- Old Crow Medicine Show
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This article is about the American old-time string band. For their self-titled debut album, see Old Crow Medicine Show (album).
Old Crow Medicine Show
Performing at Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival in San Francisco, October 2004.Background information Origin Ithaca, New York Genres Folk, Alt-Country, Bluegrass, Americana, Old-Time Years active 1998–present Labels Nettwerk Website Official Site Members Ketch Secor
Willie Watson
Kevin Hayes
Morgan Jahnig
Gill Landry
Cory YountsPast members Ben Gould
Matt Kinman
Critter FuquaOld Crow Medicine Show is an old-time string band based in Nashville, Tennessee. Their music has been called bluegrass, Americana, and alt-country, in addition to old-time. Along with original songs, the band performs many pre-World War II blues and folk songs. They have been recording since 1998.
Contents
History
Early
Ketch Secor and Critter Fuqua first met in the seventh grade in Harrisonburg, Virginia in Rockingham County, Virginia, and began playing music together. They performed open mics at the Little Grill diner which was "really the first chance that . . Critter had to play on stage." Being "a bit younger" than the "college students at James Madison University who typically hung out there" Ketch "was considered a townie." As Ketch says today: "They knew that we had talent, but it was raw. I mean, I was up there beating on a jaw harp when I was 13."[1]
It was at Little Grill Ketch first saw his "contemporary" Robert St. Ours (who later went on to found The Hackensaw Boys) singing and "he was so cool with his leather jacket and side burns. I knew that's what I wanted to do." His early influences also included " . . driving up to Mt. Jackson, VA to the bluegrass Saturday night in the summer. And going up to (Davis and Elkins College) to participate in the Old Time Music week there, and meeting guys like Richie Stearns."[1] Secor formed the Route 11 Boys with St. Ours and his brothers and performed often at Little Grill.
Meanwhile, Willie Watson first met Ben Gould in highschool in Watkins Glen, New York in Schuyler County, New York, and began playing music together. Both Watson and Gould dropped out of school and formed the band "The Funnest Game". They Played a unique brand of electric/old time music heavily influenced by the lively old time music scene prominent in Tompkins County and Schuyler County, New York. Most notably, The Horse Flies and The Highwoods Stringband. "We were like Tommy Jarrell jamming with Crazy Horse (band)".[2] Performing locally from Watkins Glen to Ithaca, New York the young band earned the respect of their local "old-time heroes" and gained a dedicated local fan base by performing weekly at the Rongovian Embassy with Richie Stearns and annually at the Finger Lakes GrassRoots Festival of Music and Dance in Trumansburg, New York
Upstate New York
After Secor finished his schooling at Phillips Exeter Academy in New Hampshire, where he learned to play the banjo, he spent a year taking short musician-hobo jaunts up to Maine and Canada from his home in Harrisonburg. "I had just read the book, Bound for Glory, and I knew that I wanted to go hobo with music. So we went out on the road . ."[1]
After the breakup of the Route 11 Boys Secor then attended Ithaca College [3] and brought Critter up to New York State, where they met Willie Watson through mutual friend Richie Stearns. Watson dissolved the Funnest Game and they assembled "a whole bunch of these players all around Ithaca, New York,[4] They gathered in Critter's bedroom to record an album that they could sell on the road; a cassette of ten songs, called Trans:mission. In October of 1998 the band left Ithaca for the "Trans:missin" Tour. Busking their way west across Canada and circling back east again where they settled in the Appalachian Mountains outside of Boone, North Carolina
Busking break
One day, while the band was busking outside a pharmacy called Boone Drug in Boone, North Carolina, the daughter of folk-country legend Doc Watson happened by and was impressed by what she heard. Doc Watson invited the band to participate in his annual MerleFest music festival in Wilkesboro, North Carolina.[5] That break led to the act's relocation to Nashville in 2000,[3] where they were "embraced and mentored" by Marty Stuart, the president of the Grand Ole Opry, Gillian Welch and Welch's longtime songwriting partner and guitarist, David Rawlings.[5] Stuart helped them land some high profile gigs and Rawlings later produced their first two albums "O.C.M.S" and Big Iron World (2006).[5]
