you're on stage.
Visitwww.rodneydillard.tv for more information about The Dillards andwww.folkyfishfest.com for more information about the Folky Fish Festival.
