Old Crow Medicine Show at the Town Hall

Born in Missouri and raised in Harrisonburg, Virginia, a teenaged Ketch Secor enjoyed bluegrass and old-timey festivals. In the late 1990s, he formed an Americana band, the Route 11 Boys. The band split, and an 18-year-old Secor enrolled in college in Ithaca, New York, where he found a lively old-time music scene there. He recruited an old schoolmate, Critter Fuqua, formed Old Crow Medicine Show, and started busking throughout North America. In 2000, folk icon Doc Watson heard Old Crow Medicine Show busking in Boone, North Carolina, and invited the band to perform at his MerleFest in nearby Wilkesboro. Shortly thereafter, Old Crow Medicine Show was hired to entertain audiences between shows at the Grand Ole Opry, so the band relocated to Nashville, Tennessee. Old Crow Medicine Show has eight studio albums in its catalogue; the band's most recent product is its fourth live album, Live at the Ryman, released on October 4, 2019. The band presently consists of Secor (vocals, fiddle, harmonica, banjo, guitar), Fuqua (slide guitar, banjo, guitar, vocals), Joe Andrews (pedal steel, banjo, mandolin, dobro), Charlie Worsham (guitar, banjo, vocals), Cory Younts (mandolin, drums, keyboards, vocals), and Morgan Jahnig (upright bass).

At the Town Hall tonight, Old Crow Medicine Show worked from the ageless framework of a rural string band yet delivered with the intensity of a modern-day rock show without ever losing its traditional grounding. Crisp multi-part hillbilly harmony was arranged to build crescendos. Instrumental solos rotated rapidly from guitars to upright bass to banjos, mandolins and fiddles. Between-song chatter featured a country cornball charm. Heart-rending sad songs were minimized and uptempo jump tunes proliferated. The set consisted of pre-war jug band songs plus original songs that sounded like they could have been written a century ago, all played fast and hard. Nevertheless, several of the band's original songs had socially conscious lyrics, rocking the audience into the 21st century. Part campfire circle and part minstrel show, Old Crow Medicine Show performed a lively performance that bridged an old world with the new world.