"It's such a pivotal part of American music making, the sound that was created in the 1920s, before the radios, before bluegrass, before record sales were nearly as important--back in the old days when people thought that maybe they shouldn't make records, like making records was a way that other bands would steal their live shows.”[6]
Ketch SecorThey made their Grand Ole Opry debut on the Ryman Auditorium stage in 2001 to a standing ovation.[7]
Wagon Wheel
"Wagon Wheel" has become something of a signature song for the group, but its origins predate its formation. Says Ketch of its authorship:
"I heard a Dylan song that was unfinished back in high school and I finished it . . As a serious Bob Dylan fan, I was listening to anything he had put on tape, and this was an outtake of something he had mumbled out on one of those tapes. I sang it all around the country from about 17 to 26, before I ever even thought, 'oh I better look into this.'"[1]Secor and Dylan have since signed a co-writing agreement on the song. It has been covered by an increasing number of acts since its release on O.C.M.S. in 2004.
Hiatus
Old Crow Medicine Show announced in August 2011 that the group would be on hiatus until further notice. Three scheduled shows for September 2011 were cancelled and no further information was available as of August 25, 2011.
Performance
The band has performed at such major music festivals as CMC (Country Music Channel) Rocks the Snowys, Bonnaroo, Telluride Bluegrass Festival, Coachella, All Good Music Festival, and the New Orleans Jazz Festival.[8] Their 2007 live-performance itinerary included shows in Boone, NC, Seattle, Arcata, CA, Knoxville, TN, Nashville and Boulder, CO, as well as overseas in London and Amsterdam.[2] The band has also toured the UK several times, including an appearance at the Cambridge Folk Festival and on the BBC show Later with Jools Holland.[2]
They have headlined at the Grand Ole Opry,[5] after earlier having performed at that institution's 75th-anniversary celebration.[9] They opened for the Dave Matthews Band in 2009. They perform as part of the Prairie Home Companion Cinecast October 23, 2010 broadcast from the Fitzgerald Theater in St. Paul, MN and viewable in cinemas throughout the U.S. and Canada. They appear New Year's Eve 2010 at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville.
Musical style
The band plays a wide variety of music, seeming to pull influence from any of the many musical forms that would have been performed by musicians of the turn of the century to the nineteen-forties, including old time, bluegrass, country, and folk blues. Country Music Television notes the band's "tunes from jug bands and traveling shows, back porches and dance halls, southern Appalachian string music and Memphis blues."[7]
After three years playing guitar, Kevin Hayes switched over to the guit-jo, making him perhaps "the only professional guit-jo player in America."[4]
"Well, the guit-jo is a very percussive instrument, and it's got the kind of hollowness that the banjo has, that kind of plunk that the banjo has, but it doesn't have a twangy thing. It's not really high end. It's like an empty, hollow, bass-y sound. If you need to identify it on the record, once you hear it, once you identify it as the guit-jo, then you'll be able to determine where it is through the record. Because once you know what it sounds like, I mean, it only sounds like a guit-jo. You'll never have it confused with anything else."[4]—Ketch SecorAwards, honors, distinctions
- The band was nominated for a 2007 Americana Music Award in the category of "Best Duo Or Group."[10]
- Their video "I Hear Them All" was nominated for two 2007 CMT Music Awards. Directed by Danny Clinch, it was a first-round finalist in the Best Group and Wide Open Country categories. The video was shot in the Mid-City area of New Orleans and features local residents each with inspirational stories regarding Hurricane Katrina.
