Old Crow Medicine Show

Old Crow Medicine Show revitalized old-timey string bands for the 21st century, playing hillbilly tunes, bluegrass, blues, and folk with a rock & roll verve. Old Crow's spirited revivals helped shape the Americana movement of the 2000s in sound and spirit, ushering the past into the present with their enthusiastic rambles and hollers. "Wagon Wheel," the band's signature song, existed at this chronological crossroads: chief Crow Ketch Secor -- the only bandmember who has remained throughout the group's many incarnations since its inception in 1998 -- built the tune around a chorus Bob Dylan discarded in 1973. Once Darius Rucker turned "Wagon Wheel" into a smash hit in 2013, Old Crow Medicine Show turned into roots music superstars, winning a Grammy for Best Folk Album for 2014's Remedy. From that point onward, Old Crow Medicine Show grew creatively restless, offering such ambitious albums as the Dave Cobb-produced Volunteer in 2017 and the socially conscious Paint This Town in 2022. Critter Fuqua (vocals/banjo/resonator guitar), Kevin Hayes (guitjo), Morgan Jahnig (upright bass), Ketch Secor (vocals/fiddle/harmonica/banjo), and Willie Watson (vocals/guitar/banjo) -- who are all from different states -- met in New York, hit the road, played before an impressed Doc Watson in front of a North Carolina pharmacy, and were promptly scheduled to play the folk icon's Merlefest. Old Crow Medicine Show then relocated to Nashville, where they found themselves gracing the stage at the Grand Ole Opry, opening for the likes of Dolly Parton and the Del McCoury Band. The band signed to Nettwerk America in 2003, began crafting their own compositions among the jug band standards and reels that had become the backbone of the group, and went into the studio to make a record with Gillian Welch's other half, guitarist David Rawlings, at the helm. Old Crow Medicine Show's self-titled debut, which was recorded in RCA's legendary Studio B (Elvis Presley, Waylon Jennings) and Woodland Sound Studios (Nitty Gritty Dirt Band), arrived the following year. The group's second album, Big Iron World, was produced by Rawlings and appeared in August 2006. The band then switched producers, going with Don Was for 2008's Tennessee Pusher. Carry Me Back, produced by Ted Hutt, was released four years later in 2012. In the summer of 2013, the band (now an octet) released the three-song EP Carry Me Back to Old Virginia, which consisted of the title track, a newly recorded version of "Ain't It Enough," and a cover of Alabama's "Dixieland Delight." Hutt returned to produce the group's 2014 effort, Remedy, an album heavily influenced by folk music that would go on to earn a Grammy Award for Best Folk Album of the Year. Over the next few years, Old Crow Medicine Show continued to tour, and in early 2017 they released the compilation The Best of Old Crow Medicine Show. Not long afterward, they announced they had signed with Columbia Nashville. The first record the band released for the label was 50 Years of Blonde on Blonde, which consisted of Old Crow Medicine Show performing the legendary Bob Dylan album in its entirety at the Country Music Hall of Fame in May 2016. It appeared in April 2017. Coinciding with Old Crow Medicine Show's 20th anniversary, they recorded their sixth full-length, 2018's Volunteer, at Nashville's famed RCA Studio A with producer Dave Cobb; the album debuted at number one on Billboard's Bluegrass charts and 14 on the country chart. In 2019, the band released the concert album Live at the Ryman. Early in 2020, Critter Fuqua parted ways with Old Crow Medicine Show, leaving Ketch Secor as the lone original founding member of the group. Secor wound up revamping the lineup in the next year. By the time the group released Paint This Town -- an album co-produced by the band and Matt Ross-Spang (John Prine, Jason Isbell) -- in April 2020, the lineup featured bassist Morgan Jahnig, guitarist Cory Younts, drummer Jerry Pentecost, multi-instrumentalist Mike Harris and multi-instrumentalist Mason Via.
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