David Mayfield comes from a family bluegrass band. While the Ohio-based musician was reared on all the music that a person could dig on being born in the latter half of the 20th century – everything from radio-friendly folk to classic rock – it was always bluegrass that sat front and center.
Being in a family band meant both the music and its presentation was an important part of the package: When on stage, the music is heard but there should be something to see as well.
That audio and visual aspect carries over now with his own band in The David Mayfield Parade, a high energy, traditional bluegrass band with vaudeville undertones where audience members may chuckle as much as they tap their feet.
The David Mayfield Parade will perform in neighboring Dolores on July 10 at the Dolores River Brewery.
“My dad always had a very blue-collar view on what we did as entertainers; we’re like a plumber or an electrician, we’re showing up, we’re providing our service,” Mayfield said. “We’re here to do our job, the sound guy doing his job, the lighting people are doing theirs. And that is freeing for me when it comes to the entertaining because it’s just about the show and putting on the best show we can. That’s where a lot of the comedy comes from. And we sing around one microphone, so there’s lots of choreography and visual things that we can work up just to keep us from running into each other.”
And while providing something to see, to your ears, this is as traditional as it gets, where murder ballads, waltzes and rip-roaring tempos are the musical mode. While they may hint at other genres, they are playing Bill Monroe’s music.
“We try not to be a band that is playing different genres of music on bluegrass instruments: Our goal is to play bluegrass music. Now, that bluegrass music is original and it might have some punk rock energy, or it might go somewhere musically that is almost baroque and then funk and all these things,” he said. “But the goal is to make it a bluegrass song with those inspirations as opposed to just, oh, we’re just going to play whatever music on bluegrass instruments.”
The David Mayfield Parade’s last local appearance was at the 2025 Durango Bluegrass Meltdown. They remained one of the more talked about bands from that festival, an energetic and funny, rowdy group of players who are veterans of the bluegrass scene. They know its history and its current heavy hitters while also showing the utmost respect for the community, a community where the musicians know their bread and butter are the fans – you shouldn’t be a player in the scene without also being someone just as stoked to be at the show as a ticket-buyer. Fortunately, Mayfield and band remain a group of music lovers who are just as likely to strike up a group pick with fans minutes after they exit the stage they’ve commanded for hours before.
“We played a festival with Peter Rowan, and we’re all just sitting around chatting and hanging out, or with Del McCoury, and it’s always been that way,” Mayfield said. “I remember being a kid and my parents took me up to meet Bill Monroe and Ralph Stanley and they’re just sitting on a folding chair outside their bus eating a hot dog. There’s a communal aspect to bluegrass, especially since most of the fans play music also. So that kind of takes down a barrier between the musicians and the fans. The musicians are fans and the fans are musicians.”
Bryant Liggett is a freelance writer and KDUR station manager. Reach him at [email protected].