- Their 2004 album O.C.M.S. was selected by CMT (Country Music Television) as one of the top-10 bluegrass albums of that year.[11]
Special appearances
- Ketch Secor wrote, arranged, and performs "Send No Angels" with Lani Marsh on Our Christmas Present (2008) produced by Our Community Place.
- They performed "Tell Mother I Will Meet Her" at the induction of Emmylou Harris and Ernest V. "Pop" Stoneman into the Country Music Hall of Fame April 27, 2008.[12]
- They perform Woody Guthrie’s “Deportee” on Song of America (2007), a 3-CD set tracing the history of the U.S. through new versions of songs by major artists. Proceeds benefit the Center for American Music, National History Day, and Folk Alliance.[13]
- They joined Uncle Earl, Sunny Sweeney, Todd Snider, The Avett Brothers, Guy Clark, Emmylou Harris, the Hacienda Brothers, Elizabeth Cook, Amy LaVere, and Ricky Skaggs with Bruce Hornsby as performers for the Americana Honors and Awards Show held November 1, 2007 at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville.[10]
- They appeared on Austin City Limits after Lucinda Williams, aired December 2007 (taped September 2007).[14]
- They make frequent guest appearances on A Prairie Home Companion with Garrison Keillor.[15]
- They appeared on Late Night with Conan O’Brien in 2003 and again in 2008.
- They have performed at the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade.
- They performed on the soundtrack for the film Transamerica which was nominated for an Academy Award in 2005.
- They performed at the first annual BamaJam Music and Arts Festival in Enterprise, Alabama.[16]
Personnel
- Ketch Secor – vocals, fiddle, harmonica, banjo, guitar
- Willie Watson – vocals, guitar, banjo, fiddle, harmonica
- Kevin Hayes – guitjo, vocals
- Morgan Jahnig – bass
- Gill Landry – banjo, resonator guitar, guitar, vocals
- Cory Younts - mandolin, vocals
Former members
- Ben Gould – bass
- Matt Kinman – bones, mandolin, vocals
- Critter Fuqua - Banjo, Resonator Guitar, Guitar, Vocals
Recordings
Studio albums
Year Album Chart Positions Label ASIN US Bluegrass US Country US US Heat 1998 Trans:mission (cassette)A 2000 Greetings from WawaA Blood Donor 2001 Eutaw 6 Blood Donor 2003 Live 2004 O.C.M.S.B 1 68 Nettwerk B00019JQHI 2006 Big Iron World 1 27 125 2 B000FNO1DE 2008 Tennessee Pusher 1 7 50 B001DXF9MM - AOut of print.
- BO.C.M.S. was re-released under the title Old Crow Medicine Show as an import in 2006. (ASIN: B000GFLI64)
EPs
- Vegas (out of print) **Cassette only
- Troubles Up and Down the Road (2001) (out of print)
- The Webcor Sessions (2002) (out of print)
- NapsterLife 09/29/2004 (2004)
- Down Home Girl (2006) Nettwerk Records — ASIN: B000FORKT0
- World Cafe Live from iTunes (2006) Broadcast on NPR's World Cafe October 25, 2006
- Caroline (2008) Nettwerk Records - Three track single featuring previously unreleased song "Back To New Orleans"
Other
- Song of America (2007) Various Artists Split Rock Records/Thirty One Tigers — ASIN: B000T3GK8O
- OCMS perform Deportee (Plane Wreck at Los Gatos) (Disc 2/Track 15)
- Ketch Secor wrote, arranged, and performs Send No Angels with Lani Marsh on Our Christmas Present (2008) produced by Our Community Place
Old Crow recorded "Angel From Montgomery" for Broken Hearts & Dirty Windows: Songs of John Prine, an album celebrating Prine's rich and influential catalog. [1]
Broadcasts
- World Café with David Dye November 4, 2008.
- NPR "Old Crow Medicine Show: Punk Americana" by David Dye World Cafe October 25, 2006.
