Old-Time Revival • String-Band Punk Energy • Wagon Wheel
The busking string band who brought punk energy to old-time music, wrote a modern standard in "Wagon Wheel," and became one of the most beloved acts in Americana.
The Short Version
Who Are They?
Old Crow Medicine Show are an American string band, formed in 1998, who brought the raw energy of punk rock to old-time music and, in the process, became one of the most beloved acts in modern Americana. Led by fiddler and harmonica player Ketch Secor, they play banjo, fiddle, guitjo, and upright bass with a rowdy, foot-stomping abandon that has as much to do with a rock club as a mountain porch.
They wrote a genuine modern standard in "Wagon Wheel," completed by Secor from an unfinished Bob Dylan sketch, and Marcel points to them as the spark of the "alternative grass" moment, the acts that cared less about tradition and more about attitude and presentation. They are now Grand Ole Opry members and multi-platinum artists.
Fiddle and harmonica, the tools of a rowdy revival.From Busking to the Opry
The Story
Their story is a great American one: they played on street corners until the right person heard them.
The street corners where the band earned its chops.
1998
A busking string band
The band formed and played wherever they could, busking their way across the country with rowdy old-time music.
2000
Discovered by a Watson
Doc Watson's daughter heard them busking in Boone, North Carolina, and invited them to Merlefest, their big break.
2001
An electrifying reception
As Marcel notes, their early Opry-scene appearances brought the kind of standing ovations and encores almost unheard of for a new act.
2004
"Wagon Wheel"
Their debut album's "Wagon Wheel," built on a Bob Dylan fragment, slowly became a modern folk standard and eventually multi-platinum.
2013–14
Opry members and a Grammy
They were inducted into the Grand Ole Opry and won a Grammy for their album Remedy.
Three Recordings, One Introduction
Start Here
These three are the fastest way to hear the band: the standard, the romp, and the dark ballad.
01 · The Standard
"Wagon Wheel"
The modern folk standard they gave the world, sung at every jam and bar in America. Start here.
02 · The Romp
"Tell It To Me"
A breakneck old-time romp that shows the band's punk-energy live sound.
03 · The Dark Ballad
"Methamphetamine"
A harrowing, modern murder-ballad-style song that shows their serious side.
The Catalog
The Essential Records 4 to start with
Four records tracing the band from its early rowdiness to its polished later years.
2012
Carry Me Back
A strong, rousing record and a great entry point to the band. Start here.
Old Crow Medicine Show represent a different way of loving old music. Where the bluegrass revivalists honored the tradition with precision and reverence, Old Crow honored it with sweat and volume. They took old-time string-band music, the fiddle tunes, the gospel numbers, the ancient ballads, and played it like a punk band, fast, loud, and rowdy, connecting it to the same rebellious energy that drives rock and roll. That is exactly the "attitude and presentation" Marcel identifies as the mark of alternative grass.
It worked because the love was real. These were serious students of the music, discovered, fittingly, by Doc Watson's own family, who had done the work of learning the old repertoire before they tore into it. "Wagon Wheel" is the perfect emblem: Ketch Secor took a half-finished Bob Dylan fragment and built a song around it that feels a hundred years old and completely new at once, and it has become one of the most-played songs in modern American music, a standard that millions of people can sing.
Their success helped open the door for a wave of rowdy, roots-loving string bands and reminded a huge audience that this music was for dancing, drinking, and singing along, not just for the concert hall. Now Grand Ole Opry members and standard-bearers of Americana, Old Crow proved that the oldest music could be the most alive, as long as you played it like you meant it.
Tennessee, the band's adopted home.The Roots of the Sound
Influences
Old Crow drew from the deep well of old-time, folk, and early country. These are the sources.
The First Family of Country
The Carter Family
The old-time songbook at the heart of the band's repertoire.
