
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, March 31, 1990                   TAG: 9003310371
SECTION: EXTRA                    PAGE: E-8   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: DONNA ALVIS STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

DARLINGS OF BLUEGRASS KICK OFF APPALACHIAN

It was always a treat in Mayberry when the Darling family chugged into town on the back of the flatbed truck. Even Otis would rouse himself from the cot in Sheriff Taylor's jail and take to flat-footin'.

The Original Dillards - that honest-to-Ozark bluegrass quartet who played the Darling brothers on The Andy Griffith Show - roll into Pulaski County tonight at 8 p.m. for a special concert to kick off New River Community College's Appalachian Awareness Week, an annual event celebrating the cultural heritage of mountain folk.

The group, consisting of the two Dillard brothers, singer-guitarist Rodney and nimble-fingered banjoist Douglas, along with Dean Webb on mandolin and Mitchell Jayne on bass, have reunited and recaptured the sound that gave them a noteworthy chapter in bluegrass musical history.

Sons of an old-time fiddler, Rodney and Doug Dillard combined their talents with Webb and Jayne, a former DJ and school teacher, in the spring of 1962 when the band played its first concert at Washington University in St. Louis. The country boys saved their money that summer, took off for California in the fall and arrived in Los Angeles in their rickety station wagon in November. They were anxious for a shot at the big time.

Ralph Rinzler, mandolin player for the Greenbriar Boys, convinced Elektra Records owner Jack Holzman that the Dillards were a good bluegrass band, and the group was signed to the label.

"Elektra printed a little blurb in Variety Magazine saying they had signed the Dillards, a bluegrass group from Missouri," said Doug Dillard. "The people from The Andy Griffith Show saw that and asked us to come down and audition."

Early in 1963 the Dillards were regularly featured on the popular TV show, and their first album was issued by Elektra. The album included the Dillards' version of Carl Story's "Mocking Banjo," which they called "Duelin' Banjos." Nearly a decade later, guitarist Steve Mandell and banjoist Eric Weissberg made the tune famous in the film score for "Deliverance."

Apparently, the group's recipe for exciting an audience hasn't changed much over the years. "They still make magic with light-speed picking and three- and four-part harmonies that can only have been learned on a back porch in the Ozarks," said a recent Los Angeles Times review.

Or, as Sheriff Taylor used to say when the group commenced to playing, "They's all keyed up!"

The Dillards will perform at 8 p.m. Saturday in Pulaski County High School's Little Theatre. Opening the show will be the Smith Sisters, country-folk recording artists. Tickets are $10.

by CNB