- NPR "Old Crow Medicine Show Revives Traveling Tradition" by Melissa Block All Things Considered September 4, 2006.
- A Prairie Home Companion with Garrison Keillor February 12, 2005.
- A Prairie Home Companion with Garrison Keillor September 25, 2004.
- A Prairie Home Companion with Garrison Keillor (all shows and references).
Videographic documentation
- Down Home Girl
- I Hear Them All
- Music Video- Tell It To Me (Windows Users: Right-Click and select Save As)
- Music Video- Wagon Wheel (Windows Users: Right-Click and select Save As)
- Woodsongs Old Time Radio Hour Michael Jonathon's Old Time Radio Hour
- Austin City Limits recorded June 9, 2007, broadcast December 22, 2007.
- CMT OCMS videos.
See also
- Old-time country
- Old time fiddle
- Old time music
References
- ^ a b c d Americana Rhythm Music Magazine "American Roots from the Soul" by Greg Tutwiler May/June 2009 issue.
- ^ a b c Official Site bio
- ^ a b "Hardcore Troubadors" text and photos by Matt Dellinger for The Oxford American March/April 2003.
- ^ a b c Pure Music interview with Ketch Secor by Frank Goodman.
- ^ a b c d "Old Crow Medicine Show: Ketch Secor and company's old-timey music invokes a simpler time" by Michael Alan Goldberg, published November 15, 2007 in Denver Westword.
- ^ "A Conversation with Ketch Secor of OCMS" interview by Frank Goodman in Puremusic.
- ^ a b Biography: Old Crow Medicine Show CMT.
- ^ bio Nettwerk.
- ^ "OpryFest Bluegrass Jamboree Has Cross-Generational Appeal" by Michelle Nikolai CMT News July 24, 2000.
- ^ a b "Old Crow Added to Americana Honors Show"
- ^ "Top 10 Bluegrass Albums of 2004" CMT.
- ^ "EMMYLOU HARRIS, ERNEST V. “POP” STONEMAN ENTER COUNTRY MUSIC HALL OF FAME" posted 4/29/2008 at The Newsroom Country Music Hall of Fame.
- ^ Official Website
- ^ Austin City Limits episodes
- ^ A Prairie Home Companion search.
- ^ BamaJam - Artist Line Up
External links
- Old Crow Medicine Show official site
- Country Music Television "Top 10 Bluegrass Albums of 2004" January 3, 2005
Reviews, interviews, articles
- State of Mind "Purely Righteous" - State of Mind Magazine, December 2008, by Gary Miller
- Hickorywind review of Tennessee Pusher posted September 24, 2008 by Brendan McKennedy
- Crawdaddy! review of Tennessee Pusher by Matt Gewolb
- Paste Magazine "Catching Up With...Old Crow Medicine Show" interview by Jedd Ferris on September 25, 2008
- Boston Herald "Old Crow's show rules the roost" by Christopher Blagg, review of Berklee Performance Center concert, September 24, 2008
- Chattanooga Times Free Press CD Reviews: New release 'Old Crow Medicine Show – "Big Iron World" – Nettwerk Records – Out Aug. 29' filed by M. Trevor Higgins July 30, 2006
- The Village Voice The Sound of The City "Big Ole Time Country-blues revivalists wail against wars for Phish-heads" by Yancey Strickler March 22, 2005
- Country Standard Time "Old Crow Medicine Show dispenses the right potion" by Dan MacIntosh March 2004
- News8Austin "Meet Old Crow Medicine Show" by Doug Shupe March 12, 2003
- In Music We Trust review of Eutaw (OCMS) by Mark. A Lawrence the IV, Issue Sixty May–June 2003
Categories:- Musical groups established in 1998
- American country music groups
- American folk musical groups
- American bluegrass music groups
- American buskers
- Old-time bands
- Musical groups from Nashville, Tennessee
- Phillips Exeter Academy alumni
- Performing arts pages with videographic documentation
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