![]() ![]() It was more like the band exploded onto the stage to start the set! The band launched its show in Madison with “Tell it to Me.” Perhaps ‘launched’ is a misnomer. Almost like a musical variety show from TV in the 60’s and 70’s. A lotta bluegrass and folk, more than a tinge of country, a bit of old-fashioned rock & roll with some singer-songwriter ballads built in for good measure. ![]() If you have to classify Old Crow’s music, it’s likely best within the wide-ranging Americana-roots music label. All are multi-instrumentalists, and each displayed their wide-ranging talents during the show! In addition to Ketch Secor (fiddle, guitar, harmonica, banjo, vocals, and high kicks), the current line-up of OCMS includes Morgan Jahnig (upright bass), Cory Younts (mandolin, keyboards, drums, vocals, and, of course, cowboy hat), Jerry Pentecost (drums, mandolin, and a mean washboard), Mike Harris (slide guitar, guitar, mandolin, dobro, banjo, vocals, and monster beard), and newest member, Mason Via (guitar, gitjo, vocals, and a ready willingness to be the comedic foil). The line-up has been fluid over the years, with a number of talented musicians, such as Gill Landry, coming on for a while and then moving on to other projects. The string band had its origins in the late 1990’s in Ithaca, New York, with initial members Secor, Chris “Critter” Fuqua and Willie Wilson. All under the tutelage of founder Ketch Secor. Old Crow describes itself as a collective, drawing from the specific talents of each of its members. A genuine, feel-good musical extravaganza! With bluegrass specialist Molly Tuttle, OCMS reminded us of what we have been missing for the past Covid eternity. ![]() Grammy-award winner Old Crow Medicine Show brought its Back in the Saddle Tour 2021 to Madison Wisconsin’s The Sylvee on Friday, November 12, 2021. This isn't a one-trick pony band, and so far at least, Old Crow Medicine Show haven't painted themselves into a creative corner, managing somehow to sound both old and refreshingly new at once.Old Crow Medicine Show is Back in the Saddle Again! And We Couldn’t Be More Thrilled! Thought and care are in these songs, and they all fall together in a nice flow. "We Don't Grow Tobacco," which flies on its own fast rails, is a well-written saga that starts off detailing the woes of working in the tobacco fields and ends bemoaning the loss of jobs in those same fields in the 21st century, while "Ain't It Enough" is a beautiful, poetic, and melodic love song, so Old Crow Medicine Show aren't just about rapid-fire speed shuffles. The old string bands were dance ensembles, but it's difficult to imagine dancers keeping up very long to tracks like "Carry Me Back to Virginia," "Mississippi Saturday Night," and "Sewanee Mountain Catfight," all of which are unhinged speed shuffles that roar by faster than a NASCAR race. It isn't easy straddling two different centuries with one's sound and style, but Old Crow Medicine Show pull it off once again on their fourth studio album, the Ted Hutt-produced Carry Me Back, a ragged, breakneck romp that crackles with more energy than a thrash band on Red Bull. They also write most of their material, so while the group's songs sound old and traditional, they are more facsimiles than anything else, with an attention to narrative and lyrical detail that the old string band tunes, which were often made up of lightly linked floating verses drawn from old country blues and fiddle reels, seldom had. Old Crow Medicine Show sound like a prewar string band filtered through Uncle Tupelo via Nirvana, and if they aren't bluegrass by any stretch of the imagination, they are every bit as energetic as a breakneck bluegrass combo.
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